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Why I Think Arne Duncan Has Just Made His Biggest Mistake

Good point! And I hope Larry Ferlazzo is right and Duncan's smug, uninformed mouth haunts the rest of his career.

Follow the hot link to other stellar comments on this outrage.

by Larry Ferlazzo

Education Secretary Arne Duncan is one of the few people who support the Los Angeles Times public release of data linking student test scores with individual teachers.

Even many who support the idea of incorporating “value-added” measures in teacher evaluations oppose the public release (see The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On "Valued-Added" Teacher Ratings).

During my nineteen-year community organizing career, we learned and knew that one cardinal rule of organizing is that you never burn bridges with the person with whom you're negotiating. We knew that in public life, "there were no permanent enemies and no permanent allies -- only changing self-interests." However, we also knew that public humiliation could scramble that equation, so we might take it to the edge, but never over it. We did not want to burn bridges.

Secretary Duncan could have generated a lot of goodwill among teachers by attacking the Times' decision to publicly disclose linked student test scores without backing away from his support of connecting standardized tests with teacher evaluations (even though studies his own Department have commissioned question the validity and reliability of those scores). But, instead, he supported their disclosure.

Of course, if Duncan doesn't view teachers and their unions as groups he has to negotiate with, then, in his view, there is no problem in going over the edge and encouraging embarrassment and humiliation. Or maybe President Obama just has not gotten around to helping him understand the basics of organizing.

Either way, I wonder if his decision this week is going to haunt anything he wants to do in his remaining years as Secretary of Education.

What do you think?

— Larry Ferlazzo
blog
2010-08-18
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2010/08/18/why-i-think-arne-duncan-has-just-made-his-biggest-mistake/

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