Word: systemic
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...known for a long time that there are too many bad schools in the U.S., dropout factories that shove barely literate children through the system. Because of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) - the George W. Bush - era education law that forces every school to report whether it makes "adequate yearly progress" toward nationwide math- and reading-proficiency standards - we can now point to exactly which schools are the lowest performing and the least improving. With that information in hand, the question becomes, Well, what do we do about it? (See TIME's special report on paying for college...
Duncan has been a big proponent of turnarounds since his days as head of the Chicago Public Schools. There, he shuttered 38 schools between 2001 and 2006, many of those low performing. Parents, teachers and neighborhood activists erupted in outrage with each closing, claiming that the system was giving up on their kids, disrespecting teachers and dismantling an integral part of the community. Violence flared when students from rival neighborhoods were thrown together. After a few years, Duncan switched tacks, keeping kids in their local schools but replacing teachers and staff. (See the best pictures...
Duncan is undaunted. He often speaks of transforming the Education Department from the current lumbering bureaucracy that it is into an "engine of innovation" with the ability to try new things if there's a chance they will work. The system can't get any worse, he reckons, so why not reinvent? And as any scientist knows, it often takes many failed experiments to figure out what's going wrong, let alone find a solution...
Gordon believes that if you focus on the performance of the adults and the system in which they operate, student success is sure to follow. The biggest problem with many failing schools, he and others in the turnaround movement say, isn't the kids, the parents or the community - though all three are undeniable factors. The key flaw is that the schools are poorly run. "We are trying to apply modern-management common sense," says Gordon. "Invest in your talent, set goals - continuous improvement, constant feedback." This differs, he says, from typical public schools, where teachers receive evaluations only once...
...weakness? -Debra Turner, New York City I would think my greatest strength was decisiveness. My biggest weakness was public speaking. I never was able to let the American people know that the bailout was not about the banks but about Main Street and how a collapse of the financial system would be devastating...