Arne Duncan Has Become an Embarrassment

Arne Duncan, the U.S. Secretary of Education, has become a laughing stock here in New York City. He has rashly inserted himself into local politics by repeatedly urging the New York state legislature to renew unlimited mayoral control, with no checks and balances and no parent input allowed.

In June, at the behest of Mayor Bloomberg, Duncan wrote a letter to the Citizens Union, a local good government group, stating that fixed terms for school board members whom the mayor could not fire at will would have "profoundly negative consequences for New York City's students."

He gave his support to continuing a board of education that is recognized to be a rubberstamp for the Mayor. The board has been recognized as such ever since Bloomberg got rid of two of his own appointees the night before they were to vote on his controversial grade retention proposals, in a notorious episode known as the "Monday night massacre."

Duncan has repeated as gospel skewed statistics provided him by the public relations office of the NYC Department of Education as proof of improvements under mayoral control, including the rise in state test scores, which many observers see as inflated.

He has consistently ignored the fact that the most credible measures of student achievement, the National Assessment of Education Progress, as provided by his own agency, the US Department of Education, show little or no improvement since Mayor Bloomberg's reforms were introduced in September 2003. In fact, as reported in our book, NYC Schools Under Bloomberg and Klein: What Parents, Teachers and Policymakers Need to Know, there has been no significant improvement in any grade or subject tested by NAEP in NYC except 4th grade math, and in that subject, 25 percent of students were provided with "accommodation" or extra help, far higher than in any other city.

Indeed, NYC showed the largest decline in 8th grade reading scores of any of the ten urban school district tested. And contrary to Duncan's claims that the Bloomberg reforms have narrowed the achievement gap, NAEP results show no narrowing of the gap between ethnic or racial groups in any grade or subject tested.

Duncan has also repeatedly cited improvements in graduation rates in NYC, without noting that these statistics have been called into question because of the widespread practice of "credit recovery," in which high school students can gain credit for courses that they had failed by completing an independent project

A recent audit from the City Comptroller found that in more than a quarter of transcripts of high school graduates, the record of their course credits had been changed -- with many of these revisions being made after these students had already been reported as having graduated.

Duncan also ignored the fact that there has been a significant increase in the number of students discharged from our high schools each year, who disappear from the rolls without ever being counted as dropouts.

In the class of 2007, the latest figures available, more than 21 percent of those who had entered high school four years earlier were discharged, about 20,000 in all. The discharge rate for first year high school students has doubled since the year 2000. Yet not one of these students was counted as a drop-out. Since a report on this disturbing phenomenon was released in April, co-authored by Jennifer Jennings and me, the DOE has ceased releasing discharge figures.

Duncan's praise for the questionable accomplishments of our Republican mayor have now been plastered all over Bloomberg's campaign literature, sent multiple times to every household in the city. Over the course of his campaign, Bloomberg has already spent more than $37 million of his personal fortune on his re-election, on the road to spending $100 million -- breaking all previous records, including his own.

Duncan's latest gaffe was his gushing words of praise for a blatantly propagandistic series of articles in the New York Post that ran for several months, entitled "City Schools, City Rules," part of a lobbying effort by the owner of the Post, Rupert Murdoch, to pressure the State Legislature to renew Bloomberg's unlimited power over our schools.

Duncan called the Post series "thoughtful" and praised the paper for its "leadership", even though these articles simply regurgitated the spurious statistics provided by the city's press office. His praise was then quoted in a self-congratulatory article published in the Post itself, after the NY Senate voted to renew Bloomberg's chokehold on the schools last week.

According to Gotham Schools, Richard Colvin, head of the Hechinger Institute at Columbia University, described the NY Post article that quoted Duncan: "It reads like nothing I've ever seen. It reads like the worst kind of back-patting, self-congratulatory press release that has no perspective whatsoever."

Indeed, Duncan's calling the Post series "thoughtful" is like describing spam as filet mignon.

Duncan's latest intrusion into local politics has provoked outrage from parents and teachers alike.

It would all be somewhat comical if this politicization of education reform weren't so inherently dangerous. It's time for Obama to rein his appointee in -- before he causes yet further embarrassment to his administration.

Comments

[Fixschoolsnow]

The miserable state of affairs that we, the parents, of special needs children endure tears apart our families and children. The lack of respect by our schools and their lack of up to date knowledge or application of known facts is reprehensible. I was hoping that a new administration would create schools that are less recalcitrant but alas this is not so. What is being done to our special needs children and families is unacceptable. In my state, Virginia, there was a blind child turned down for services. I could go on forever, but I hope one day people will understand our plight and how hard we have to work to protect our children from school systems that fail to do their jobs. More and more people are forced to homeschool to protect their children from mean schools and forced medications. Parents are more knowledgeable about special needs than the school systems. How is this America? How is this going to help our children lead productive lives?

