The Education Secretary's Greatest Hits : NPR Ed : NPR

Education Secretary Arne Duncan To Step Down : NPR Ed : NPR:

Education Secretary Arne Duncan To Step Down

After nearly seven years in office, Education Secretary Arne Duncan will step down in December. The former head of Chicago Public Schools came to Washington back in 2009 with his friend — a newly-elected President Obama.

Duncan's tenure was remarkable for two reasons:

First, he got a lot done. A lot. The list is long, so, for the purposes of this short post, let's focus on perhaps the biggest thing he did, which was also one of the first things he did. In the summer of 2009, Duncan made this grand pronouncement:

"For states, for district leaders, for unions, for businesses and for nonprofits, the Race to the Top is the equivalent of education reform's moonshot."

RTTT was a giant pot of stimulus money — more than four billion dollars' worth — offered to beleaguered states soon after the Great Recession. Duncan used it to entice them to make sometimes-controversial changes in the classroom. At the top of that list: adopting new, common standards and evaluating teachers.

Rick Hess is director of education policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and he says it was clear from the start that Duncan wanted to use his bully pulpit to push some big ideas.

"Duncan's biggest legacy is that he dramatically increased the role of the U.S. Department of Education in the nation's schools," Hess says.

When states clamored for relief from the Bush Administration's No Child Left Behind law, Duncan was there, offering waivers — again, in return for implementing his big ideas.

Arne Duncan was also a champion of charter schools and a believer in the power of testing to reveal inequality in America's classrooms. At the higher ed level, he oversaw an expansion of Pell Grants, cut banks out of the federal student loan business, and cracked down on for-profit colleges.

The other remarkable thing about Duncan's tenure isn't one of those ideas but how he fought for them all. Hess says Duncan wasn't afraid to butt heads, even if it meant making enemies out of Republicans and traditional allies alike.

"He tackled issues that are difficult for a Democrat — especially a Chicago Democrat to tackle," Hess says.

Duncan's support for testing and teacher evaluation systems infuriated the nation's teachers' unions, which repeatedly called for him to step down.

Why is he leaving now? In a word: family. Duncan told staffers in an e-mail that he wants to return to Chicago to be with his wife and two kids.

This afternoon, the President tapped Duncan's deputy, John King Junior, to succeed him as Secretary. King is former education commissioner for New York state. There, on a smaller stage, he fought many of the same, bruising battles that Duncan did.

The Education Secretary's Greatest Hits

It's been decades since an education secretary had as high a national political profile as the long-serving Arne Duncan, who famously accompanied President Obama from Chicago and even more famously likes to shoot hoops with the president.

Supporters note that Duncan has advocated passionately for narrowing the opportunity and achievement gaps in American's public schools, ending the "school to prison pipeline" and boosting pay for teachers who serve in high-poverty schools.

He has spoken eloquently about the inequities in the system of funding of the nation's schools based on property taxes. As Duncan put it this week at the National Press Club:

"In far too many places the children of the wealthy get dramatically more spent on them than the children of the poor."

But the former pro ball player (in Australia) has also presided over one of the most contentious, partisan periods in education policy of the last several decades, and critics say his own personality has never placed him far above the fray.

"Some of Duncan's battles he can wear proudly because he was fighting hard fights," says Rick Hess of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, "But some I think were the product of his own tendency to dismiss those who had good faith disagreements."

Here's a look at some of Duncan's wins, scores and losses over the past seven years.

K-12

Digging In On High-Stakes Testing

The push for standardized tests predated Duncan. President George W. Bush signed No Child Left Behind back in 2002, creating a system of federal consequences for states, districts and schools whose students failed to make "adequate yearly progress" on annual tests. The law stated that all students everywhere must score "proficient" by 2014.

Duncan's Race To The Top initiative in 2009 provided incentives to states for tying test scores to teacher evaluations, further raising the stakes on high-stakes tests in a way that was destined to offend teachers' unions.

At the same time, beginning in 2011, with the No Child law well overdue for reauthorization, the administration began granting individual waivers to states to provide flexibility on testing targets that were proving impossible to reach.

High-stakes testing coincided with modest gains on math scores, and relative gains by some minority groups. In combination with the Common Core, testing has also become a focal point of teacher and parent protests nationwide, with some students, notably in New York State, "opting out."

Duncan called the law "tired" and "prescriptive" and stated in 2014 that testing issues were "sucking the oxygen out of the room" in schools.

But he defended annual testing, even as some critics were blaming tests for a wide range of unintended consequences, ranging from narrowing of the curriculum to the en masse closure of urban neighborhood schools to cheating scandals as seen in Atlanta.

The law is now (finally) up for reauthorization and both the House and Senate versions of the bill keep the annual testing requirements in place.

"White Suburban Moms" And The Common Core

Race To The Top, signed into law as part of the federal stimulus package after the 2008 financial crash, was structured cleverly as a competitive grant.

States got points for, among other things, adopting new, higher academic standards. In this way, Duncan and Obama were able to push 45 states initially to adopt what became the Common Core State Standards — before they were even written and without making them an explicit federal policy.

But despite initial bipartisanship, Duncan's advocacy of the Common Core crashed into Washington's current atmosphere of bitter partisanship and the long-standing distrust of a strong federal role in local education.

