Ecology of Education

“Poverty isn’t destiny,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is fond of saying. Taken literally, it’s a ridiculous statement. If “destiny” is defined as an inevitable or predetermined end state, it only takes one instance of someone escaping poverty to refute the claim that poverty is destiny. Race isn’t destiny, either; but that’s little consolation [...]

As part of Teacher Appreciation Week, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan published an open letter to America’s teachers. Perhaps Secretary Duncan writes his own speeches—but the fact that the U.S. Department of Education lists 124 employees for the Office of Communications and Outreach suggests otherwise. Perhaps the secretary’s mind wanders as he reads the texts prepared for [...]

Larry Ferlazzo recently wrote a blog post that was picked up in The Answer Sheet at the Washington Post.  He started off writing about the value of being “unprincipled” – a provocative idea, but in fact, it just means that absolute certainty can be a liability when dealing with complex issues and problems.  To support his [...]

Master of Myth: What Arne Duncan Says and Does The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived and dishonest – but the myth – persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. —John F. Kennedy U.S. Secretary of Education has been called the most powerful education secretary in history. With billions of dollars [...]

In alphabetical order: Mike Bloomberg, mayor of New York City. Eli Broad, financier and philanthropist. Jeb Bush, ex-Florida governor and possible 2012 presidential contender. Arne Duncan, U.S. Secretary of Education. Bill Gates, business magnate and philanthropist. Joel Klein, chancellor of New York City schools. In education issues, mainstream media sometimes call these gentlemen, “The New [...]

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Rev Al Sharpton, and former speaker of the house, Newt Gingrich discuss learning, accountability, Race to the Top, and their bipartisan effort to affect change in our education system. (I first saw this clip on The Efficacy Institute’s website.)

Following his speeches (here and here) on the disappointing performance of our nation’s colleges of education, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced the appointment of Inquisitor General of Education Dick Cheney as Supreme Master of All Required Teaching, Instruction, and Evaluation (SMARTIE), effective immediately. As the nation’s SMARTIE, Cheney will oversee and direct all programs [...]

Curiously, curiosity is no-where to be found in reform measures being debated today.  Rather, curiosity is left to scrub the proverbial floors of our education institutions.  It’s the forgotten and malnourished stepdaughter of NCLB and mistreated stepsister of Race to the Top.  Click on some of the speeches by President Obama and Secretary Duncan and [...]

Yesterday Arne Duncan, US Secretary of Education, named former Vice President Dick Cheney, Inquisitor General of Education.  In his new post, Cheney will head the Battling Remissness by Utilizing Tyranny in Education (or BRUTE) task force.  Their mission: Saving America from poor test scores. “This is a great opportunity for our children, and our schools, [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about a couple of questions Roland Barth asked during an institute (Improving Schools: The Art of Leadership) I attended last summer at the Principals’ Center at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “When was your learning curve off the chart? and What were the principal elements of that experience that made it so?” [...]