Jeff Bergosh Blog: Arne Duncan to NEA Convention "You Must be Willing to Change"

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Arne Duncan to NEA Convention "You Must be Willing to Change"

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan addressed the general assembly of the NEA convention in San Diego yesterday, touching on some issues that silenced the room and drew boos from the crowd.

From the San Diego Union Tribune:

"You must be willing to change,” Duncan told the crowd of 6,500 at the San Diego Convention Center. “When an ineffective teacher gets a chance to improve and doesn't and when the tenure system keeps that teacher in the classroom anyway, then the system is protecting jobs rather than children,” he said. “That's not a good thing. We need to work together to change that.” ..“Test scores alone should never drive evaluation, compensation or tenure decisions,” Duncan said. “That would never make sense. But to remove student achievement entirely from evaluation is illogical and indefensible...Duncan was booed after describing the performance pay program he negotiated while he was CEO of Chicago's public schools, where teachers are members of the nation's alternate union, the 1.4-million-member American Federation of Teachers. "

I agree with a lot of what Duncan is pushing, and he is right on Merit Pay, but he will never get traction with the union on that issue. Read the entire article here