Arne Duncan Answers Winning Questions Chosen on SparkAction (video)
SparkAction and our partners ran a crowd-sourcing competition called “Ask Arne Duncan."
Tens of thousands of you viewed the competition, shared more than 150 questions and cast more than 5,000 votes for your favorites. Secretary Duncan answered two of the top-voted questions at the National Youth Summit. This week, he took a few minutes to answer the top five. The questions are listed below the video.
The Winning Questions
See all the top questions and vote tallies here.
- As President Obama once stated, "Literacy is the most basic currency of the knowledge economy" and "our prosperity as a nation is directly correlated to our literacy." Will you require that a certified librarian and a well stocked library be a part of every public school to ensure that all students can gather, evaluate, and use information (in digital & hard copy) appropriately and learn how to discern the tsunami of information out there?
- The current education system seems to promote test scores rather than real learning. What is being done to ensure that true knowledge, love of learning [and life skills] are not lost in the fight to increase test scores and keep funding?
- Secretary Duncan, many young people, as spotlighted by the tragic deaths of Derrion Albert, Bobby Tillman, and Tyler Clementi, do not graduate because of the epidemic of youth violence in our nation. In many neighborhoods, it’s scary just walking to school. Often, when we get to school, the bullying overwhelms us. How will education reform consider the dire need to stop youth violence through prevention and intervention programs, like those outlined in the Youth PROMISE Act?
- The current school funding system is based upon property taxes, which is by definition, income and wealth-based. This inequity pervades our education system, so that children from poor families lack the opportunities of their wealthier peers. Will the federal government continue to embrace the concept of a state and locally based education system OR will there be a more equitable approach proposed?
- Secretary Duncan, You are a big proponent of charter schools and alternative licensing programs. Could you please tell us which studies you have access to that show these two 'answers' to our educational problems are better than traditional public schools. Thank you.
Our partners in this effort:
Stephen Krashen
Duncan's idea of avoiding a narrow curriculum is to test everything.
June 10 at 03:37pm
Stephen Krashen
AGREED! Duncan thinks it is fine to mandate (and spend billions on) a new testing program with no research evidence supporting it, but refuses to mandate quality school libraries. The research supporting libraries and librarians is very consistent and impressive.
June 10 at 03:34pm
Karen Kline
Wow, what shallow answers. I give Arne a D+. While he spoke to the prompts there was no substance. He seems quite fine with leaving things status quo with state and local funding and can't mandate things like libraries and librarians. He'll just use his "bully pulpit" to advocate. Most disheartening was his last response. The question clearly asks him to support his views on charter and alternative schools with research. He dodged this question very ineffectively. I give him an F on that one. I'm a librarian, and if he'd done his research and been straight-forward he would have had to admit that he's got no data to back up his support for "more great schools" in the form of charter and alternative schools.
June 8 at 10:53pm
Cindy DeNardis
Arne Duncan talks a good talk - but we have had no support from the Federal Government and the State Governments are all slashing school budgets. Teachers are now the 'Enemy' and the reason for every failure in society.
I cannot listen to these 'Experts' any more.....
June 8 at 03:35pm
ONe huge part of education is missing. Arnie speaks of creating a school free of fear of bullying. What about the constant hitting of children in the so-called name of corporal punishment and "discipline?" He keeps avoiding this issue! Teachers and principals are just as guilty of bullying students when they smack a student for some of the most minor of school infractions such as being late to class, forgetting their homework even though it was completed, dress and hair code violations, and the list goes on! Over 330,000 children in 2010 were beaten, battered, and bruised, physically, but also mentally and emotionally!
Schools that hit are located in the 19 states that have the lowest graduation rates, lowest GPA's, highest dropout rates, highest disciplinary problems, highest rates of VIOLENCE!
Schools that hit are schools and educators that fail, Mr. Duncan. Most countries have long since banned CP in schools, all of Europe, Canada, all of Central and South America, even nearly all of Asia. China, the largest country in the world, folks, banned it in 2009 because they found that teachers and principals abused their power, bullied students, and it simply did not work!
Mr. Duncan, you want to do something about dropout rates? You want to do something about bullying? Start with your teachers and principals! Teach THEM to stop the hitting, stop the paddling, stop the violence committed against these children, these teenagers. Nothing positive EVER EVER came out of paddling and hitting children.
June 8 at 01:58pm
