More Duncanisms
Published June 17, 2009 @ 07:53AM PT
Do I like reading and writing about our Secretary of Education's words and performance? Depressingly, for this once-hopeful Obamaniac, no. I don't. Here's another example of why:
In a recent interview, Secretary Duncan discussed how he went about assembling his team, targeting people like Ms. Melendez who came from modest backgrounds, had a passion for the work, and showed an entrepreneurial spirit—and were willing to take what was likely a big pay cut to work in a federal job. No education policy or district superstars with big egos were welcome, he said.
“If they’re scared off because they won’t make more money ... or if they wanted a certain job title, ... that’s not the kind of person we want,” Mr. Duncan said. “We want people for whom this is a real passion. This is mission-driven work. Everyone is taking pay cuts.”
Ms. Melendez, by the way, is Duncan's appointee for K-12 chief. Her experience?
She got her superintendent’s job, in California’s 30,000-student Pomona Unified School District, through a nontraditional route: She spent a year and a half at a private education foundation before winning a spot in the 2006 Broad Superintendents Academy, which trains emerging district leaders.
So she takes a "pay cut" in the "entrepreneurial spirit" - can we start a wiki of Duncanisms? - via her shortcut to the top on the tuxedo coattails of billionaire AIG crony and ed meddler Eli Broad. Call me crazy, but you'd think people who were "education policy superstars," who spent their lives in classrooms and later in research, would qualify as "passionate" more than the "missionaries" with an "entrepreneurial spirit." People like, you know, Linda Darling-Hammond, who's devoted her life to knowing through research how to improve education, rather than taking a left turn from entrepreneurialism out of some "money + passion = change you can believe in" zeal.
[Update: Tom Hoffman comments that Melendez has decades of classroom experience before her stint as a superintendent, and suggests she deserves a chance. We wish her well. The point I was trying to make here is that Duncan's rhetoric smacks of a sort of anti-intellectualism and pro-entrepreneurialism, and his staff picks reflect that as well. His DoE staffers are overwhelmingly connected more to Eli Broad and Bill Gates than to universities and classrooms.]
In light of all of this, it's no surprise that the new national standards in the works for math and reading are being written not by teachers, not by academics, but by
Achieve, a Washington-based group made up of state policymakers and business leaders; act Inc., the Iowa City, Iowa-based nonprofit organization that runs the college-entrance exam of the same name; and the College Board, the New York City-based sponsor of the sat admissions exam and the Advanced Placement program.
--ed businesses all. Achieve* is run by politicians and businesspeople; Iowa City and the College Board need no introduction, as we've all filled bubbles for them in our careers to show our learning. You can bet none of these entrepreneurs are thinking pay cuts in the long term. Think of the new tests possible with national standards.
Secretary Duncan, if you want "passion" and "mission-driven," why are you excluding the exemplars of those qualities - the people who've devoted their lives to the work, and never had much room in their salaries for pay cuts because it was never about the money for them? They offer value-added qualities that your entrepreneurs don't: life-long experience, knowledge, and dedication.
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*A previous error has been corrected here, which mistook Achieve for a different Achieve. "Achieve" is a popular name for folks in the education business.
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Comments (6)
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Clay is an American high school Humanities teacher, technology coach, and Apple Distinguished Educator who has taught for the last eight years in Asian international schools. According to law, he's married to his wife. According to his wife, he's married to his Mac.
entrepreneur: n business person who attempts to make a profit by risk and initiative
teacher: n a person or thing that educates, esp. a teacher, principal, or other person involved in planning or directing education.
Posted by California Father on 06/17/2009 @ 09:26AM PT
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You left out most of Ms. Melendez's bio:
"Over her 25-year career in urban school districts, Dr. Meléndez has served as a bilingual classroom teacher, middle-school assistant principal for curriculum and instruction, and elementary-school principal, all in the Montebello Unified School District. She also served as director of instruction for elementary and middle schools in the Pasadena Unified School District."
She was a real teacher, I think she deserves a chance and some respect.
Posted by Tom Hoffman on 06/17/2009 @ 09:56AM PT
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Point well-taken, Tom. I added an update to say as much, and tried to clarify that the larger point is the "passion" and "entrepreneurialism" criteria led to the bypassing of much more qualified candidates. Would Melendez have gotten the offer without her affiliation to Broad? Would Darling-Hammond have gotten it if she weren't anathema to that crowd?
Posted by Clay Burell on 06/17/2009 @ 09:51PM PT
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I'm beginning to think Mr. Duncan might have a rather large ego himself.
Posted by Hilary McDevitt on 06/17/2009 @ 05:26PM PT
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It's time to review how Duncan got his position.
He earned a B.A. in Sociology from Harvard. This is the extent of his intellectual foundation. He then went to Australia to play professional basketball for four years. When he returned to Chicago he needed a job (Wanted: employment for a not-particularly-go-getting, perpetually grinning, newly married, only-bachelor-degree-earning Ivy League graduate). Fortunately John Rogers - Duncan's fanatic basketball playing, longtime friend and private high school co-alum - had become extremely wealthy and needed someone to run his new education-related non-profit. Duncan was slipped right in. One of the benefits of attending elite private schools is making these sorts of useful connections.
Duncan's only accomplishment in education at this point was that he had tutored poor kids in high school. We all know that he likes to tell this story over and over again. By the way, his mother forced ALL of her kids to tutor at her center; she also wouldn't ever let them watch TV.
After a few years of running his friend's non-profit, this mushy, likable bureaucrat got a job in Chicago Public Schools as Deputy Chief of Staff, most likely because of his great connections. A few years later, Mayor Daley appointed the malleable Duncan as CEO of Chicago Public Schools. This was just after the public school system-hating, Broad-connected, edu-reformers had settled down in town. I'm sure they could see that Duncan was the sort of perfect blank for them to mold.
Having never attended public schools, nor willing to use them for his own kids, Obama didn't really know all that much about public education. However, he regularly played basketball with public school manager Duncan, who he met through Michelle's brother (he was a close friend, and former Princeton basketball teammate, of Rogers). This is a foursome, folks.
And that's how our nation is now stuck with a cheerful, but bumbling, average bureaucrat who Obama has assigned authority for running the whole show. His presence is not because of incredible intelligence, a wide range of experience, or an exceptional level of knowledge; it's because he provides the White House with a level of comfort and familiarity (and honors mutual friend Rogers for his years of Obama political $upport). By the way, Rogers" ex-wife is now Michelle's social secretary.
"Call me Arne" Duncan wouldn't select cabinet members with more intellectual gravitas than he has, because he is fundamentally insecure about his own, and realizes his status would be challenged.
I don't think Duncan has an independent thought in his head. The fact that he signed on to both the Broader Bolder Approach and Education Equality Project demonstrates to me that he wasn't sure where to stand. He makes a perfect puppet for the corporate edu-schemers.
By the way, Alexander Russo's blog recently (6/12) reported that Arne recently weighed in on a number of issues including raising the driving age in Ohio (against), a split lunch at Patterson Elementary next year (for), and changing monthly board meeting locations for Chattanooga public schools to the Denny's on Dalton Boulevard (against). These sorts of decisions are closer to his level of intellect.
Posted by Sharon Higgins on 06/18/2009 @ 08:50AM PT
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Yikes.
The buck has to stop with Obama on this one.
Posted by Clay Burell on 06/20/2009 @ 08:59AM PT
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