The end of Arne would be a 'game changer...' as far as cliches are concerned, even if the policies of the Obama administration stay the same
[Editor's Note: One of the better questions during the past couple of weeks is what happens after Arne Duncan becomes too big a liability for Barack Obama and is cast aside, like so many before him. Whether the policies change is one thing which will probably not happen. But as Matt Farmer reminded us over the July 4 weekend, the end of Arne would at least spare us his mindless mining of cliche after cliche as he babbled to reporters year after year since his appointment as U.S. Secretary of Education in January 2009.
During his days as "Chief Executive Officer" of Chicago's public schools, Arne Duncan was rarely asked why he was qualified for the top job in the nation's third largest school system, since he had never attended a public school, taught in one, or served as a shake-and-bake principal after outfits like "New Leaders" began. Unspoken was the fact that Arne's career after he returned from playing professional basketball in Australia was promoted by the twin peaks of Chicago's plutocracy -- John Rogers (Ariel Capital Management) and the University of Chicago/Hyde Park crowd. Additionally, Duncan could be counted on to simply repeat the corporate school reform cliches he was rehearsed in from the days in July 2001 when he took over the CEO office at 125 S. Clark St. from the chattering know-it-all Paul Vallas. Above, Arne Duncan listens to a speaker during the October 25, 2007 meeting of the Chicago Board of Education. Substance photo by George N. Schmidt. As Substance reported way back in 2001 when Arne was first made "Chief Executive Officer" of the nation's third largest school system by then Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, Arne understood so little about the complexity of the main issues facing CPS -- testing, violence, a budget that even then was more than $5 billion -- that he had to be coached by Peter Cunningham, the Board of Education's $120,000 per year media "consultant." As this reporter heard, and we reported, Cunningham was Arne's Svengali. And after Arne arrived in D.C., there was Peter with him. That was then; this is now. Arne continues to battle ignorance with cliche after cliche. At least that will change if Obama finally dumps him. George N. Schmidt, Editor.]
WASHINGTON POST COMMENT LEADING TO FARMER COMMENT...
Arne Duncan�s endless supply of �game changers�, By Valerie Strauss August 26, 2013
Education Secretary Arne Duncan has something of an affinity for the phrase �game changer.� Just how much is chronicled in this post by Matt Farmer, a Chicago trial lawyer and parent who is a member of the Local School Council at Philip Rogers Elementary School. This appeared on thethirdcity.org website.
By Matt Farmer
A lot of my friends are public school teachers. They�re scattered throughout the country, working in classrooms from New York to California. And as students head back to school, many of my teacher friends are already wondering how their local districts plan to �change the game� this year.
Talk to enough veteran teachers and you�ll get an earful about the annual roll-out of new initiatives and assessments that get handed down to them in August, only to serve as the educational �flavor of the month� until the following year, when those programs are supplanted by a whole new set of acronyms, benchmarks and buzzwords. (�I�ll take Rigor for $600, please, Alex.�)
Why, these teachers wonder, does the game keep changing?
Look no further than Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. School superintendents from Maine to Montana know that the 6�5� small forward from Chicago is �a big fan� of �game-changers,� so many of those administrators undoubtedly look to please the Big Boss by constantly changing the game in their own districts.
Unfortunately, though, so many things seem to �change the game� for Arne that it�s getting harder and harder for state and local school officials to figure out what game he�s even playing on any given day.
Think I�m joking? Let�s go back to 2010.
That February, Duncan called a proposal for increased funding of student loans �a real game-changer.� By mid-July, he deemed �shared standards for college-readiness�an absolute game changer.� His thinking had obviously evolved by the end of July, when he concluded that �the big game-changer is to start measuring individual student growth rather than proficiency.�
August, however, brought another epiphany. Duncan realized that the �big game-changer�revolves around the issue of teacher quality.� In September, he concluded that the �new [Race to the Top] tests will be an absolute game-changer in public education.�
And Duncan, like a lanky philanthropist filling the tin cups of educational panhandlers, continued doling out change in 2010.
In November, he hit Paris to address the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Arne changed the game so often during that speech his UNESCO audience needed copies of �According To Hoyle� just to keep up with him.
After noting that in �the knowledge economy, education is the new game-changer,� Duncan assured the crowd that the sweeping adoption of �common college-ready standards that are internationally benchmarked . . . is an absolute game-changer.�
The secretary of education then called a �new generation of assessments aligned with the states� Common Core standards� a �second game-changer,� even though it was actually the third �game-changer� Duncan had offered the assembled UNESCO masses during that difficult-to-diagram, five-minute rhetorical stretch.
And Duncan hasn�t lost a step over the last three years, recently calling digital badges �a game-changing strategy,� while also noting that increasing Latino enrollment in pre-school �could be a huge game changer.�
I recently asked some of my teacher friends what they thought of Arne�s seemingly endless supply of �game-changers.� They told me to a person that the one �game-changer� they�d like to see come out of Washington, D.C. during the new school year would be the appointment of a Secretary of Education who actually has a background in education.
Comments:
By: George N. Schmidt
Arne the 'dramatic' 'game changer'
But Arne has evolved. True, used to talk about "dramatic" changes all the time, and how we were going to use "laster-like focus" in continuously improving all those improvements, until (like from "Small Schools" to "Turnaround") the script changed (and the "game") in the snap of Bill Gates's fingers.
Arne Duncan no longer utilizes "Dramatic" as his favorite cliche.
As Matt Farmer so nicely researched, everything is now a "Game Changer."
As to Rod Page -- at least he taught and coached the sport in public schools before he became George W. Bush's stooge. And everyone reading Substance needs to be reminded that Barack Obama is just another chief executive officer of the party line of the plutocracy...
By: Margaret Wilson
School Problems
I think one of the biggest problems in the Chicago school system is that students have no chance of becoming comfortable with taking tests because they change year after year. The tests are not normed which any College Freshman knows is essential for a test to be valid. Tests must be given to different sub-groups of students and then the results must be compared to other tests (which have already been confirmed as valid). With the way Chicago changes the tests, this cannot happen.
By: Jim Vail
Arne
I don't think getting someone with an education background would make a difference. The wonderful ed sec. Rod Paige under Bush who called the teacher's union "terrorists" was a teacher in Mississippi. It comes down to Obama listening to his donors who want privatizers; doesn't mean anything where they come from.
I remember Duncan in Chicago at board of ed meetings always saying the word dramatic. "We're dramatically improving test scores!" "You will see dramatic change!" Everything was dramatic.
But if he goes, don't hold your breath. You still got Obama (strike that - the 1%) who hold all the cards!