Secretary of Education Arne Duncan held a town meeting in which he demonstrates the problems with words like “creative” and “innovation” in conversations about policy.  It always seems to stumble:
“We need to be much more creative and innovative in how we do things,” Duncan said. For instance, students today use cell phones and PDAs on [...]

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In a piece from Education Week, Pedro Noguera of NYU School of Education criticizes the Secretary Duncan’s recent scolding of teacher preparation programs.  The most notable quote from Professor Noguera, as Ed Week notes as well, is the following:
It makes no more sense to blame schools of education for the failings of public schools [...]

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I created wordles for two of the Secretary of Education’s recent speeches: one given at Teachers College, Columbia University and one given to the US Chamber of Commerce’s Education and Workforce Summit. 
Speech 1: Audience, leaders in education —

Speech 2: Audience, US Chamber of Commerce –

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This article recently described how 2 out of 5 teachers are disheartened with the profession.  It connects this study–conducted by a NYC-based research group–to Arne Duncan’s recent murmurings that rewarding teachers and focusing on teacher preparation is essential to improving education.  What can teacher preparation programs be doing, I wonder, to help pre-service teachers have [...]

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Arne Duncan’s work in Chicago schools has received criticism recently as the NY Times reports that a University of Chicago study says students benefited little.  While I’m skeptical about how data is gathered and interpreted, it’s worth considering whether the Secretary did or didn’t improve schools in Chicago.  I’m more interested, given Duncan’s recent speech [...]

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Arne Duncan’s speech yesterday at Teachers College might be seen as many in teacher preparation and graduate schools of education as a rally cry.  The NY Times wrote:

During a speech at Columbia University’s Teachers College, Mr. Duncan said that too often the schools of education were simply seen as a “cash cow” for universities, [...]

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Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke here today about the need to target teacher preparation programs in an effort to support school reform.  The USDOE’s site wrote the following:
More than half of the nation’s teachers graduate from a school of education. The U.S. Department of Education estimates that 220,000 students graduate from a teacher [...]

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Arne Duncan wants new kinds of data from states.  While governors will get billions in stimulus money right away, the second half of the dough will be held until states get straight.  According to the Times,
The data is likely to reveal that in many states, tests have been dumbed down so that students score far [...]

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