In the past month, Secretary Duncan has delivered four speeches detailing ED policy related to four areas of reform.
The goals are to improve standards and tests, the effectiveness of teachers, data to inform educators’ decisions, and low-performing schools. States had to address these issues and inform the department of their progress to receive funding from the $48.6 billion available under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. In the months ahead, as states compete for $4.35 billion available under the Race to the Top Fund, their applications will be evaluated based on their assurances on those four reforms.
Here are the speeches. Secretary Duncan talked about the need to…
- adopt rigorous standards that prepare students for success in college and the workforce at the 2009 Governors Education Symposium
- recruit and retain effective teachers, especially in classrooms where they’re needed most, at the National Education Association annual conference
- build data systems to track student achievement and teacher effectiveness at the annual conference of ED’s Institute of Education Sciences
- turn around low-performing schools at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Conference.
ED Staff