Arne Duncan, John Legend, DC Schools Chief Promote Teachers Of The Future

By A.J. Swartwood

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, Grammy Award winning recording artist John Legend, and Interim Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools Kaya Henderson hosted a TEACH town hall meeting at Howard University Wednesday afternoon to discuss the future of education and the next generation of teachers. 

 Despite the current economic difficulties facing the our nation, Duncan believes that it is education that we rescue the United States from its financial woes.

 “We have a tough economy now… Im convinced we have to educate our our way to a better economy. That’s the only way we’re going to get there,” said Secretary Duncan who is promoting the new TEACH program to motivate students across the nation to choose education as their career. 

 Legend, for his part, has become more and more active in his campaign to end inequalities in education for American students.

 ” Im doing everything I can to end education inequality in our country,” said the songwriter who drew a filled auditorium to the meeting. In addition to his work with the Department of Education, Legend started the “Show Me” campaign,  an organization that he founded, which seeks to break the poverty cycle, and fights for “equal access to quality education in the United States.” 

 The focus of meeting turned to the teachers themselves when Kaya Henderson, a self-proclaimed project housing success story, declared her commitment as the interim Chancellor of D.C. Public Schools to do whatever was necessary to bring excellence to D.C. schools.

 “We need teachers who know what they are doing, we need teachers who inspire us…teachers who are willing to do whatever it takes to ensure we are engaged and prepared,” said Henderson, who replaced Michelle Rhee, the effective, but often divisive former Chancellor.

Henderson, who served under Rhee as deputy chancellor, said she promised her to give all she had to change the status quo and attract the best teachers to the notoriously troubled D.C. Public schools. “My commitment to them was, if we have to die doing it, we will create a system where the highest perfoming teachers want to come.”

Education Secretary Unveils Plan To Have States Compete For School Funds

By Meagan Wiseley, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

Education Secretary Arne Duncan unveiled the final application of nationwide education reform Thursday: a state by state competition for federal dollars in exchange for proof of improvements in a variety of educational categories.

"We will award grants to the states that have led the way in reform and will show the way for the rest of the country to follow," Duncan said in a statement released Thursday.

The $4.35 billion competition, called Race to the Top, was passed by Congress as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act last February.

Aside from the competitive aspect of the program, the amount of the grants awarded will be determined by a state's population of K-12th grade students. More populous states like California, New York and Texas could earn up to $700 million. Less populated states like New Mexico and Vermont stand to earn up to $75 million.

The program uses a 500 point system to determine the funds each state receives, with teacher and principal effectiveness amounting for 58 points alone.

“Race to the Top is absolutely a competition...We expect the winners to lead the way and blaze a new path for the future of school reform for years, and even decades, to come,” Duncan added.

President of the National Education Association (NEA), Dennis Van Roekel, applauded Duncan for putting the “spotlight on what needs to happen in our classrooms.” However, Van Roekel held some qualms over how teacher and principal effectiveness is measured.

“We are disappointed that the administration continues to focus so heavily on tying students’ test scores to individual teachers," Van Roekel said, adding that the evaluation “misses the mark.”