NEA: 13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan

At its annual meeting in Chicago, The National Education Association's Representative Assembly passed Saturday New Business Item C., a strongly worded piece that comprehensively lists the NEA's grievances with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

Some have nicknamed the item "13 Things We Hate About Arne Duncan."

The item was submitted by the union's board of directors, and according to the piece:

"…directs the NEA president to communicate aggressively, forcefully and immediately to President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that NEA is appalled with Secretary Duncan's [practices listed below]."

But other delegates are skeptical of the true influence of passing the item, as the piece merely reprimands Duncan, but does not call for active solution.

Among the union's 13 criticisms are Duncan's failure to adequately address "unrealistic" Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, focusing too closely on charter schools to the detriment of other types of schools, weighing in too heavily on local hiring decisions and failing to see the need for more encompassing change that helps all students and depends on shared responsibility by stakeholders, versus competitive grant programs that the NEA says "spur bad, inappropriate, and short-sighted state policy."

In response to the item passage, Duncan's press office told Education Week:

"We acknowledge differing views and interpretations among some education labor leaders around the administration's education agenda. But, on the whole our partnership with labor is having a positive impact on student learning and the teaching profession—and we look forward to continuing to work with the NEA in the months and years ahead to further advance education reform."

The passage of this item comes just two days before the NEA is scheduled to determine whether the union will endorse President Barack Obama for re-election. The delegates will vote by secret ballot on the endorsement, which requires 58 percent of the vote to pass.

Comments

[Debater60660]

10:12 PM on 07/25/2011

Interesting . . . many of the things the NEA hates, I love . . . but for Arne's Race to the Top many of the reforms enacted recently never would have had a chance. Focus shoudn't be just on teachers? Fair enough, but face it, a good part of the focus must start there. Higher Ed and these education degree mills need attention too, I agree, but Arne shouldn't be criticized for focusing on their product first.

[LoftyDreamer]

03:46 PM on 07/06/2011

If NEA endorses President Obama, I must believe that NEA endorses Arnie Duncan. Therefore, NEA should be aware that I will withhold my dues until Arnie Duncan is gone, President Obama begins to involve actual teachers in the reform process, and corporate interests are no longer valued above those of students.

[giono]

09:17 PM on 07/04/2011

only 13....???

[frdafury]

05:01 PM on 07/04/2011

New Business Item C
ADOPTED AS AMENDED
The NEA Representative Assembly directs the NEA President to communicate aggressively, forcefully, and immediately to President Barack Obama and US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan that NEA is appalled with Secretary Duncan's practice of:
1. Weighing in on local hiring decisions of school and school district personnel.
2. Supporting local decisions to fire all school staff indiscriminately, such as his comments regarding the planned firings in Central Falls, RI.
3. Supporting inappropriate use of high-stakes standardized test scores for both student achievement and teacher evaluation, all while acknowledging that the currently available tests are not good.
4. Failing to recognize the shortcomings of offering to support struggling schools or states, but only in exchange for unsustainable state 'reform' policy.
5. Focusing too heavily on competitive grants that by design leave most students behind—particularly those in poor neighborhoods, rural areas, and struggling schools—instead of foundational formula funding designed to help all the students who need the most support.
6. Not adequately addressing the unrealistic Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements that brand thriving or improving schools as failures.
7. Forcing local school districts to choose from a pre-determined menu of school improvement models that are unproven and have been shown to be ineffective and bear little resemblance to the actual needs of the school that is struggling.

[frdafury]

05:00 PM on 07/04/2011

8. Focusing so heavily on charter schools that viable and proven innovative school models (such as magnet schools) have been overlooked, and simultaneously failing to highlight with the same enthusiasm the innovation in our non-charter public schools.
9. Failing to recognize both the danger inherent in overreliance on a single measurement and the need for multiple indicators when addressing and analyzing student achievement and educators' evaluations.
10. Failing to recognize the need for systemic change that helps ALL students and relies on shared responsibility by all stakeholders, rather than competitive grant programs that spur bad, inappropriate, and short-sighted state policy.
11. Failing to recognize the complexities of school districts that do not have the resources to compete for funding, particularly in rural America, and failing to provide targeted and effective support for those schools and school districts.
12. Failing to respect and honor the professionalism of educators across this country, including but not limited to holding public education roundtables and meetings without inviting state and local representatives of the teachers, education support professionals, and faculty and staff; promoting programs that lower the standards for entry into the profession; focusing so singularly on teachers in the schools that the other critical staff members and higher education faculty and staff have been overlooked in the plans for improving student learning throughout their educational careers.

