arne duncan
Arne Duncan, Secretary of the Department of Education
resources
Obama Appoints Fellow Harvard Graduate to Head Department of Education
The History of the Department of Education
Department of Education 2010 Budget
Department of Education 2005-2009 Budgets
Duncan's Achievements at Chicago Public Schools
Duncan Proposes Gay-Friendly High School
Duncan and the Ariel Education Initiative & Ariel Community Academy
2007 World Rankings for Reading, Math, and Science
Will Arne Shake up America's Schools?
transcript
Obama appointed fellow Harvard grad Arne Duncan as Secretary of the Department of Education. The Department of Education was established in 1980 to improve the quality of education in our schools. The Department's budget for 2010 comes in at $46.7 billion, substantially lower than last year's $63 billion allocation.
Arne's expertise comes mainly from his 7 year stint at Chicago Public Schools where he served as its CEO, or superintendent.
His legacy there might be difficult to top. While CEO of the country's third largest school district, a record 2/3 of its elementary school students met or exceeded state reading standards and math scores soared. Duncan also increased graduation rates and boosted the total number of college scholarships. At one time he even proposed opening the country's first gay-friendly high school.
He also used to head the Ariel Education Initiative to help fund college educations for inner-city children. He later helped start the Ariel Community Academy, a public elementary school which today ranks among the top elementary schools in Chicago.
Sadly, as of 2007 America wasn't even ranked in the top 25 countries for reading, math, and science proficiency. Duncan may have to work through recess to turn our country back in the right direction.