One of several anti-Duncan Facebook groups popped up: MAD, Mothers Against Duncan. And Duncan was sometimes his own worst enemy, PR-wise.

He famously said that opposition to Common Core and mastering standards in core areas of reading and math had become "a rallying cry for fringe groups."

At an otherwise sleepy state school superintendents meeting in 2013, Duncan suggested that opposition to the new reading and math guidelines was mostly from white mothers whose kids are facing tougher standards and tougher tests.

"And it's fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from sort of white suburban moms," Duncan said, "who, all of a sudden, their child isn't as brilliant as they thought they were, their schools aren't quite as good as they thought they were. And that's pretty scary." The sound bite now appears on Duncan's Wikipedia page.

Duncan apologized for his "clumsy" remarks, but for some it underscored what they saw as Washington's dismissive, arrogant approach to critics of the state standards.

Opponents, including Republican presidential hopefuls, began referring to the Common Core as "Obamacore" in a fledgling effort to link the standards debate with the fight over the president's controversial health-care legislation.

That was the moment, "when I knew that the debate was shifting into the larger context in Washington that was all about seeking partisan advantage," says Stanford University professor Thomas Dee, who heads the school's Center for Education Policy Analysis.

The charged rhetoric often drowned out teachers' legitimate concerns about how to put Common Core into action inside the classroom, Dee says. "It is such a heavy lift to ask the nation's teachers to reinvent their teaching practices around these standards."

The ongoing debate over the standards, in many ways, shows the limitations of the federal role reform in America's highly decentralized education system.

Teacher Evaluations

The nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, called on Duncan to resign in 2014, charging that he had undermined educators by linking teacher evaluations and school ratings to student test scores.

States that received federal waivers for No Child Left Behind provisions had to include teacher evaluations as part of the deal. Duncan had access to some federal stimulus money that he shifted to school district consortia to expand performance-based evaluations. Did it help improve learning and teaching? The results, so far, are a mixed bag.

Research by Stanford's Thomas Dee suggests that one place it is working is in the Washington, D.C., public schools. "Their teacher-evaluation system has helped drive an entire district turnaround," he argues.

But some districts cashed the federal check and made largely cosmetic changes. Many districts had to return millions in federal funds for not meeting the requirement that they get union buy-in for teacher evaluations.

"I'm not sure Duncan could have done much more on this than he did from his perch," he says. Bottom line for Dee: "Arne has been one of the most influential secretarys in Education Secretary Arne Duncan To Step Down : NPR Ed : NPR:

What did Arne Duncan do for California schools? - LA Times

What did Arne Duncan do for California schools? - LA Times:

What did Arne Duncan do for California schools?

Arne Duncan, who on Friday was reported to be stepping down as U.S. Secretary of Education in December, had a sometimes stormy relationship with California, despite its status as a stronghold of support for Democrats and the Obama administration.

An early conflict was the state’s effort to secure grants through Duncan’s signature Race to the Top effort. States competed for the funds based on their willingness to pursue reforms favored by the U.S. Department of Education. The sticking point for California was that states had to agree to a teacher evaluation system based, in part, on measures such as student standardized test scores. In addition, state teachers unions had to sign on to a state’s application.

Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a moderate Republican, supported the requirements, but could not secure agreement from teachers unions. The state’s application was downgraded as a result and other states got the money.

Other elements of Duncan’s push for major policy change included increasing the number of charter schools. Charters are independently managed and exempt from some rules that govern traditional public campuses. Duncan also promoted aggressive school “turnarounds,” which meant, in many places, replacing the entire staff at a school or closing a traditional school, with its union-represented workforce, and replacing it with a charter school.

Duncan’s department had a huge influence in shaping education policy because it used department grants to fill a vacuum left by Congress, whose members could not agree on education policies.

Both support and criticism for Duncan’s actions crossed party lines. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney opined that he’d be willing to keep Duncan on the job in a Republican White House. Meanwhile, Duncan's staunchest critics included teachers unions, a critical Democratic constituency.

California Gov. Jerry Brown came into office as an ally of teachers unions and a skeptic of many reforms he regarded as faddish and unproven. His administration resisted federal conditions for certain grants and refused to bend when Duncan wanted the state to continue using old state standardized tests until new ones were ready. In that resistance, Brown was joined by majorities in the state Legislature and by Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, who also had political support from teachers unions.What did Arne Duncan do for California schools? - LA Times:

School threats on social media a serious concern

School threats on social media a serious concern:

School threats on social media a serious concern

Just a day after Salinas police investigated a social media post referencing a school shooting, tragedy unfolded during a deadly mass shooting at a college campus in Oregon.

Fortunately, Salinas police determined that there was no danger posed by the threat, specifically a Twitter post of graffiti referencing a school shooting, put up by a 14-year-old Salinas High School student.

When officers arrived to the campus early Wednesday, school administrators had already identified the student and held him in the office. A search of the student’s property and home turned up no additional evidence, and the student claimed to not have been responsible for the graffiti, according to Salinas police.

After an extensive investigation that included interviews of staff and students, it was determined that there was no further threat to the school. The 14-year-old student was taken to juvenile hall on suspicion of terrorist threats.

While social media posts threatening schools are not very common in the area, authorities take any and all of them very seriously, said Salinas Police Deputy Chief Terry Gerhardstein.

