Arne Duncan on Education Reform

In a series of four speeches, Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, spells out what reform means in the Obama administration. I'm a little skeptical of the desire to re-authorize NCLB, even in modified form. It's not so much what the administration would like a new NCLB to be, so much as the reality that any route through Congress will inevitably throw in a few foul ingredients - usually for the sake of protecting an underperforming district or a state that insists on guarding low standards. There's just no place to go but down once the amendments start popping up.

Likewise, the second speech on standards is a very different read for my part. I'd been skeptical of the Hunt-Romer-Riley push for national standards. In the past, it seemed the route to standardization relied too much on getting a pre-NCLB federal government to drive that process. Duncan sounds as if he's trying to re-route it through the states. It's not immediately clear how feasible that is, but it's at least optimistic to see some effort to devolve that process outside of the post-NCLB federal government.

For the most part, Duncan's speeches are music to my ears. A few excerpts from each speech below:

1. Creating data systems that follow the progress of students from pre-K through college.

Today, many states are well along the path to having good data systems. Today, nearly every district has an information system that stores data about students and more teachers have access to these systems than ever before.

In Garden Grove, California, teachers administer quarterly assessments aligned with California State standards. Results are available the next day.

In Long Beach, teachers see benchmark assessments, attendance and behavior. They meet regularly together to review data, monitor student progress, and plan strategies for at-risk students. In addition, the high school students monitor their own progress. How is that for motivation? We need more and more districts using this kind of technology to help them improve.

The Data Quality Campaign, DQC, lists ten elements of a good data system. Six states, Alabama, Arizona, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, and Utah have all ten elements. Other states are also making progress. For example, Arkansas has a data warehouse that integrates school fiscal information, teacher credentials, and student coursework, assessments, and even extracurricular activities.

The system has allowed for better student tracking to enable the state to identify double-count enrollments and is saving them more than $2 million in its first year.

We want to see more states building comprehensive systems that track students from pre-K through college and then link school data to workforce data. We want to know whether Johnny participated in an early learning program and completed college on time and whether those things have any bearing on his earnings as an adult.

2. Adopting higher standards and creating high-quality assessments.

And in reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, the administration will work with you and with Congress to change the law so that it rewards states for raising standards instead of encouraging states to lower them.

I always give NCLB credit for exposing the achievement gap but the central flaw in the law is that it was too loose about the goals and too tight about how to get there.

As states come together around higher common standards, I want to flip it - and be tighter about the goals - but more flexible in how you can meet them.

I trust states and districts to find the way - and I don't trust Washington to tell you how to do it. You have the ideas, the leadership, and the ability. I'm here to support you.

And then our next step is to work together to find a better way to measure success - and that brings me to the real point of this speech - which is the assessments.

Once new standards are set and adopted you need to create new tests that measure whether students are meeting those standards. Tonight -- I am announcing that the Obama administration will help pay for the costs of developing those tests.

As you know, we have $5 billion dollars in competitive grant funding under the Recovery Act to help advance these four reforms.

3. Turning around our most troubled schools.

Turnarounds aren't easy. It requires you to build trust with parents. The way it plays in the media can polarize people. Some adults are still protesting me back in Chicago for closing schools - but it was the right thing to do.

The parents in these turnaround schools now talk about their kids "looking forward to school for the first time," - coming home and "talking about their teachers." They say it's "a totally different atmosphere" - even though it's the same schools, with the same kids, and the same socioeconomic conditions.

It gives you hope that anything is possible with enough effort and determination and the right people. That's what we need in schools all over America. The fact is there are still way too many schools that don't pass the, "would we send our own kids there?" test.

And some of them, by the way, are charter schools. The charter movement is one of the most profound changes in American education - bringing new options to underserved communities and introducing competition and innovation into the education system.

All across America we see great charter schools, from Noble Street in Chicago to IDEA Academy in Texas, Inner-City Education Foundation and Partnerships to Uplift Communities in Los Angeles and Friendship Public Charter Schools in D.C.

What I like most about our best charters is that they think differently.

4. The quality of the education workforce.

I told the charter schools they need to police themselves or their progress will be stalled. I told the school boards that if they can't improve student achievement--they have a moral obligation to consider mayoral control.

And I'm telling you as well--that when inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children--then we are not only putting kids at risk--we're putting the entire education system at risk. We're inviting the attack of parents and the public--and that is not good for any of us.

I believe that teacher unions are at a crossroads. These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers but they have produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets.

A recent report from the New Teacher Project found that almost all teachers are rated the same. Who in their right mind really believes that? We need to work together to change this.

Now let's talk about data. I understand that word can make people nervous but I see data first and foremost as a barometer. It tells us what is happening. Used properly, it can help teachers better understand the needs of their students. Too often, teachers don't have good data to inform instruction and help raise student achievement.

Data can also help identify and support teachers who are struggling. And it can help evaluate them. The problem is that some states prohibit linking student achievement and teacher effectiveness.

I understand that tests are far from perfect and that it is unfair to reduce the complex, nuanced work of teaching to a simple multiple choice exam. Test scores alone should never drive evaluation, compensation or tenure decisions. That would never make sense. But to remove student achievement entirely from evaluation is illogical and indefensible.

It's time we all admit that just as our testing system is deeply flawed--so is our teacher evaluation system--and the losers are not just the children. When great teachers are unrecognized and unrewarded--when struggling teachers are unsupported--and when failing teachers are unaddressed--the teaching profession is damaged.

We need to work together to fix this and I will meet you more than halfway. I will demand the same of every principal, administrator, school board member, elected official and parent. I ask only the same of you that I ask of myself and others.