[frdafury]

05:00 PM on 07/04/2011

13. Perpetuating the myth that there are proven, top-down prescribed 'silver bullet' solutions and models that actually will address the real problems that face public education today, rather than recognizing that what schools need is a visionary Secretary of Education that sets broad goals and tasks states, local schools districts, schools, educators, and communities with meeting those goals.
Further, the NEA Representative Assembly directs the NEA Executive Committee to develop and implement an aggressive action plan in collaboration with state and local leaders that will address the issues above.
Starting November 2011, the NEA President will provide regular updates to the delegates on the progress of this plan throughout the year.
Cost Implications
Activities to fulfill the requirements of this NBI can be undertaken within the proposed Modified 2011-2012 Strategic Plan and Budget at no additional cost.

[rda1911a1]

04:27 PM on 07/04/2011

I see facing a 14 million dollar budget shortfall NEA intends to reduce staff to save money? Isn't that what they protest when states do it? Ah typical liberals do as I say not as I do.

[bbbbmer]

03:39 PM on 07/04/2011

Just thirteen???

[SoCalifTeacher]

09:18 AM on 07/04/2011

Obama and Arnie have done nothing but show teachers contempt and disrespect. Now that it is re-election time, they will want our money and our votes. NEA has said they will endorse Obama. They should have said that they will withhold their endorsement and their MONEY until Arnie is fired. Teachers need to send a message. Supporting Romey or another Republican would be a start.

[LoftyDreamer]

04:52 PM on 07/06/2011

Amen.

[SoCalifTeacher]

09:10 AM on 07/04/2011

Obama and Arnie have done nothing but show teachers contempt and disrespect. Now, it is time for ree

[MKWaters esq]

03:29 AM on 07/04/2011

Everything!

[psweeii]

12:59 AM on 07/04/2011

Doesn't it make sense to assign an educator/ teacher to the position of Sec. of Education? Would any president install a former basketball player as Sec. of State, Defense or Treasury? Until our country starts looking at education as a serious and important investment in our nation's interests, we will always underfund and understaff it. Just as we value all of the president's cabinet positions, Arnie Duncan has not served as the experienced proper choice needed to steer us in the right direction.

[dmessy]

11:46 PM on 07/03/2011

Arnie is one of the few people of the Pres that at least has a balanced approach to finding ideas that make sense, have a history of working, and not afraid to try it even if it doesn't comply with the Unions perspective. Too bad he's one of maybe three.

[smartchoices]

07:35 AM on 07/04/2011

Ha! In the guise of "bipartisanship," education issues have been thrown under the bus - because the rich and powerful have a different tier of education for their own so they don't care if the Republicans are placated by giving away money to testing and ensuring that the "learning" experience of the poor and middle class is so inferior that the elite fear not that they will have any competion down the road. They are blind to the fact that this is the death knoll for our country.

[dmessy]

07:52 AM on 07/04/2011

there are nowhere near enough "rich" people to elect a GOP president. The reason why GOP gets elected is because they protect the financial interests of the middle class as they are the ones who ultmately foot the bill on all of the social "protections". There simply is not enough money only going after the rich to make up for the 50% of people who do not pay income tax.

[Trebla]

11:45 PM on 07/03/2011

This would have been a more useful article if the author would have actually given us the thirteen issues. Then I could have made something of a judgement about just who is full of it.
We don't need more articles on atmospherics- we need more data. And no those links do not lead to the items at issue.

[raechel]

12:10 AM on 07/04/2011

Perhaps you missed them because they weren't numbered?

Here are some of them (I quote):

Among the union's 13 criticisms are Duncan's failure to adequately address "unrealistic" Adequate Yearly Progress requirements, focusing too closely on charter schools to the detriment of other types of schools, weighing in too heavily on local hiring decisions and failing to see the need for more encompassing change that helps all students and depends on shared responsibility by stakeholders, versus competitive grant programs that the NEA says "spur bad, inappropriate, and short-sighted state policy."

The usual. And I have to say I agree with the critics of the statement in the NEA who pointed out that complaining about Duncan while failing to come up with suggestions of their own leaves the NEA in a less-than-optimal position. In fact I'd say people might just say they're whining, and that as long as they fail to tackle the issues themselves, it's no wonder the rest of the country is doing it for them.

[nwillard]

01:04 AM on 07/04/2011

Click on "Among the union's 13 criticism" and then scan down.

[traceydouglas]

11:30 PM on 07/03/2011

Join parents, students, teachers and concerned citizens for The Save Our Schools March and National Call to Action on July 30th in Washington, DC.

saveourschoolsmarch.org/