“With social media, people become so impulsive in putting out information. No matter how bad it is, they don’t think about how bad it is. They don’t think about terror it puts in people’s minds, they don’t think about law enforcement’s response later on,” Gerhardstein said.

When a threat is reported to authorities, they immediately work on locating the person who posted the threat and investigate to see if the person who made the threat had the means and ability to carry it out.

While many believe that social media postings can be posted anonymously, authorities can track down the origin of threatening posts, even through social media sites like Yik Yak, which advertise themselves as a place to post anonymously.

Depending on the situation and whether the source of the social media threat has been located, a school campus may be locked down as authorities apply significant School threats on social media a serious concern:

Effects of trauma could constitute disability, judge rules in Compton Unified case - LA Times

Effects of trauma could constitute disability, judge rules in Compton Unified case - LA Times:

Effects of trauma could constitute disability, judge rules in Compton Unified case

Compton Unified student Kimberly Cervantes, center, photographed in May 2015, is part of a lawsuit seeking disability protections for students suffering from the effects of trauma. Behind her are attorney Annie Hudson-Price, left, and attorney Kathryn Eidmann. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Students who have experienced trauma could be eligible for some of the same protections as students with disabilities based on the effects of that trauma, according to a ruling by a federal judge Tuesday.

But the degrees, types and effects of trauma that would trigger such protections have yet to be determined.

The procedural rulings from Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald came in response to alawsuit filed on behalf of five students and three teachers in the Compton Unified School District that aimed to establish “complex trauma” as a type of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

Representing the plaintiffs, Los Angeles-based pro bono firm Public Counsel presented the judge with research showing that exposure to trauma can hurt a student’s ability to learn, much in the same way as other impairments.

Public Counsel wanted the suit to be a class-action case on behalf of students whose learning opportunities suffered in response to trauma, the ruling said. The suit described the case of a boy who was separated from his siblings as he was shuffled through a series of foster homes and ultimately “spent two months of homelessness sleeping on the roof of his Effects of trauma could constitute disability, judge rules in Compton Unified case - LA Times:

Cashing In On Special-Needs Kids | The Progressive

Cashing In On Special-Needs Kids | The Progressive:

Cashing In On Special-Needs Kids

Raising a child with autism requires extra vigilance. Just ask Minneapolis parent Marcia Haugstad. Her son, Noah, has an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis and is beginning high school this fall after many difficult years as a Minneapolis public school student. Once, as a kindergartener, Noah panicked in his regular education classroom and bolted out the door. He was about to set foot in a busy nearby street when a teacher happened to see him, just in time.

Then, in fourth grade, Noah told his mom about the classroom “superbullies” who were teasing him. With inadequate support from teachers and specialists, Noah began lashing out, scratching other kids, and refusing to leave the house in the morning. For the first time in his life, he had to be physically restrained by a teacher.

He even became suicidal. Haugstad vividly recalls Noah telling her, in great detail, how he planned to kill himself by tying a belt around his neck.

Mental health problems are a companion to autism, Haugstad says, because kids like Noah are often very aware that they are different, and don’t fit in. Unpredictable and sometimes violent meltdowns are characteristic of “high-functioning” autistic kids; after the episode fades, the child is often awash in a sea of remorse.

It takes a careful hand to guide a child like Noah, and that’s what Haugstad eventually found for him, through the Minneapolis public schools’ highly regarded citywide autism program. The district has offered this intensive program for the last twenty years, as Minnesota’s autism population has steadily grown, particularly among the state’s white and Somali residents.

In this program, which parents say has provided crucial access to like-minded peers, kids with autism can spend time in both mainstream and special education classrooms.

After Noah’s violent and suicidal episodes as a fourth grader, Haugstad contacted the school

- See more at: http://www.progressive.org/news/2015/10/188342/cashing-special-needs-kids#sthash.YCZAPly8.dpuf

What Arne Duncan’s Replacement did to N.Y. schools - The Washington Post

What Arne Duncan’s new senior adviser did to N.Y. schools - The Washington Post:

What Arne Duncan’s new senior adviser did to N.Y. schools

John King is leaving his job as commissioner of New York State schools commissioner to become a senior adviser to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, with the “roles and responsibilities of the deputy secretary,” according to the Education Department, which issued a statement giving King high praise for his work in New York. Some in New York think otherwise. Here’s a piece by award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York, who was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in 2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. Burris has been exposing on this blog King’s troubling record in implementing school reform program in New York. You can read some of her other word here and here and here.

By Carol Burris

“Just like 60,000 children in NY, John King has opted-out.” So tweeted Kevin Glynn, the quick witted, co-founder of Lace to the Top. Glynn, like many New York parents and teachers, was pleased by the news of Commissioner King’s resignation. Leonie Haimson, the director of Class Size Matters, referred to John King as “the most unpopular commissioner in the history of NY State.”

One of the strongest critiques of King, however, came from the editorial boardof The Journal News of the Lower Hudson Valley. Their op-ed entitled, “Commissioner King’s Tone Deaf Legacy” describes the commissioner’s pattern of disregard for the opinions of those with whom he disagreed.

Others praised John King. Fans included Chancellor Merryl Tisch, Regent Bennett and representatives of so-called reform groups, such as the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER). In an email to The New York Times, DFER Executive Director Joe Williams complimented King by saying that “even white suburbanites would thank him [King] someday”[1], thus continuing the stereotyping of Common Core critics, which began with Arne Duncan’s “white suburban mom” remark in 2013.

