Arne Duncan Talks About 'Teach' Campaign To Recruit Educators (VIDEO)

In an effort to recruit more teachers, the Department of Education recently launched the TEACH campaign.

Duncan joined My Fox DC this morning to discuss teacher recruitment and how to address challenges such as teacher pay.

WATCH:

Comments

[cjaco]

02:55 PM on 11/26/2010

Duncan is either disingenuous or a complete idiot. Linda Darling Hammond should have been appointed by Obama. He had the choice and opted for the basketball buddy instead of the expert. Karma will out as the end legacy with be the destruction of public schools and the complete corporate takeover of education.

[giono]

12:26 PM on 11/26/2010

An empty suit who accomplished very little in Chicago

[Ann Delacy]

01:19 AM on 11/25/2010

I have zero respect for Arne Dummy.

[Deanna Woods]

11:28 PM on 11/24/2010

The good news: we have quality research to inform our decisionmaking. The bad news: we need to apply our knowledge systemically--no simple solution exists. Yes, we need to recruit quality people for education, but we need to ensure that the working conditions for quality people are the penultimate of what we have learned from research actually works. Darling-Hammond's most recent book outlines some of that. Further, we need to ensure that schools are structured to address the needs of human beings, the whole child and the whole educator, in order to make it all work. Cognitive sciences say you can't separate the mind and the heart and hands in the learning process, and still expect the results we're demanding as a society. Research (See Bryk & Schneider, "Trust in Schools") tells us that we need to be able to trust and respect each other, and to create environments that foster healthy ways of addressing the social-emotional of all ages; that schools should be places where both children and adults learn (Lieberman & Miller), with adults modeling the behaviors we want children to develop. All the components of success are interrelated and interdependent; we have to work to be what we want our children to become. Our potential is exciting. We can move beyond blame, regret, and a sense of inadequacy to accomplish great things, one step and one person at a time, starting wherever we are, and working collaboratively to blend the strengths we each bring to the process.

[jcgrim]

12:23 PM on 11/24/2010

The long term outcomes of Arne & BIll's marekt backed ed-reforms:
1.put downward pressure on teaching salaries by flooding the market with teachers via Teach for America and other fast-tracking certification schemes. Support said schemes with white papers from hack think-tanks denigrating University Colleges of Education

2. eliminate tenure so teacher can be fired for arbitrary reasons, such as teaching evolution, the dangers of free-markets, the US plutrocracy, disagreeing with Chris Christie, etc. Support ending tenure with white papers from hack think tanks...

3. eliminate step raises (aka"Bonuses" by the privatizers and HuffPo) by claiming more experienced teachers are ineffective and/or should be paid based on unreliable and invalid merit measures. Support merit pay with white papers generated by hack think tanks...

4. A corporate utopia- funneling tax dollars from kids to hedge fund managers and financial firms.

[genrel1248]

10:26 AM on 11/24/2010

I am a teacher in a small private prep school. I have a masters degree in my subject (not in education). You could not pay me enough to teach in the public schools under the current system. No authority in discipline or curriculum. No support from administration against parents. No respect from the community at large. It is no wonder over 50% of every new teacher class is no longer in the field 5 years later. If any other profession worked under those conditions, there would be violent strikes. Hey there's an idea.

[TFT]

02:17 PM on 11/21/2010

Hey HuffPo! Are you listening? Every ed post on your site gets pilloried by real educators. Of all the comments made in these threads, 99% percent of them point out the fact that current reforms are useless and miss the point. The point is poverty. We created the situation as a consumerist society. Teachers try to combat it, to no avail.

Folks, the reform movement is misinformed, or uninformed. Push back. Don't let the oligarchs privatize education in America.

[htapaul]

12:45 PM on 11/21/2010

There is a reason President Obama might be a one term president. His name is Arne Duncan.

[htapaul]

01:14 PM on 11/21/2010

During the 08 election, from the primary through the general election, I gave $100 a month and sometimes twice. It totaled almost $1,000. I'm a retired teacher and this is the most I have ever given. I believed in Obama. I was fooled. Duncan makes William Bennett look like a teacher's friend. When Demo fundraisers call now, I say "no thanks" not till Arne is gone.

[Skepticat]

09:35 PM on 11/20/2010

This is the same Mr Duncan "recruiting" educators who spoke to the American Enterprise Institute about not rewarding teachers for "un-necessary" masters degrees while pushing various privitization agendas.

