First the good news. Cardona's has deep experience as a teacher, school administrator, and state education commissioner. He understands public school culture, and he understands the challenges of growing up short on privilege.
Cardona will be the first Secretary of Education to understand the kinds of school environments and programs that allow English learners to thrive while becoming proficient in English and keeping up academically. As such, he is an advocate for bilingual and dual language programs, which have been shown by an established body of research to be the most effective and efficient strategies for educating English learners.
Cardona believes that all children and teens should have a voice in shaping their own schooling and not be forced in the college-for-all-regardless mold. Cardona will likely be an advocate for the kind of K-12 magnet schools where students attend based on interests.
Cardona will likely be a strong civil rights advocate and a supporter of integrated schools. We don't know, however, if he will be the first Secretary since the federal department was created to take seriously the research on the importance of racial and class integration, social capital, and diversity among faculty.
In addition, we don't know how how much Cardona is willing to focus on the importance of the education debt owed to the CONTINUE READING: Schools Matter: The Good News and the Bad News on Miguel Cardona