There have been rumors for months that King was selectively applying to positions, as well as rumors that he was being pressured by Andrew Cuomo to leave. He is, as Andy Smarick notes, one of an ever growing number of “reform” chief state officers who are exiting the stage. What matters for New York students, however, is not why John King is leaving, but rather the legacy he leaves behind.

John King was the third commissioner to work for Merryl Tisch since she became chancellor in 2009. He replaced David Steiner, who made a hasty, surprise exit after less than two years in office. Deputy Commissioner King was quickly appointed to the position without a search.

John King was optimistic that great things would happen under his watch. Inan Education Next article, which gives a fairy tale account of Steiner’s tenure, What Arne Duncan’s new senior adviser did to N.Y. schools - The Washington Post:

U.S. education secretary who clashed often with California to resign | EdSource

U.S. education secretary who clashed often with California to resign | EdSource:

U.S. education secretary who clashed often with California to resign

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who clashed frequently with California education officials on a range of K-12 education policy issues, announced that he will resign his position in December.

He will be succeeded by former New York Education Commissioner John King Jr., who was appointed deputy secretary of education under Duncan in January. President Barack Obama is expected to make an announcement to that effect at 12:30 p.m. California Time. 

Duncan is the longest-serving member of Obama’s cabinet. In an email sent to his staff this morning, Duncan said “as a comparatively small team, often under challenging conditions and timelines, our staff has continued to offer example after example of dedication beyond the call of duty.”

The administration and California education leaders found common ground on some major reforms, most notably on implementation of the Common Core State Standards.

However, one of the major points of disagreement was the administration’s insistence on linking teacher evaluations to test scores. The requirement was one of the conditions that the department imposed on states seeking a waiver from penalties of the No Child Left Behind law. California is only one of seven states not to have received a waiver. Gov. Jerry Brown said that Duncan had no authority to impose requirements for teacher evaluations under the NCLB law, and submitted California’s waiver application without the teacher evaluation component.

“History will show that compared to some secretaries of education, Duncan had a significant impact on national and state public policy,” State Board of Education President Michael Kirst said Friday. “But a number of his policies did not fit well with the specific context in California.”

When the Obama administration rejected California’s first application for a waiver in 2012, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said, “It is disappointing that our state’s request – which enjoyed such strong support from parents, teachers, administrators, and education advocates across California – has been rejected.”

Duncan started giving state waivers from NCLB in 2011, after a deeply divided Congress could not agree on changes to reauthorize the law. That remains the case, and so the law, formally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, limps along as written in 2002 with flaws that both Republicans and Democrats agree should be fixed, although they disagree over how to do so.

With the resignation of House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, it seems even less likely that a bipartisan majority will be able to agree on a rewrite of the law before Obama leaves office.

However, while rejecting California’s application for a statewide waiver, eight California school districts, which formed the California Office to U.S. education secretary who clashed often with California to resign | EdSource:

Education Secretary Duncan Steps Down!: Raise a toast with me this evening, and let’s drink to downfall of the whole testocracy | I AM AN EDUCATOR

Education Secretary Duncan Steps Down!: Raise a toast with me this evening, and let’s drink to downfall of the whole testocracy | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

Education Secretary Duncan Steps Down!: Raise a toast with me this evening, and let’s drink to downfall of the whole testocracy

Arne Duncan has been one of the most destructive forces to public education in the history of our country.

Duncan was appointed by President Obama as the Secretary of Education, but his real role has been “testocracy tsar”–as his signature policies of Race to the Top and Common Core have been singularly focused on promoting high-stakes, standardized test and punish policies in service of the privatization and charterization of the public schools.  Duncan’s initiatives have been designed to reduce the intellectual and emotional process of teaching and learning to a single score that can be used to close schools, fire teachers, stop students from graduating, and siphon more and more money out of the public schools towards privatized charter operators.

For that reason, I hope you will raise a toast with me this evening–let’s say at 6pm Pacific time, and make it a collective action–at Duncan’s announcement today that he will step down from his post.

To be sure, the proposed replacement for Duncan, John King, will only serve as a new testocracy tsar with a proven track record of supporting corporate education reform.  Still, it’s worth marking the departure of Duncan, someone who’s policies have hurt so many children, as we continue planning to do away with the testocracy all together.

During the summer of 2010, several other educators and I obtained an in person meeting with Education Secretary Duncan Steps Down!: Raise a toast with me this evening, and let’s drink to downfall of the whole testocracy | I AM AN EDUCATOR:

A Top Ten of @ArneDuncan Inanity: Obama’s Basketball Buddy Drops Ball on Ed | Cloaking Inequity

A Top Ten of @ArneDuncan Inanity: Obama’s Basketball Buddy Drops Ball on Ed | Cloaking Inequity:

A Top Ten of @ArneDuncan Inanity: Obama’s Basketball Buddy Drops Ball on Ed

So what happens when a President chooses a basketball buddy as Secretary of Education? Really, Obama… what did you expect when you chose a non-educator, non-expert to lead American education? A leader who left Chicago in shambles, whose school “turnarounds” didn’t work. Disappointed by his latest inanity at the Mom Congress, I have selected ten quotes from Arne Duncan’s reign as Secretary for a top ten.