[iaviator]

Diane Ravitch called Arne "Margaret Spellings in drag" and Obama as "Bush's third term in education". It seems pretty transparent that feeding corporate bottom lines by using public dollars in the areas of education, defense, and health care is still the No. 1 priority of both parties. We won't get anything else until we reform the way we fund elections to office.

We have the best government money can buy... and the status quo is likely to continue in this age of dis-information. How can a democracy tolerate for long the goons we put on TV as "news commentators"?

[pureparents]

As a Chicago parent advocate, I can only say, welcome to our world. Chicagoans, who were such avid supporters of Barack Obama, sent up a collective "NOOOOOOO!!!!" when he appointed Arne Duncan. Sadly, the President seems to believe Duncan's lies and exaggerations, and has allowed Duncan to use the myth of the Chicago Miracle as the basis for his national education policy.

Duncan has no strong educational vision, so there is hope that we can still reorient the department and affect the rewrite of NCLB. Duncan won't be able to stand up to intense national scrutiny. Go to his public appearances. Question his assumptions. Call him on his rhetoric. PURE's blog, PURE Thoughts, offers some Chicago background: http://pureparents.org/?blog/category/3

Read my recent letter to Education Week:
http://www.edweek.org/login.html?source=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/14/36letter-8.h28.html&destination=http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/07/14/36letter-8.h28.html&levelId=2100

Share this a fact sheet on some of Duncan's recent "misstatements" related to his record in Chicago.
http://pureparents.org/data/files/dodgingtruth6-09.pdf

And encourage President Obama to listen to his own internal compass on education -- for example, his comments in Green Bay yesterday which showed that he understands the danger of high-stakes testing and teaching to the test better than Arne Duncan on his best day.
http://pureparents.org/index.php?blog/show/Pretty_clear_directive_from_Obama_on_testing_

[pgutpgut]

It is no accident that in all the hoopla about education reform educators aren't even invited to the table to partake in the discussion. Money to develop national "world-class" standards, money to develop more tests that focus on what is easy to measure rather than what is important to learn smack of corporate, profit driven education. Race to the Top insists that eacher evaluations be tied to student performance on tests - we've already seen what a resounding success "pay for performance" was on Wall Street and in the banking industry. Education is NOT a race to the moon or to the top (once you get there no place to go but down and the "top" will only hold so many winners - everyone else is a loser). Education is a lifelong journey that enriches us as we go along. It is not a basketball game where the goal is to score a basket.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Race to the corporate bottom-line is more like it.

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Re Rupert Murdoch, Arne Duncan, and Mike Bloomberg...

The words "circle" and "jerk" come to mind.

In closer proximity than printed above.

[savepublicschools]

Thank you, Leonie Haimson, for telling it like it is.

Mayoral Control in NYC is a mystery to me in that it is so far from democratic ideals. Why so many politicians would vote out their voice and our voices is downright terrifying. All of the scare tactics used to get this legislation renewed, shame on them. Prisons for profit, health care for profit and now schools for profit. Hmmm-anyone see a pattern here? Everyone profits except the kids. 200 new schools opened-the subway ads scream. Not exactly though, 200 schools that were squeezed into already existing overcrowded schools. No art, gyms, science rooms and lunch time starting at 10:00am. This is not progress. Arne, are you listening?

[Leonie Haimson]

Joreljr7 -- Diane Ravitch was appointed to the US Dept. of Education by George Bush the first, not Reagan. Reagan tried to abolish the Department. Otherwise, you are right.

[Andrew Palmer]

Why does this come as a shock to anyone? Arnie the Duncan the Secretary of Education is a clown! He doesn't even have a degree in education! By the way, can anyone tell me where in the heck we find the Department of Education in the constitution, this is why conservatives scream about the size of the Federal Government being to large and powerful. It is!

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Excellent post.
So why can't I find it without someone sending me a link to it?
Fercrissakes.

[NYC artist]

Much as I admire and support our President, I find it hard to stomach the 'educational reform' messages of his administration. His and Duncan's backing of charter schools and merit pay, among other things, strikes a false note here on the ground in New York City. So, too, does the Obama team's endorsement of as-is mayoral control of NYC schools. Much more revamping of that legislation was needed before it passed. Truthfully, I do not understand the practical purpose of the support Obama and Duncan have shown for Bloomberg or his Chancellor, Joel Klein. I realize I must be naive about the politics involved, but that seems like the wrong bed to be in. Given his poor and dictatorial performance on the education front, there is no way on earth I would ever vote for Bloomberg again for anything.

[Joreljr7]

Thank you Leonie for writing what I was thinking. When I heard that Chancellor Klein was being considered for the position I felt ill. However, Duncan is not much better. It is embarrassing that Reagan did better with Professor Diane Ravitch.