ERIC Number: EJ825182
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Jan-7
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0277-4232
EISSN: N/A
Chicago Record Shows Duncan as Collaborator
Aarons, Dakarai I.
Education Week, v28 n16 p1, 24-25 Jan 2009
This article features American educator administrator Arne Duncan, whose seven-year tenure as the head of the 408,000-student Chicago school district has been marked by innovations to improve the quality of teachers and principals and a focus on basic reading and math skills. His low-key, collaborative style was a key to his success in Chicago, observers say, and should suit him well as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. secretary of education. Duncan was virtually unknown when Mayor Richard M. Daley appointed him in 2001 to follow Paul G. Vallas as the second chief executive officer of the schools under the system of mayoral control that started in 1995. One of the biggest legacies of Duncan's tenure will be the Renaissance 2010 initiative that Daley announced in 2004. The project calls for closing underperforming schools, mostly in high-poverty areas, and replacing them with new schools run by outside groups and organizations. The goal is to open 100 such schools by 2010; so far, 75 of those charter and charter-like schools have been opened. Many of the new schools have extended days and school years and focus on a specific topic. While Duncan has been praised for the innovation, critics have questioned whether the program is part of the mayor's gentrification efforts in the same neighborhoods, and have said the closing of schools has often been disruptive to children.
Descriptors: Urban Schools, Tenure, Recognition (Achievement), Profiles, Educational Change, Change Strategies, School Administration, Governance, Participative Decision Making
Editorial Projects in Education. 6935 Arlington Road Suite 100, Bethesda, MD 20814-5233. Tel: 800-346-1834; Tel: 301-280-3100; e-mail: customercare@epe.org; Web site: http://www.edweek.org/info/about/
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A