It’s fascinating to me that some of the pushback is coming from, sort of, white suburban moms who — all of a sudden — their child isn’t as brilliant as they thought they were and their school isn’t quite as good as they thought they were, and that’s pretty scary,” Duncan said. “You’ve bet your house and where you live and everything on, ‘My child’s going to be prepared.’ That can be a punch in the gut. Source

Really Arne? You are going to attack the independent/swing female voters the Democratic party needs in coming elections? Over Common Core? You realize that TAMSA kicked policymakers’ a___ in Texas for similar antiquated and disingenuous thinking about high-stakes testing?



The vast majority who drop out of high school drop out not because it’s too hard but because it’s too easy. Source

Talk to students Arne. They will tell you that high-stakes testing is discouraging. They will tell you that class after class of test-prep is dull. See all of Cloaking Inequity’s posts on dropout here.



I think the best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. Source

Reformers ideas in New Orleans have been a failure. It’s just that simpleA Top Ten of @ArneDuncan Inanity: Obama’s Basketball Buddy Drops Ball on Ed | Cloaking Inequity:

Members-only Unions: Can They Help Revitalize Workplace Democracy? : Blog of the Century

Members-only Unions: Can They Help Revitalize Workplace Democracy? : Blog of the Century:

Members-only Unions: Can They Help Revitalize Workplace Democracy?

On July 10, 2014, when the United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 42 was officially announced, many Americans were introduced for the first time to an old labor practice: members-only unions.¹

Local 42 was formed at the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after the UAW was defeated in “one of the most closely watched unionization votes in decades,”² which many on both sides staked out as a symbol of labor’s prospects in the South. Typically, after facing such an election loss, most union organizers either regroup for another election, or simply walk away. In the case of Local 42, the UAW chose a largely forgotten third option: forming a nonexclusive, members-only union.

Download this Issue Brief as a PDF

Members-only unions, like the name implies, are unions that comprise only a portion of the employees in a workplace, rather than including all workers in the bargaining unit. Workers who do not wish to be members do not have to join, and in turn, the union does not have to provide non-member employees with any services. In fact, by law, a members-only union can only represent those who have joined, as opposed to representing all employees as in a traditional bargaining unit. They are not as powerful as a bargaining unit that results from an election, but in some circumstances they are the easier—and sometimes the only—option.

While the concept is new to many, the practice of members-only unionism preceded passage of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935.³ In his seminal book on the history of members-only unionism, Charles Morris shows that, before the NLRA and its judicial interpretations institutionalized a preference for union elections, a significant percentage of workers bargained through members-only unions.⁴ For instance, in a November 1933 statistical study of 3,314 companies employing 2,585,740 wage earners, approximately 31.1 percent of companies engaged in bargaining with either a company union or independent union. Morris shows that over 18 percent of this group bargained with unions on a nonexclusive, members-only basis.⁵ However, following the passage of the NLRA—and the attendant right of union elections and exclusive representation based on majority support—the practice of members-only unionism quickly diminished.

While under the law workers can still form members-only unions, there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the NLRA provides them the right to bargain with their employers on a members-only basis. Morris argues persuasively that the text and history of the NLRA, as well as congressional intent, point strongly to such a bargaining right. However, in 2006, the United Steelworkers tested Morris’s theory in the Dick’s Sporting Goods case, and the General Counsel's Division of Advice issued a memorandum concluding that the Board should not issue a complaint because nonexclusive unions did not have a right to bargain. Therefore, the National Labor Relations Board never had an opportunity to consider the case, and has still not yet fully considered this question.⁶

The legal issue of employees’ bargaining rights in a members-only setting has stood in limbo since then, with a variety of scholarly articles addressing what legal rights workers in members-only unions may or may not have, and the possible future successes of such unions.⁷ This question is certain to become more important in the upcoming years. In 2014, Wisconsin became the nation’s twenty-fifth right-to-work state—which means that, in any of these states, if a union is the exclusive representative of all workers in the bargaining unit, any worker can choose not to pay any union dues. And in the upcoming term, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, which considers whether union security clauses in public sector contracts violate the First Amendment. If the Supreme Court rules the way that many expect, all public-sector workers will be under right-to-work, which could serve to defund public-sector unions. Such developments make organizing and maintaining a union more difficult, and so if voluntary payment of dues becomes the norm, then some unions may choose the voluntary nature of members-only unions.

What is often lost in many of the discussions on workers’ rights is that members-only unions are not a theoretical construct or historical remnant. In fact, beyond UAW Local 42, a variety of public and private-sector locals have operated on a members-only basis for many years, with varying degrees of success. For example, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has approximately 120,000 members in members-only unions spread across Texas, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

Most of the existing members-only unions are located in southern states, because legal conditions in those states such as right-to-work laws make it difficult to organize a majority union. Similarly, most members-only unions are public-sector unions, because many states that are inhospitable to labor can easily pass laws that limit collective bargaining rights in the public sector. However, there are members-only unions in the private sector and in other geographic locations as well.

Based on numerous interviews with those involved with members-only unions, this report presents several case studies—one southern private-sector union, one northern private-sector union, and one southern public-sector union—in order to demonstrate the various benefits and hurdles of members-only unionism. It reveals that the problems exclusive-representative unions face are felt far more acutely in the members-only context. Because almost all members-only unions work outside of the confines of a contract, successful unions must be in constant communication with the membership to find out about issues at work and must address them in creative fashions. And because employers will not usually meet with a members-only union, let alone bargain a contract, success in this context is defined differently—comprised mainly of retaining a significant membership and winning discrete battles in the workplace.

