confrontaal

CHICAGO – Barack Obama named Chicago schools chief Arne Duncan as education secretary Tuesday – calling him “the most hands-on of hands-on practitioners,” when it comes to school reform.
“When faced with tough decisions, Arne doesn’t blink. He’s not beholden to any one ideology – and he doesn’t hesitate for one minute to do what needs to be done,” Obama said. “He’s worked tirelessly to improve teacher quality, increasing the number of master teachers who’ve completed a rigorous national certification process from 11 to just shy of 1,200, and rewarding school leaders and teachers for gains in student achievement.”
Duncan was appointed as the chief executive officer of Chicago schools in 2001 by Mayor Richard M. Daley. He is largely viewed as a reformer, credited with raising the graduation rate in the nation’s third largest school district and turning around low-performing schools. The West Side elementary school that Obama used as a backdrop for his announcement, Dodge Renaissance Academy, is one of Duncan’s success stories.
“We are on a winning streak here, those trends must continue,” Duncan said, noting the strides the school system has made under his leadership. “I am eager to apply some of the lessons we have learned here in Chicago, we have worked with a sense of urgency, because we can wait.”
Yet Duncan has often been a polarizing figure in Chicago.
“To make him secretary of education is one of the biggest mistakes Obama has made,” said Johnny Holmes, an advocate trainer for the Chicago group Parents United for Responsible Education. “He is not an educator. He is a person who went to school.”
Duncan’s name surfaced repeatedly at an Obama post-election gathering last Sunday of supporters in Chicago’s South Side, where the president-elect worked as a community organizer and where his wife, Michelle, grew up. Education was the most discussed topic at the gathering. At the time Duncan was just rumored as Obama’s choice.
“This is not a time to play homeboy favorite,” one attendee said. “That would be the first big mistake the president-elect would make.”
Obama, however, had only praise for Duncan, whom he has known for more than a decade.

“In just seven years, he’s boosted elementary test scores here in Chicago from 38 percent of students meeting the standards to 67 percent,” Obama said. “The dropout rate has gone down every year he’s been in charge. ... So when Arne speaks to educators across America, it won’t be from up in some ivory tower, but from the lessons he’s learned during his years changing our schools from the bottom up.”
A Harvard graduate like Obama, Duncan was co-captain of the Crimson basketball team and even played professionally in Australia.
He was an adviser to Obama on education policy during the campaign and was among those who played basketball with Obama on Election Day. Obama joked that he didn’t pick Duncan because of his skills on the court, but noted that his is the “best basketball-playing Cabinet in American history.”
Before joining the Chicago school system in 1998, Duncan oversaw the Ariel Education Initiative, a program benefiting disadvantaged students in Chicago’s South Side. He was a little-known figure when Daley tapped him for schools chief.
Duncan has called for more flexibility in the No Child Left Behind school accountability law. He has also backed paying kids for good grades, and a gay-friendly school environment. Obama said he was impressed that Duncan has championed charter schools, even when it wasn’t popular, adding that he shared with Duncan a deep pragmatism.
“With his leadership, I am confident that together, we will bring our education system – and our economy – into the 21st century, and give all our kids the chance to succeed,” Obama said.