Arne Duncan
Arne Duncan
Arne Duncanwas the United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through early 2016. His tenure as Secretary was marked by controversy. Conservatives and some parents opposed his push for all U.S. states to adopt the Common Core Standards to determine what students had learned, and teachers unions disliked his emphasis on the use of data from student tests to evaluate teachers and schools. When Duncan announced his resignation the president of the AFT teachers union said, "there’s no question that...
ProfessionPolitician
Date of Birth6 November 1964
CityChicago, IL
Almost 24 million children - one in three - are likely growing up without their father involved in their lives.
The cost of college should never discourage anyone from going after a valuable degree.
Even in a time of fiscal austerity, education is more than just an expense.
Teachers say their schools of education did not adequately prepare them for the classroom. They would have welcomed more mentoring and feedback in their early years.
A postsecondary education is the ticket to economic success in America.
In America, your zip code or your socioeconomic status should never determine the quality of your education.
Most teachers still say they love teaching though they wouldn't mind a little more respect for their challenging work and a little less blame for America's educational shortcomings.
To encourage more top-caliber students to choose teaching, teachers should be paid a lot more, with starting salaries more in the range of $60,000 and potential earnings of as much as $150,000.
Research shows that children do better in school and are less likely to drop out when fathers are involved. Engaged parents can strengthen communities, mentor and tutor students, and demonstrate through their actions how much they value their children's education.
Schools and districts and unions are working together on some really innovative things.
I just think we can't do enough of this [student exchanges]... And when you get young children traveling internationally, I think they come back different people. And you can't put a price tag - you can't put a value on that.
Teachers support evaluations based on multiple measures: student growth, classroom observation and feedback from peers and parents.
The arts significantly boost student achievement, reduce discipline problems, and increase the odds students will go on to graduate from college. As First Lady Michelle Obama sums up, both she and the President believe 'strongly that arts education is essential for building innovative thinkers who will be our nation's leaders for tomorrow.'
I believe that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. And if you care about promoting opportunity and reducing inequality, the classroom is the place to start. Great teaching is about so much more than education; it is a daily fight for social justice.