Tag Archive: Arne Duncan


What We’re Reading

Filed Under: What We're Reading by Briana Kerensky — 1 Comment
November 9, 2012
George Lucas

George Lucas. Photo courtesy IMDB.

Huffington Post: “Star Wars” fans and pop culture gurus across the world did a collective gasp last week, when Disney bought Lucasfilm for an astounding $4.05 billion. Lucasfilm, owned by director and producer George Lucas, produced some cinema’s most iconic films, including “Star Wars,” “Indiana Jones,” and “Labyrinth.”

What is George Lucas going to do with the $4.05 billion now sitting in his bank account? According to The Huffington Post, he’s going to make sure that “the force may be with young Jedis everywhere.” Lucas will be donating the entirety of what he has earned from the deal with Disney to a foundation focused on education.

“For 41 years, the majority of my time and money has been put into the company,” Lucas said in a statement this week. “As I start a new chapter in my life, it is gratifying that I have the opportunity to devote more time and resources to philanthropy.”

New York Times: Students in New York City returned to class this week after Hurricane Sandy, but several dozen schools retained too much damage to reopen or are still being used as evacuation shelters.

The students from these schools experienced a first day back not unlike the first day of class at a new school: new commutes, new faces, and new schedules. Schools that made it through the storm relatively unscathed faced an influx of students from flooded areas, and have had to convert gyms and cafeterias into extra classrooms.

Needless to say, it’s been a confusing and stressful process for everyone involved. But getting young people back into a regular schedule allows them create a sense of normalcy and gives them a chance to begin rebuilding the lives they had before the storm washed them away.

Education Week: With President Barack Obama winning a second term as President of the United States, what does that mean for education reform? Education Week takes an extensive look at what the President, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and the Department of Education accomplished over the last four years, what was promised during campaign season, and what we could see happen in schools through 2016.

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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: What We're Reading by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
November 2, 2012
hurricane sandy

The destruction from Hurricane Sandy has left students unable to attend school for the past week. Photo courtesy NASA via Getty Images.

Examiner: Hurricane Sandy has left millions without power…including high school seniors applying to college. On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan asked colleges and universities across the country to push back their November application deadlines, so students dealing with the storm’s aftermath have time to finish.

“Many colleges and universities have recognized the unanticipated difficulties that students are facing in completing their college applications, and some institutions have already extended their deadlines. We encourage other institutions to consider being as flexible as possible in the coming weeks to accommodate students whose lives were disrupted by Hurricane Sandy,” Duncan said in a press release.

Huffington Post: New York City and many of New Jersey’s students have been out of school for the past week due to Hurricane Sandy. While students are usually pretty excited when school is closed for a day, how does a longer absence affect their academic performance?

When schools are closed for consecutive days, districts have to make up for lost time. This means extending the school year by a few days, or even taking time out of winter and spring breaks. In addition, shuttered classrooms mean that teachers need to push their lesson plans back, which is particularly difficult when students are preparing for scheduled standardized testing. These tests often have a ripple effect; they factor into a student’s eligibility to get promoted to the next grade, teachers’ evaluations and the amount of state funding a school can receive.

Schools in New York and New Jersey hope to open again next Monday. And when they do, there will be a lot of ground to cover.

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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: What We're Reading by Briana Kerensky — Leave a comment
October 5, 2012
Arne Duncan

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan

Huffington Post: In remarks to the National Press Club on Tuesday, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan called for educators across America to move their curricula away from textbooks and towards e-books.

E-books offer numerous advantages for students and educators. They can contain interactive videos and games to help students understand lessons, and schools can save money and get updated editions of textbooks distributed faster. Some countries, such as South Korea, have already jumped into the digital revolution and pledged to eliminate traditional paper textbooks by 2015.

But can districts, already burdened by budget cuts, overcome the initial startup costs of getting e-readers into students’ hands? Do you think moving from paper to digital textbooks is a feasible goal? Share your thoughts in our comments section.

New York Times: Last month, The U.S. News & World Report published its annual college ratings report. To no one’s surprise, Harvard and Princeton were tied for first.

In an enlightening op-ed, Joe Nocera asks readers to stop and think about the value we place on college rankings. Schools that want to be at the top of the list know how to “game the rankings,” as Nocera put it, and it creates an undue anxiety for students to get into what the list considers to be a “good” school. In addition, schools lower in the rankings now need to compete for students’ attention, which means they need to spend more money. Where does that money come from? Tuitions.

Slate: Last month, researchers from Yale University released the results of a study showing how professors (both male and female) across scientific disciplines discriminate against female students. In response, The New York Times convened a symposium of U.S. scientific leaders to discuss the situation and formulate a response.

Some suggestions included engaging students in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) subjects at an earlier age, before bias sets in, and implementing training programs for professors to highlight the prevalence of sexism in science and build awareness around the issue.

But overall, the symposium discussion focused on how not only to close the STEM gender imbalance, but the imbalance for women across the entire spectrum of education. Read a full recap of the symposium on Slate.

