Word: duncan
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...confirmed by the Senate, Duncan will have to hit the ground running. One of Congress's first acts of business in 2009 will likely be negotiating the reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act, the Bush Administration's landmark education legislation, which has managed to rankle both Republicans (for interfering with state initiatives) and Democrats (for placing so much emphasis on standardized testing). Duncan supports the law's overall mission of accountability, and two years ago called on Congress to double the funding for it. "In an education landscape filled with strong and often sharply contrasting ideas, I believe...
...camps: unions that support more traditional views on teacher tenure and other issues vs. hard-line reformers such as district chiefs Michelle Rhee in Washington and Joel Klein in New York City, who stress accountability. This past summer, both sides circulated competing education manifestos laying out their views. Duncan was the only big-city superintendent to sign each...
...straddling these camps, Duncan echoes Obama's frustration with what the President-elect has called "tired educational debates." In his announcement of Duncan's nomination, Obama made clear that he wants to move past such standoffs. "It's been Democrat vs. Republican, vouchers vs. the status quo, more money vs. more reform," he said. "There's partisanship and there's bickering, but no understanding that both sides have good ideas and good intentions...
...testament to Duncan's entrepreneurial spirit, Obama chose to introduce his new schools chief at the Dodge Renaissance Academy on Chicago's West Side. Duncan shuttered the failing school in 2002 and reopened it in 2005 as a laboratory for teachers seeking advanced degrees in education. The school has since been hailed as a model for teacher-residency programs. Dodge is "helping us rethink the way we train teachers in this country, and the way we run schools," says Ted Mitchell, president of the California board of education. "We're delighted that the President-elect has recognized that promise...
...much change are schools in for? Duncan, who is particularly attuned to the achievement gap between high- and low-income students, has hinted that he does not approve of the way Illinois schools receive the bulk of their funding from local tax revenue. "It's morally inexcusable that children who happen to be born in wealthier communities, white ones, get a better education than those who live in poor communities," Duncan told TIME last August. "Clearly, as a state, we've lacked the political courage to fundamentally challenge the status quo, not just tweak it at its edges." He added...