[progressiveteacher]

12:28 PM on 11/20/2010

I'm wondering why we continue to recruit new teachers when there are NO JOBS in the profession. In my district, we got 5000 resumes for each job opening. Not 500, 5000. If a young teacher with a degree in anything but education wants to teach, they can simply go to graduate school and get a teaching degree and then find a job themselves. This program should get no government funding and the teachers should not be allowed to be in charge of a classroom without a state issued teaching certificate earned by the proper channels. Teach for America has turned into an elite "urban peace corps" experience for the privileged; after a couple of years, most leave and go to elite graduate programs or become educational policy makers based on their excellent in-depth experience. In addition, this program is allowing districts to hire cheaper teachers and union bust; experienced teachers, often community-based (read minority) are let go to make room for these cultural imperialist tourists/missionaries to do their tour of duty. This program is an insult to all teachers who got their degree and certification the honest way, who want to serve the community in which they are invested, and who want to make a long-term commitment to a school and its community.

[teacher39years]

01:06 PM on 11/20/2010

And communities are important . I wonder if he would want a teacher with six weeks of training for his children.

[progressiveteacher]

02:23 PM on 11/20/2010

I don't think the U of C lab school hires teachers with 6 weeks of training!

[Protocolor]

08:24 PM on 11/20/2010

Really? Glutted labor market, huh?

[Former] math teacher here who has been getting a cold call or two every week from school districts looking for someone qualified. I have not applied for a teaching job in YEARS in the US!

For any teacher that tries, the hours are long (not enough in any day to prepare, actually) the pay sucks, the students are lazy and undisciplined and the community unappreciative and unsupportive of all of your sacrifices. Work two burger-flipping jobs and you'll have more respect, free time and money than a teacher.

To hell with you, America. You losers don't deserve good teachers.

[h23154]

08:51 AM on 11/20/2010

Here is where we are in this regard:
1. Teachers are blamed for lack of student performance instead of parents who can not control their own kids, let them stay up all night watching TV or on the computer, and allow them to hold jobs after school to pay for cars and designer clothing instead of doing homework,
2. Locals demand that teachers take on more and more kids when if you stuck one of these yokels with three kinds not theirs for a day and told them to keep these focused on tasks and well behaved they would run screaming in in the street after two hours.
3. Demand that teachers make no more than the lowest aid people in the district.
4. Accuse teachers of working only 180 days a year from 9 - 3 pm and complain when they "work to the contract" as a job action because they are not still working at 5:00 pm after getting to school at 7.
5. Make teachers use obsolete texts or teach the kind of nonsense they just mandated in Texas.
6. Have local school board control principal hirings so that their cronies get the jobs instead of capable administrators who actually know how to teach.
And my favorite - Judge teachers by how well the kids do on tests and let the kids know that if they mess up those tests their teacher gets the blame. What a fun way to mess with the teacher.

[teacher39years]

12:54 PM on 11/20/2010

Teaching is one of those jobs that looks easier than it really is.

[DrJaye]

12:55 PM on 11/19/2010

I've recently left higher education after spending almost twenty years preparing high school teachers. Why? I couldn't look these young, idealistic, energized people in the face any more and tell them what an honorable career they've chosen. Instead of trying to recruit even more people to be teachers, perhaps we need to figure out how to keep the people we've already trained. One statistic has remained constant in my twenty years of this game -- we lose HALF of all newly-minted teachers in the first five years of their employment. Anyone in personnel (or higher ed admissions) knows it costs so much more to replace someone who's left a position than it does to retrain/retrench someone who's already there. We need to stop the hemmorhaging of new talent that's already in the field.

[teacher39years]

01:00 PM on 11/20/2010

All the studies show that teacher turnover hurts children. And turnover was never a problem before all the government mandates came in. Teaching was like any other profession. The ironic part is that the charter schools are not required to follow these mandates.

[Protocolor]

08:36 PM on 11/20/2010

The ironic part is that charter schools (particularly the ones run by private 'enterprises') suck just as bad as regular public schools.

Yes, teacher turnover hurts the kids. At the end of the day, however, who (other than the teachers themselves) really cares about that? Cut taxes and demand larger class sizes and criticize teachers for their 'lavish' life style. Yeah, that makes it clear whether you are part of the problem or part of the solution...

[researcher]

12:36 AM on 11/19/2010

the america solution to everything. money.

throw money at it.

I remeber a demo that stated there are three solutions to every problem. money money and money.

the repubs have two solutions to every problem. tax breaks and privatize everything.

and we wonder why we are heading straight for third world status.

[mlaiuppa]

10:29 PM on 11/18/2010

You want to recruit the cream of our university students

to work for lower pay than the private sector

permanent at will employment

value-added based rather than research based evaluation

no pensions

no healthcare

no rights to organize

no authority to make any decisions but be responsible for every failing

and above all....no respect.

Yeah. Good luck with that.

[Protocolor]

08:38 PM on 11/20/2010

Yep... failure built right in.

[teacher39years]

09:55 PM on 11/18/2010

I don't think that Obama has any idea what a liability Arne Duncan is. He even sent Duncan to campaign for him during the Midterms. Duncan, with a Bachelor's Degree in Sociology,and a "career" as a semi-professional basketball player in Australia, would be better placed in a job as a sportscaster.