ed sec spec

New York

December 15, 2008

Joel Klein likes Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as Ed Sec

No hint of jealousy in a statement Klein just put out on the news about Duncan: “Arne has been one of the country’s great…

New York

December 15, 2008

Times reports: It's Arne!

The very tall man who will be Obama's education secretary. (Via Flickr) The New York Times' Sam Dillon reports that Arne Duncan will be the next secretary of education. The president-elect is to announce tomorrow. Obama sources do not disclose to Dillon what Duncan will do about No Child Left Behind, testing, teacher quality, or tenure. And the mystery stays alive! An easier-to-unwrap question I'd like to look into: Was Joel Klein ever actually in the running? UPDATE: More context by request. Duncan, the schools chief in Chicago, is a safe choice that signals only what we had already been told, that when faced with all-out policy brawls, Obama would prefer not to pick a side. In the ongoing, raging war over education policy, Duncan had the stamp of both sides, the nameless reformers (idealocrat reformers?) and the teachers unions, or at least of Randi Weingarten, the union leader. By choosing Duncan as his education figurehead, Obama has avoided two wars.

New York

December 12, 2008

FBI checks Duncan and Bennet; Joel Klein has no comment

David Hoff is reporting that the Denver and Chicago schools chiefs are getting background-checked by the Obama administration. How about our own Joel Klein?…

New York

December 8, 2008

Two heavyweights go public: Randi for Arne, Gates for Klein

From today’s AP story: “Arne Duncan actually reaches out and tries to do things in a collaborative way,” said Randi Weingarten, head of the…

New York

December 4, 2008

Chicago's Arne Duncan: Education's one-man team of rivals?

I spent all of last week in Hyde Park, Chicago, currently the epicenter of American political activity because of its most prominent resident, President-elect Barack Obama. Technically, I was on vacation, but I couldn’t help asking folks I met what they think about Arne Duncan, CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, one of Obama’s basketball buddies and a man who is increasingly looking like the president-elect's choice for education secretary. Unlike other candidates mentioned for education secretary, who wear their ideologies strongly on their sleeves, Duncan has (like Obama) walked a finer line, signing onto both of the dueling petitions on where Obama should take his policy. So it seems more important, in his case, to figure out what exactly he has done. The results of my completely non-rigorous reporting were not too encouraging. One parent at the private school attended by Obama's daughters — which Duncan himself attended and where his wife now teaches — said the scuttlebutt was that Duncan lacks the political savvy to cut it on the national stage. And when I popped into a neighborhood clothing store, I spoke with several public school mothers who were adamant that there hasn't been widespread improvement under Duncan's leadership. (Catalyst-Chicago, which provides independent reporting about the city's schools, says some of Duncan's major initiatives haven't had the impact he'd hoped.)

New York

December 3, 2008

On "Colbert Report," cash-for-grades guru hedges his bets

I’ve been taking my head cold to bed long before Stephen Colbert’s Comedy Central show goes on the air, so I was glad…

New York

November 26, 2008

Teach For America suggests it’s Darling-Hammond vs. Klein

In case you were not fully convinced, it appears that, yes, Teach For America is flexing its muscle to influence Barack Obama's Secretary of Education pick. The organization is concerned about the possibility that Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond, who has criticized TFA and is chairing Obama's education policy committee, could get a prominent role in the Obama administration. In a mass e-mail today, Teach For America urged alumni to "stay on top of about [sic] what is happening and not happening regarding education reform at the national and local levels." The e-mail (pasted below) also directed them to the Web site of TFA's new political group, Leadership for Education Equity, where alumni are invited to post comments on several Web sites (including this one), saying, "Decision makers do watch online reactions." We hope so! Here's the e-mail, after the jump:

New York

November 25, 2008

Oprah for Ed Secretary?

The latest name to surface as a possibility for the Secretary of Education post in the Obama administration is Oprah Winfrey, over on the…

New York

November 24, 2008

Next-generation "reformers" nervous about Darling-Hammond

Newsweek reports: “People don’t want to say anything publicly, because of the ‘No-Drama Obama’ stuff,” says one well-placed reformer with ties to the incoming…

New York

November 17, 2008

Pro-Teach For America, but anti-Wendy Kopp for Ed Secretary

From the comments section, a response to Democrats for Education Reform’s boosting of Wendy Kopp for Secretary of Education: I am an alumna…

New York

November 13, 2008

NYC teachers going public with opposition to Klein as Ed Sec

Teachers are signing up in droves to oppose a promotion for Schools Chancellor Joel Klein. An online petition opposing Klein as Secretary of Education has collected more than 2,000 signatures since it was created Monday by a California education professor, Duane Campbell. The petition has attracted attention from dozens of Web sites, including those of Gotham Gazette and the progressive Nation magazine. Many of the petition's first signers were parents from New York City and educators from across the country, as Leonie Haimson pointed out on the NYC Education News e-mail list. But increasingly, it appears to be people identifying themselves as New York City public school teachers, both active and retired, who are signing on. (There are 80,000 teachers in the city; most, obviously, have not attached their name to the petition.) Below the jump, several teachers' recent comments:

New York

November 13, 2008

Duncan and Kopp, but not Klein, are boosted for Obama Cabinet

Wendy Kopp, the hard-driving founder of Teach For America, and Arne Duncan, the superintendent of schools in Chicago, are being touted as top candidates for U.S. Education Secretary by an influential lobbying group that pushes for aggressive changes in American schools. Their names are included in a 34-page transition memo to President-elect Barack Obama prepared by the group, Democrats for Education Reform, and obtained by GothamSchools. New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein has received support from DFER, which is based in Manhattan, but the group's memo specifically rules him out as a possible Education Secretary. The memo says Klein's aggressive efforts to improve public schools are admirable, but that they make him and the like-minded D.C. school chancellor, Michelle Rhee, a poor choice for Barack Obama's White House. "The need for them to occasionally 'break some china' in order to affect much-needed change puts them and other hard-charging reforms like them in an unlikely spot to be selected for a role like Secretary of Education (a role for which either would be well suited)," the memo says.

New York

November 12, 2008

Klein suggests a venture capitalist for top education post

Scholastic Administrator magazine has a Q&A with Schools Chancellor Joel Klein this month. A revealing nugget is who Klein suggests for Obama’s Education…

New York

November 11, 2008

Education A-list is in Seattle for Gates Foundation announcement

SEATTLE — One of the most remarkable things about today's news is how many important people are gathering at the Sheraton hotel here to listen to it. Last night, a crowd sharing drinks at the hotel bar included Chancellor Joel Klein, Chicago Superintendent Arne Duncan, Green Dot founder Steve Barr, and Obama education adviser Jon Schnur. The two often-mentioned choices to be Obama's education secretary, Klein and Duncan, sat next to each other. Schnur was a few bodies away, and across from them was Education Sector codirector Andrew Rotherham, who has been mentioned as a possible appointee to an Obama Education Department. Below the jump is a run-down of people I've spotted in Seattle since I got here last night. I'm putting stars (*) next to people who have been named as possible Obama education appointees, and please help me add to the list.

New York

November 11, 2008

In WSJ, Joel Klein criticizes part of Obama's ed philosophy

Rumors are swirling that he could be named the next Secretary of Education, but Schools Chancellor Joel Klein doesn’t appear to be going out…

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