Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan

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Democratic Party

Prior offices

Chicago Public Schools Board of Education

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U.S. Secretary of Education

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Report an officeholder change

Education

High school

University of Chicago Laboratory School

Bachelor's

Harvard University

Personal

Profession

Education Administration

Arne Duncan (b. November 6, 1964, in Chicago, Illinois) is a former secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. He was nominated on December 15, 2008, by then-President-elect Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2009, the day of Obama's inauguration.

On October 2, 2015, Duncan announced that he would resign as education secretary. Duncan left the department on December 31, 2015, after seven years in the position.

Shortly before Duncan stepped down, the president said, "Arne has dedicated his life to the cause of education — and sometimes in the nicest possible way, he has gotten on people's nerves because he has pushed them and prodded them. Had he not been, I believe, as tenacious as he was, I think that we would not have as good of a product as we do here today. And so I could not be prouder of Arne Duncan."

Before his appointment, Duncan served as Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools. During his time as CEO, Duncan closed under-performing schools while expanding access to after school programs, charter schools and other public-private education initiatives. Duncan was described as a "pragmatist" and bridge between pro-union supporters of traditional public schools and the reform-minded school-choice movement, according to an opinion piece in The Washington Post.

Prior to his work with the Chicago Public Schools, Duncan directed the Ariel Education Initiative, which provided scholarships to inner-city children attending college.

Biography

Duncan was born and raised in Hyde Park, Chicago, Illinois. His father was a psychology lecturer at the University of Chicago, and his mother ran an after school center. Duncan cited his early years at the Sue Duncan Children's Center as having a significant impact on his educational outlook.

Duncan attended the University of Chicago Laboratory School and then Harvard University, where he majored in sociology and played basketball.

Career

Below is an abbreviated outline of Duncan's academic, professional, and political career:

• 1992-1998: Directed the Ariel Education Initiative on Chicago's South Side with his sister
• 1998-2001: Deputy to Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas and head of the systems' magnet programs
• 2001-2008: CEO Chicago Public Schools
• 2009-2015: U.S. Secretary of Education

Confirmation vote

Members of the Senate confirmed Duncan by a voice vote on January 20, 2009. He took over the position from Margaret Spellings of the George W. Bush administration.

Secretary of Education term initiatives

According to the U.S. Department of Education, during Duncan's tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education, "He helped to secure congressional support for Obama's investments in education, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act's $100 billion to fund 325,000 teaching jobs, increases in Pell grants, reform efforts such as Race to the Top and Investing in Innovation, and interventions in low-performing schools."

Under Duncan's watch, "High school are the highest they've even been, at 81 percent, and the number of students taking Advanced Placement exams has increased more than 17 percent since 2011. College enrollment rates for black and Hispanic students have also increased by more than a million since 2008. In addition, the high school drop-out rate fell from 2008 to 2012 by 27 percent, from more than 1 million to just under 750,000. And the number of so-called drop-out factories plunged from more than 1,800 to roughly 1,000," according to a November 2015 report in U.S. News & World Report. However, Duncan also saw some setbacks during his time as secretary. The magazine reported that "after nearly a decade of increasing math and reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as NAEP or the Nation's Report Card, scores dropped in the most recent assessment."

Race to the Top

See also: Race to the Top

Education policy in the U.S.

Public education in the U.S.

School choice in the U.S.

Charter schools in the U.S.

Higher education in the U.S.

Glossary of education terms

Education statistics

Race to the Top is a multi-billion dollar U.S. Department of Education competitive grant program to support education reform and innovation in state and local district K-12 education. It was initially funded with $4.35 billion by the ED Recovery Act as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and was announced by Obama and Duncan on July 24, 2009.

The stated goal of the Race to the Top grant program was to encourage and reward states that were

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creating the conditions for education innovation and reform; achieving significant improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in student achievement, closing achievement gaps, improving high school graduation rates, and ensuring student preparation for success in college and careers; and implementing ambitious plans in four core education reform areas.

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Since making its first awards in 2010, the Race to the Top program has provided more than $6 billion to 24 states and D.C. through three phases of the flagship competition, and 20 states during the three rounds of the "Race to the Top--Early Learning Challenge." In 2012, the Department of Education launched the first "Race to the Top--District" program, which funded 21 states in two rounds of the competition. About 80 school districts across 21 states and D.C. received about $500 million to support plans for college and career readiness programs, which included implementing "Common Core" standards. For fiscal year 2015, the department's budget request included $300 million for a new "Race to the Top Equity and Opportunity" competition that would provide incentives and resources for states and school districts with persisting opportunity and achievement gaps.

According to the Education Department, in order to be eligible to compete for the awards, states needed to enact four types of reforms:

• Adopt standards and assessments that prepared students to succeed in college, the workplace and the global economy.
• Build data systems to measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how to improve instruction.
• Recruit, develop, reward and retain effective teachers and principals, especially where they were most needed.
• Turn around the lowest-achieving schools.

Common Core State Standards

See also: Common Core State Standards Initiative

In order to make their Race to the Top applications more competitive, forty-eight states adopted common standards for K-12, known as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The White House announced a $350 million federal grant funding the development of assessments aligned to the Common Core State Standards. States that adopted these standards stood the best chance of winning grants, although the actual Common Core standards were not explicitly part of any federal initiative, according to the [1] website.

Some claimed that the grants were a powerful incentive in getting CCSS implemented, and that these grants allowed the U.S. Department of Education to circumvent federal laws that prohibit the federal government from interfering in education at the state and local level. These incentive grants were helpful in shoring up education budgets in cash-strapped states after the financial crisis of 2008.