Case Studies

Texas Workers Alliance

The Texas Workers Alliance (TWA) is a members-only union in the San Antonio, Texas area, whose membership consists of non-teaching staff, such as custodians, bus drivers, secretaries, and clerks at area public schools.

There are a number of factors in Texas that are conducive to the formation of members-Members-only Unions: Can They Help Revitalize Workplace Democracy? : Blog of the Century:

Louisiana Educator: White's Team Trying to Muddy up the Narrative Again

Louisiana Educator: White's Team Trying to Muddy up the Narrative Again:

White's Team Trying to Muddy up the Narrative Again

Beaking News!

I just got an email from one of the state newspapers questioning why our citizen group was asking for information that was pre-mature. The reporter questioned why we were asking for PARCC data when BESE had not yet approved the PARCC cut scores? Wouldn't it be better to wait until BESE sets the cut scores on October 13.

Here is my response that I sent by email:

"The group is making three basic requests. None of them are impacted in any way by the setting of cut scores.

The first request is for an item analysis of each test question to tell the public and the Standards Review Committee exactly what percentage of our students got each Common Core standard correct. This helps the Review Committee determine which of the Common Core Standards need to be looked at more closely and either be removed or modified.

The second item asks for a conversion table to convert raw scores to scale scores. For example, we want to know that if a student got 70% of the questions right on the PARCC test, what scale score does that equate to? (Remember that the scale scores run from 650 to 850 on all PARCC tests) Louisiana Educator: White's Team Trying to Muddy up the Narrative Again:

New York was Common Core’s stronghold. What happens if the state backs down? - The Hechinger Report

New York was Common Core’s stronghold. What happens if the state backs down? - The Hechinger Report:

New York was Common Core’s stronghold. What happens if the state backs down?

en Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York, announced that the Common Core wasn’t working and that he would commission a committee to overhaul the state’s “Common Core system,” the governor became the first Democrat to venture down a path well-worn by Republican governors in red states like Oklahoma, Indiana and Louisiana.

Whether this is a sign of a coming bipartisan dismantling of the Common Core or just a sign that Cuomo is willing to sacrifice the Common Core to keep his other educational priorities – particularly test-based teacher evaluations – afloat is up for debate. Less debatable is the uniqueness of how New York went about implementing the Common Core, a set of math and reading standards in place in 44 states and the District of Columbia.

Related: Will test-based teacher evaluations derail the Common Core?

No state has so strongly embraced the Common Core. In 2011, a year after the standards were released, the state education department started the long (and expensive) process of procuring thousands of Common Core-aligned curriculum materials, which were used to build the EngageNY website for teachers. New York schools were told to start implementing the new standards during the 2011-12 school year, and students started taking Common Core tests in the spring of 2013 – a full two years before students in most states. Under those new tests, the percentage of students passing the state’s reading and New York was Common Core’s stronghold. What happens if the state backs down? - The Hechinger Report:

Six months and counting. No Common Core Standards SBAC test results yet | Seattle Education

Six months and counting. No Common Core Standards SBAC test results yet | Seattle Education:

Six months and counting. No Common Core Standards SBAC test results yet

Remember the Common Core SBAC test that was given to students in Seattle during the month of April and May, the test that was sooo important for students to take, the test that certain school administrators threatened, coerced and embarrassed students into taking, that SBAC test? Well, parents and students have yet to see the results of the test.

So then the question is, why haven’t the results been published? Does OSPI or our superintendent hope we’ll forget about the test? That it will be just a vague and very bad memory when precious class time was lost and millions of dollars spent on a test that is of no value to teachers or their students? Even if and when we see the results, will it matter? Teachers, students and parents cannot see the questions or the answers.

Is it because the results were so bad that a narrative is being created by the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction OSPI/Bill Gates (Bill Gates has provided OSPI with $14M in grants since 2009)? We know that the Common Core Standards test results in other states were so low that parents began to question the Six months and counting. No Common Core Standards SBAC test results yet | Seattle Education:

Text of Arne Duncan’s note to his staff about resigning as education secretary - The Washington Post

Text of Arne Duncan’s note to his staff about resigning as education secretary - The Washington Post:

Text of Arne Duncan’s note to his staff about resigning as education secretary

The following is a text of an internal e-mail Duncan sent to his staff on Friday, according to a copy obtained by The Washington Post:

Subject line: An inspiring new leader for our extraordinary team

Dear colleagues,

I’m writing to tell you two things. First, what is for me some bittersweet news: after several months of commuting between my family in Chicago and my job here in DC, I have made the decision to step down in December.

Second, and very happily, President Obama has asked our delegated Deputy Secretary John King Jr. to step into my role when I leave. An announcement to that effect went out from the White House a few minutes ago.

Serving the President in the work of expanding opportunity for students throughout this country has been the greatest honor of my life. Doing so alongside people of the brilliance, ability and moral conviction of the team here at ED has been nothing short of thrilling. We have been lucky to have an a amazing team here from Day One, but I honestly believe our team today is the strongest it’s ever been. So it’s with real sadness that have come to recognize that being apart from my family has become too much of a strain, and it is time for me to step aside and give a new leader a chance. I haven’t talked with anyone about what I’ll do next, and probably won’t for a little while – I’m simply returning to Chicago to live with my family. I imagine my next steps will continue to involve the work of expanding opportunity for children, but I have no idea what that will look like yet.