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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: What We're Reading by Tracey Savell Reavis — Leave a comment
June 28, 2012

Secretary of Education Duncan talks about the importance of Title IX at the beginning of the 40th Anniversary celebration game at the Department of the Interior. Photo courtesy Tami A. Heilemann

Slate: A math teacher in Falls Church, Va., is concerned that technology may be impeding the progress students are having in the subject and not helping to give them the math skills they need to succeed in college. And according to a 2011 report by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, 89 percent of high school math teachers think their students are ready for college-level mathematics. But only 26 percent of post-secondary teachers think the students are ready once they get there.

Throughout the Communities In Schools network, there are many programs dedicated to helping students raise their math scores. The Great Leaps Math Program at Mars Hill Elementary, a Communities In Schools of Madison County, N.C. initiative, puts young students in line with early comprehension of the fundamentals. A site coordinator at Communities In Schools of Peninsula, Wash., recruits volunteer mentors to help kids achieve math success. Math labs and proficient tutors sprinkled throughout middle and high schools across the country aim to deepen students’ knowledge and help them prepare for college-level math.

USA Today: Last week our country marked the 40th anniversary of the landmark legislation Title XI, with conferences and celebrations and references to how far women have come since its passing. The legislation called for prohibiting discrimination in any education program that received federal funding. A lot of the talk last week was around women in sports – participation in college athletics has increased from 30,000 to 190,000, and the number of girls participating in high school sports has increased a whopping 1,000 percent. But the advances aren’t so great when the discussion turns to women and participation in science and technology.

The U.S. Education Department’s data for 2009-10 shows that only 17 percent of engineering and 18 percent of computer science-related bachelor’s degrees were earned by women, and that women make up only 25 percent of the STEM workforce.

At Hamilton High School, a Communities In Schools of Los Angeles partner school, the Ladies First club was created with the goal of empowering young women and preparing them to succeed in college and the workplace. Similar initiatives exist in other schools where Communities In Schools continues to play a role in boosting interest and involvement so all young women are better prepared to take on STEM subjects.

The Journal.com: At Communities In Schools, collaboration is woven into our DNA. That’s why the announcement this week made by U.S. Secretary of State Arne Duncan, about designating this coming August as “Connected Educator Month, is in alignment with our model of integrated student services.

More than 50 organizations will participate  in the month-long online event that will include forums and webinars, all with the intention of engaging and providing resources to educators across the country.
Said Duncan, “Every educator needs to be connected with the best digital content, tools and resources in order to enliven the learning environment for students, and to fully connect with peers and experts.”

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What We’re Reading

Filed Under: What We're Reading by Tracey Savell Reavis — Leave a comment
May 11, 2012
cooking club

Students from Communities In Schools of Charleston recently participated in a cooking club at a local food bank to learn how to prepare healthy meals.

Homeroom: In recognition of National Teacher Appreciation Week, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan honored four educators across the country with a phone call to thank them for the important job they do. And on Monday, he sat down with his former high school English teacher, Darlene McCampbell, , and thanked her personally for inspiring him, and for the impact she had on his life.

Great teachers often have different titles – parent, mentor, tutor. And at Communities In Schools, that title is often site coordinator. Anyone who pushes, inspires and encourages students gets credit for helping them become well-rounded adults.

That reminds me to acknowledge those  who helped shape my future. Thank you Ms. Goldberg, for teaching me the finer points of interviewing. Thank you Mrs. Stone, for helping me find my voice. Thank you, Mr. Graham, for…

The Huffington Post: A new report was released by the Institute of Medicine that offered solutions to the serious obesity issue we are facing in America. This article points out that since children spend half of their waking hours in school, and consume between a third and a half of their daily calories there, addressing the issue of obesity in schools is a good place to start. Communities In Schools works diligently to provide support for economically disadvantaged students and families. And we take it a step further, by making sure that nutrition is also part of the equation.

Some Communities In Schools sites offer cooking programs help students learn about the variety of ways to prepare healthier meals. In some schools there room to start a garden, or site coordinators encourage students to get their hands dirty in an already-existing community garden.. Activities like these provide hands-on experience with healthy food and help children make a connection with what they consume.

It comes down to information and choices, and helping young people learn more about nutrition at an early age could go a long way in helping them make good choices as adults.

The New York Times: Harvard’s doing it. Stanford’s doing it. So are Penn and Princeton, and many other elite schools across the country. The New York Times describes the size, depth and seriousness of universities in their efforts to offer free online courses. Online learning removes the barrier of access, putting teachers and instructors who have subject matter expertise directly in front of students. And it supports students who learn differently, and who may do better at online learning than traditional learning. Communities In Schools supports online learning and bridges the technology gap so that all students receive an early introduction and access to the technology they will need to compete in the global workforce post-high school and beyond.

Bonus! Check out this great video of Arne Duncan with his favorite teacher, Darlene McCampbell.

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