Education

Ed Schools, NAACP Back Linda Darling-Hammond

By Stephen Sawchuk — December 15, 2008 1 min read
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Over at Politico, Ben Smith reports that 40 of the nation’s education schools have signed a letter backing Linda Darling-Hammond for the EdSec position. Given that Darling-Hammond is a supporter of innovative ed school practices, such as the teacher-residency preparation model, and critical of some alternative routes, such as Teach For America, this isn’t a tremendous surprise.

He also reports that the NAACP has weighed in on behalf of Darling-Hammond. This, it seems to me, is a bit more of a surprise, given the NAACP’s unusual relationship to the No Child Left Behind Act. Minorities, according to polls, tend to show stronger support for the law than do other groups; Ms. Darling-Hammond is a vocal critic of NCLB.

The NAACP, though, has never been entirely clear about its feelings on the law. The national office supported “multiple measures” for school accountability last year, something that groups like the Education Trust argued would gut that part of the law. On the other hand, the NAACP’s Connecticut chapter sided with the federal government, not the state, in the state’s “unfunded mandate” lawsuit against NCLB.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Teacher Beat blog.