What gives me peace with this decision, and I hope comes as a reassurance to everyone here, is the extraordinary talent of John and our leadership team. John comes to this role with a record of exceptional accomplishment as a lifelong educator – a teacher, a school leader, and a leader of school systems, most recently as Commissioner of Education in New York State before he joined our team. Over the years that I have known him, and especially in the months we have worked together here, I’ve come to recognize John as one of the most passionate, courageous, clear-headed leaders in our field. His talent is such that he will become one of the youngest Cabinet members in American history. (I encourage you to read his remarkable personal story, which he laid out in a Huffington Post article[huffingtonpost.com] a few years ago.)

The team here is extraordinary. Each of our offices is headed by a genuine national leader from whom I’ve learned enormously, and at the center of that team is a senior leadership I’ve depended upon daily – in addition to John, our Under Secretary Ted Mitchell, a visionary whose ideas and moral force are helping to change the landscape of opportunity in higher education; and my Chief of Staff, Emma Vadehra, who understands how to accomplish change in education as well as anyone else in this country. I’m hopeful that we’ll be able to announce a replacement for John to carry out the duties of Deputy Secretary soon, and I owe this team enormous thanks for their dedication and sacrifice.

I owe a similarly profound thanks to each of you. The work of this Department is exceptionally ambitious – to ensure that every student in this country enjoys genuine opportunity to learn, to grow, to excel. As a comparatively small team, often under challenging conditions and timelines, our staff has continued to offer example after example of dedication beyond the call of duty. I’m honored to have led you, and delighted by what good hands this Department will be in. I ask each of you that you offer John and his team the same commitment I’ve witnessed from you.

As I think about our shared work here, and about what it has meant to spend seven years serving the President and the country, I think about two students I’ve met in recent years. The first is Brandon, a young man I met at a round table discussion in Denver as part of My Brother’s Keeper. Brandon told a story I will never forget, about how his life had slipped off the tracks in elementary school. He had scrawled graffiti in a bathroom stall when he was 11 years old. His school, which had zero tolerance discipline policies, called the police, and he ended up being sentenced to pick up trash along the highway alongside adult criminals. He also ended up with a criminal record, and years later, when he tried to become a police officer, the department turned him away because of that record. For me, Brandon will always be a reminder of the distance we have to go as adults, to do right by our young people.

The second person is Russhaun Johnson. Russhaun had the deck stacked against him growing up in Des Moines, Iowa. His dad wasn’t around; he lived with his mom, who was a drug addict, until she was incarcerated for more than four years while he was in middle and high school. No one in his family was there for him, and many nights, he slept on park benches. He described himself as “two steps behind” from the start in school. What got Russhaun on a track to success, he says, was his teachers and counselors, who helped him see himself as the brilliant young man he is. He’s now an accomplished poet, and the president of his senior class. A few weeks ago, the whole country had the opportunity to witness his brilliance, as he introduced President Obama to a cheering crowd on the first day of our bus tour. Russhaun told the audience he is planning to go to college to become a teacher, because he wants to offer a next generation of young people the possibility that the caring educators
around him helped him see in himself. He is an example, to me, of what can go right for our children when our schools understand who they can become – and act on that knowledge.

When I think about the life paths of these two young people, I know that no one will fight harder for students like them than John King and the team he will lead here. I thank you for being part of that team, and promise you that you are in good hands.

–Arne

Valerie Strauss covers education and runs The Answer Sheet blog.Text of Arne Duncan’s note to his staff about resigning as education secretary - The Washington Post:

If you thought Arne Duncan was controversial, meet his successor - The Washington Post

If you thought Arne Duncan was controversial, meet his successor - The Washington Post:

If you thought Arne Duncan was controversial, meet his successor

Now that Education Secretary Arne Duncan has decided to step down in December, the U.S. Department of Education will be headed by John King. And if you thought Duncan was controversial, meet his successor.

King was the New York State education commissioner, taking over in 2011 and announcing in December 2014 that he was leaving to become Duncan’s No. 2, a job officially titled “Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education,” according to the Education Department’s biography. King can run the department without being officially nominated as education secretary.

Duncan himself is leaving amid strong discontent from all sides of the political spectrum with his tenure, during which he became the most powerful education secretary in U.S. history. He backed school reforms, including the Common Core State Standards and standardized test-based accountability for teachers, which became increasingly unpopular in states across the country. Last year, the nation’s largest teachers union, the National Education Association, called on him to resign. And Congress is now considering legislation to rewrite No Child Left Behind that would sharply reduce the federal power Duncan wielded, a direct result of Duncan’s tenure.

King was just as embattled, if not more, in New York as education commission for some of the same reasons as Duncan — and there were numerous calls for his resignation as well. By the time he resigned, he had lost the confidence of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) (although King was appointed by the New York State Regents).