Teacher evaluation and merit pay

In 2012, Duncan stated that merit pay for teachers was the U.S. Department of Education's highest priority. The $4.3 billion Race to the Top fund encouraged states to implement performance pay systems for teachers, among other changes.

Union calls for Duncan's resignation

A vote by members of the National Education Association on July 4, 2014, called for Duncan's resignation. A majority of the 9,000 delegates attending the convention in Denver, Colorado made the vote because "the Department's failed education agenda focused on more high-stakes testing, grading and pitting public school students against each other based on test scores." The vote originated from the California Teachers Association after Duncan commented on the court case Vergara v. California, which dealt a blow to tenure rules in the state. Motions calling for Duncan's resignation have been raised at each of the NEA's annual meetings since 2010, but none received the majority vote for passage. Then-NEA President Dennis Van Roekel defended the vote, claiming the union would continue to push the administration to put forward policies "that are influenced by those who know best— educators working in our classrooms and in our schools — rather than profiteers." When asked for Duncan's comments on the vote, a department spokesperson stated, "Secretary Duncan looks forward to continuing to work with NEA and its new leadership."

Another union, the American Federation of Teachers, passed a resolution on July 13, 2014, calling for Duncan's resignation if he didn't show improvement under a plan proposed by Obama. The resolution urged the department to move away from No Child Left Behind Act and Race to the Top's "test-and-punish" tactics and move toward a system of supporting teachers and students. AFT President Randi Weingarten claimed the vote represented the union saying, "'Enough is enough.' Teachers are evaluated and their future livelihoods are linked to that. And when they fall short, they should have a chance to improve. And that’s what this special order represents." A department spokesperson said of the vote that "the transformation that educators and policymakers are leading to prepare all students for college and careers is incredibly difficult, and too often the adults fight about how to best help the kids."

Government takeover of student loans

In 2010, Duncan advocated for Obama's proposal to end taxpayer subsidized education loans by creating a program that allowed students to borrow directly through the federal government. In an op-ed Duncan wrote, "The Education Department has issued more than $187 billion in student loans since the Direct Loan Program was created in 1993. The number of universities participating in the program has more than doubled, to 2,300, in just the past three years. There is no justification to continue wasteful subsidies to banks. It is time to complete the shift to direct lending." In March 2010, after the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act, which is part of the law commonly known as the Affordable Care Act, passed, Duncan praised the bill for requiring students get higher education loans directly from the government, expanding Pell Grants and "boosting federal funds for community colleges and colleges that serve a high proportion of minorities." The bill also allowed students who enrolled in college in 2014 or later "to limit their loan repayments to 10 percent of their income, and have all their loan debts forgiven after 20 years if they make their payments faithfully, or after 10 years if they go into public service careers like teaching, nursing and the military," according to Cleveland.com.

Student loan profits

According to a 2014 report from the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Department of Education was expected to make a $127 billion in profit from higher education student loans. "Beginning in the 2015-16 academic year, students and their families are forecast to pay more to borrow from the department than they did prior to last summer’s new student loan law, which set student loan interest rates based on the U.S. government's costs to borrow," according to the Huffington Post. Duncan argued, "It’s actually neither accurate nor fair to characterize the student loan program as making a profit," in July 2013, claiming the funds are used to lower the Department of Education's cost to taxpayers.

Crackdown on for-profit schools

In June 2015, Duncan announced that the U.S. Department of Education "would forgive the federal loans of tens of thousands of students who attended Corinthian Colleges, a for-profit college company that closed and filed for bankruptcy last month, amid widespread charges of fraud," according to The New York Times. He said, "You’d have to be made of stone not to feel for these students. Some of these schools have brought the ethics of payday lending into higher education." Duncan also said that the department would create a permanent process for students to be forgiven of their loans if they are defrauded by any college in the nation.

Reforming the higher education accreditation process

On November 6, 2015, President Obama and Duncan announced a number of executive actions with the goal of improving the quality of higher education by holding accreditors responsible. According to the U.S. Department of Education, "Accreditors are responsible for ensuring baseline levels of acceptable quality and performance across diverse institutions, degree types, and academic programs." The administration also announced a number of guidelines for Congress to use when creating legislation to protect students and taxpayers from abuse and fraud in the accreditation system. A summary of the executive actions and guidelines appears below:

• Executive actions:

• Publishing each accreditor's standards for evaluating student outcomes
• Increasing transparency in the accreditation process and in institutional oversight
• Increasing coordination within the Department and among accreditors, other agencies, and states to improve oversight
• Publishing key student and institutional metrics for postsecondary institutions arranged by accreditors
• Promoting greater attention to outcomes within current accreditor review processes

• Proposed legislation guidelines:

• Drive accountability through outcomes-driven and differentiated recognition
• Require robust teach-out plans and reserve funds for high-risk institutions
• Establish a set of standardized, common definitions and data reporting
• Increase transparency on an expanded set of accreditation material and actions

Personal

Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
After graduating from Harvard in 1987, Duncan had a tryout with the Boston Celtics. He was eventually cut from the team. He went on to play professionally in the Australian National Basketball League from 1987 until 1991. Duncan met his wife, Karen, while playing professional basketball in Tasmania.

See also

• U.S. Department of Education
• John King, Jr.

Footnotes

Political offices
Preceded by Margaret Spellings	U.S. Secretary of Education 2009-2015	Succeeded by John King, Jr.