Duncan's legacy
"It will take years to recover from the damage that Arne Duncan’s policies have inflicted on public education." -- Diane Ravitch
Arne Duncan says he will remain at the D.O.E. "until the final bell". At this point, no one really cares. The damage is already done and with billions of Race To The Top money no longer in his back pocket, he has no more juice with states, school districts, or with Congress. His version of school reform has been badly discredited (I hope I helped a little) and he will likely go down as the worst ed secretary ever.
Diane Ravitch documents the destruction left in his wake:
*He used his control of billions of dollars to promote a dual school system of privately managed charter schools operating alongside public schools;
*He has done nothing to call attention to the fraud and corruption in the charter sector or to curb charters run by non-educators for profit or to insist on charter school accountability or to require charters to enroll the neediest children;
*He pushed to require states to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, which has caused massive demoralization among teachers, raised the stakes attached to testing, and produced no positive results;
*He used federal funds and waivers from NCLB to push the adoption of Common Core standards and to create two testing consortia, which many states have abandoned;
*The Common Core tests are so absurdly “rigorous” that most students have failed them, even in schools that send high percentages of students to four-year colleges, the failure rates have been highest among students who are English language learners, students with disabilities, and students of color;
*He has bemoaned rising resegregation of the schools but done nothing to reduce it; [Here, I would add that Duncan openly opposed, what he referred to as "forced integration" and abandoned fellow cabinet member, AG Eric Holder on his deseg suit in Louisiana--mk].
*He has been silent as state after state has attacked collective bargaining and due process for teachers;
*He has done nothing in response to the explosion of voucher programs that transfer public funds to religious schools;
*Because of his policies, enrollments in teacher education programs,
Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Duncan's legacy: