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Duncan wrong education choice

Good for Kevin Kumashiro for
not waffling, as so many professors are now
doing. Maybe they have grants to protect,
positions in DC to hope for.

Substance, the only newspaper of
education resistance, has been detailing the
truth behind Duncan the so-called Renaissance
initiative for years.

You can help reveal the truth--and fight back
against corporate control of public education.

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Substance
5132 W. Berteau Avenue
Chicago, IL 60641-1440

By Kevin Kumashiro

Hailed by some as a pioneer in education
reform, Arne Duncan was recently selected by
President-elect Obama to be our next secretary
of education. However, his track record as the
CEO of Chicago Public Schools for the past
seven years shows that Duncan is the wrong
choice for America’s schools.

Behind the rhetoric of “reform” is the reality
of Duncan’s accomplishments, particularly the
problems behind his signature initiative,
Renaissance 2010. Launched in 2004, Renaissance
2010 aims to open 100 new smaller schools (and
close about 60 “failing” schools) by the year
2010. To date, 75 new schools have opened.

However, many of them are charter schools that
serve fewer low-income, limited-English
proficient and disabled students than regular
public schools. More than a third of them are
in communities that are not high-needs areas.
During Duncan’s tenure, district-wide high
school test scores have not risen, and most of
the lowest-performing high schools saw scores
drop.

This should not be surprising. Central to that
strategy was the creation of 100 new charter
schools, managed by for-profit businesses and
freed of local school councils and teacher
unions, groups that historically have put the
welfare of poor and minority students before
that of the business sector.

Duncan’s reforms are steeped in a free-market
model of school reform, particularly the notion
that school choice and charter and specialty
schools will motivate educators to work harder
to do better as will penalties for not meeting
standards. But research does not support such
initiatives. There is evidence that encouraging
choice and competition will not raise
districtwide achievement, and charter schools
in particular are not outperforming regular
schools. There is evidence that choice programs
actually exacerbate racial segregation. And
there is evidence that high-stakes testing
increases the drop-out rate.

Duncan’s track record is clear. Less parental
and community involvement in school governance.
Less support for teacher unions. Less breadth
and depth in what and how students learn as
schools place more emphasis on narrow high-
stakes testing. More penalties for schools but
without adequate resources for those in high-
poverty areas. Duncan’s accomplishments are not
a model.

America’s schools are in dire need of reform,
and in 2009, we have the opportunity to
overhaul the failed policies of No Child Left
Behind. The research is compelling: students
need to learn more, not less. Parents need to
be involved more, not less. Teachers need to be
trained more. Schools need to be resourced
more. We need new ways to fund schools, to
integrate schools, to evaluate learning and to
envision what we want schools to accomplish.

Education should strive to prepare every child
to flourish in life. We need a different
leader, one with a rich knowledge of research,
with a commitment to educating our diverse
children and with a vision to make that happen.

Kevin Kumashiro is associate professor and
chair of educational policy studies at the
University of Illinois at Chicago and the
author of “The Seduction of Common Sense: How
the Right has Framed the Debate on America’s
Schools.”

— Kevin Kumashiro
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
2008-12-23


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