Book of the Week: "How Schools Work" by Arne Duncan

This past fall (fall of 2018) I had the opportunity to see Arne Duncan, the former Secretary of Education under President Obama (oh, how I miss those days), speak with political commentator David Gergen at the Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Duncan and Gergen's conversation about the status of education in the United States. As someone who is passionate about education (K-12 and higher ed.) and helping young children and young adults learn, I was inspired to buy his book so I could learn more about what he had to say.

The book goes into detail how the Bush administration's "No Child Left Behind" Act failed, why he started "Race To The Top," and how he dealt with the haters he accumulated as Secretary of Education. It opened my eyes even more about the problem in education today. It's not about the test scores - it really never was. The question is, are our children truly learning?

Duncan truly values teachers and believes they have one of the toughest jobs. The best teachers should be rewarded, but also when it comes to evaluating those teachers it should be about the PROGRESS of the student not the end result. For example, Teacher A has a class full of honors, straight A students, and Teacher B has a mix of B, C, D students. All of Teacher A's students get A's, but Teacher B's C and D students are able to raise their grade five percentage points, but they are still in the C range. Who is the better teacher?

Many people will say Teacher A because his students are getting A's, but that's only half of the story. Teacher A's students were already high achievers good students when they came to him, whereas Teacher B was dealing with students who were struggling when they came to her. Although Teacher B's students were still C students when they left, they raised their grade by five percentage points, meaning they were learning and understanding. It doesn't matter if it takes you five minutes, five hours, or five weeks to comprehend a concept as long as you learn it, that's all that matters.

People, not just children, learn at their own pace and the best teachers understand that and can adjust their teachings so ALL children can learn not just the one's who it comes easy to.

If you didn't get a chance to be at Duncan and Gergen's conversation on Education & the State of Affairs in Washington you can watch on Harvard Kennedy School's Institute of Politics YouTube channel.