King led a series of school reforms that included a new teacher evaluation system using student standardized test scores that critics say is nonsensical  (for example, art teachers are evaluated by student math test scores) and the implementation of the Common Core standards, and aligned Pearson-designed standardized tests. King’s oversight of all of this was considered If you thought Arne Duncan was controversial, meet his successor - The Washington Post:

John B. King Jr in for Arne Duncan Relegated Duties of Acting Secretary of Education -- Biography

John B. King, Jr., Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education -- Biography:
John B. King, Jr., Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education — Biography 

Versión en español

John B. King, Jr. is the Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education, a position he assumed in January 2015. In appointing him, Secretary Arne Duncan called Dr. King "an extraordinary leader who has dedicated his life to improving the opportunities of our young people, as a teacher, a school leader and a leader of school systems."

Dr. King oversees all preschool-through-12th-grade education policies, programs and strategic initiatives, as well as the operations of the Department, which has more than 4,000 employees and a budget of more than $60 billion. This work involves a focus on increasing equity, improving educational outcomes for all students, and closing achievement gaps through implementation of key Administration priorities in areas including early learning, elementary and secondary education, special education, English language acquisition, and innovation.

Dr. King also oversees the Department's work leading cross-agency collaboration for President Obama's My Brother's Keeper task force, which seeks to address persistent opportunity gaps faced by boys and young men of color and ensure that all young people are able to reach their full potential.

Prior to his arrival at the Department, Dr. King had served since 2011 as the commissioner of education for the state of New York. In that role, he served as chief executive officer of the State Education Department and as president of the University of the State of New York, overseeing the State's elementary and secondary schools (serving 3.1 million students), public, independent and proprietary colleges and universities, libraries, museums, and numerous other educational institutions. Dr. King was one of the nation's youngest state education leaders at the time of his appointment and the first African-American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State education commissioner.

As commissioner of education, Dr. King worked with the Board of Regents to pursue an ambitious education improvement agenda. During his tenure, New York State was a national leader in many facets of education: investing in high-quality early learning; raising standards for teaching and learning; supporting teachers and school leaders through strong professional development, access to rich instructional resources, and innovative educator career ladder models; expanding career and technical education in high-demand fields; and increasing educational opportunity for students in the highest-need communities. Under Dr. King's leadership, New York deepened collaboration between the state's preschool-through-12th-grade (P-12) schools and its institutions of higher education, including strengthening teacher and principal preparation, and raising the bar for teacher and principal certification.

Dr. King brings to his role extensive experience leading urban public schools that are closing the achievement gap and preparing students to enter, succeed in, and graduate from college. Prior to his appointment as senior deputy commissioner at the New York State Education Department in 2009, King served as a managing director with Uncommon Schools, a non-profit charter management organization that operates some of the highest-performing urban public schools in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Earlier in his career, Dr. King was a co-founder and co-director for curriculum and instruction of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. Under his leadership, Roxbury Prep became one of the highest performing urban middle schools in the State, closed the racial achievement gap, and outperformed not only the Boston district schools but also schools in the city's affluent suburbs. Dr. King began his career in education teaching high school social studies in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. King earned a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Harvard University, a Master of Arts in the teaching of social studies from Columbia University's Teachers College, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and a Doctor of Education degree in educational administrative practice from Columbia University's Teachers College. Dr. King was a 1995 Truman Scholar and received the James Madison Memorial Fellowship for secondary-level teaching of American history, American government, and social studies. Prior to joining the Department, in February 2011, Dr. King was appointed by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to serve on the U.S. Department of Education's Equity and Excellence Commission. In addition, Dr. King served on the board of New Leaders for New Schools from 2005 to 2009, and is a 2008 Aspen Institute-NewSchools Entrepreneurial Leaders for Public Education Fellow.

Dr. King's life story is an extraordinary testament to the power of education. Both of Dr. King's parents were career New York City public school educators, whose example serves as an enduring inspiration. Dr. King's parents both died from illness by the time he was 12, and he struggled to cope with their loss as he moved between family members and schools. He credits New York City public school teachers — particularly his teachers at P.S. 276 in Canarsie and Mark Twain J.H.S. in Coney Island — for saving his life by providing transformative educational experiences and giving him hope about the future. His belief in the centrality of educational opportunity to the American Dream and the vital necessity of second chances for our young people has its foundations in his own experience of overcoming so many challenges and going on to graduate from Harvard, Yale and Columbia and become a teacher and education leader.

Dr. King lives in Takoma Park, Maryland, with his wife and two children, who attend local public schools.John B. King, Jr., Senior Advisor Delegated Duties of Deputy Secretary of Education -- Biography:

The Trouble with “Disruption” and its Effect on Children

The Trouble with “Disruption” and its Effect on Children:

The Trouble with “Disruption” and its Effect on Children

Disruption has become a popular buzzword in regard to schooling. Education reformers like to say disruption is a good thing—like shaking up a kaleidoscope to get a pretty picture. Never mind that those beautiful little pebbles in the kaleidoscope are real children. Nor is it with certainty that once you shake things up the picture will be pretty. For all we know the kaleidoscope might break, especially if you shake it too hard.

No. For most of us, disruption is more like putting a child on a Tilt-a-Whirl after a big meal.

But politicians and policymakers love the word disruption. Just the other day Jeb! Bush said on CNN I’m a proven leader. I disrupted the old order in Tallahassee. I relied on people like Marco Rubio and many others to follow my leadership and we moved the needle.

Ask Floridians how they like those education disruptions since Mr. Bush was in office.Here is a website if you would like to show how you dislike the education disruptions The Trouble with “Disruption” and its Effect on Children: