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Hi. I’m Arne Duncan. I want to thank all of you so much for coming to the PTA conference
in June in Memphis.
I had a great time meeting, me to you, and speaking there, and there were a number of
questions that folks had to follow up with, and I’m here to answer those questions now.
Lady: I hear a lot about the development of national curriculum standards, the ones which
will apply to every state, and I am excited about that, but I’m wondering how far away
we are in terms of time for seeing that becomes a reality?
Sec. Duncan: Well, those standards have actually been developed – we actually have 36 states
around the country who, on a voluntary basis, have adopted these common college-ready career-ready
standards. So this is literally happening as we speak, and we think in the next couple
of months as many as 40 states will have adopted these standards. This is an absolute game
changer. Far too many states, including the state I’m from, Illinois, over the past
several years literally dummied down standards – reduced standards – due to political
pressure not to do what is right for children or what was right for education, or what was
right for the long term health and vitality of our country’s economy. So seeing this
much courage displayed by governors, by State School Chief Officers has been fantastic and
as we move forward as a country in our commitment to educate in a way to a better economy. Having
really rigorous college and career standards for every single child I think is hugely important.
Now states will take different amounts of time to implement and some states – the
current standards are closer to these high bench marks than others. So we’ll work on
a state-by-state basis. But to see the entire country moving in this direction is going
to change education for decades to come.
Gentleman in Yellow Shirt: I just recently got exposed to your 2020 plan. I’m just
curious how soon are you going to roll it out nationwide and what impact we, as the
PTA, have to helping you get that bill to ……... Thank you Arnie, Secretary Duncan.
Sec. Duncan: Hi, Donald. Thanks so much for that question. Everything we’re doing, from
early childhood education, to pre-K to 12 reform, to increasing access and affordability
for college, is behind the President’s goal that by 2020 we again lead the world in percent
of college graduates. It is really interesting, just a generation ago, we did lead the world
in college graduates. We’re flat lined, we’re stagnated. Other countries have passed
us by and we’re now 12th and that’s not something we can or should be proud of, and
we have to get better as fast as we can. So every single year we’re going to evaluate
our progress toward that goal. But what does it mean in practical terms? It means we have
to dramatically reduce our dropout rate, it means we have to dramatically increase our
high school graduation rate, and we have to make sure that every single one of our high
school graduates is college and career ready once they are done. And, finally, the goal
for high school and for middle school and elementary can’t be to graduate from high
school. The goal has to be some form of higher education beyond that – four year universities,
two year community colleges, trade/technical vocational training, whatever might be. So
everything we’re putting in place to more access to high quality early childhood programs,
to very significant K to 12 reform, to making college much more accessible and affordable.
Every single one of those strategies behind that goal which is our North Star to educate
our way to a better economy and to meet the President’s goal – is an ambitious one,
but it’s one we have to meet to again lead the world in college graduates by the year
2020.
Lady in blue shirt: My question is what would you do to help ….. [inaudible] and to involve
parents in school……
Sec. Duncan: I think all of us are absolutely invested in dramatically improving the quality
of education. So parents, community members, business leaders, religious leaders, teachers,
school board members, school superintendents, students themselves, very importantly, all
of us have to get dramatically better. Where we have a nationwide dropout rate of 25 percent
which is just absolutely morally unacceptable and economically unsustainable. When far too
few of our high school graduates are actually college and career ready once they leave us,
we have to get a lot better. All of us have to work together, all of us have to partner,
all of us have to move outside our comfort zones and the PTA can help to drive that national
conversation and provide real leadership in their ability to collaborate and to demonstrate
inpatients with the status quo.
Lady in black jacket: We just want to know in the State of Tennessee what’s the plan
to get to the disenfranchised parents. How can we get to those who don’t have e-mail,
who we can’t reach in traditional manners? Thank you for all you do.
Sec. Duncan: Reaching out to every parent whether or not they have internet, whether
or not they are well educated, is hugely important. So for those parents who may not have access
to technology, for those parents that may not have had a chance to get a great education
themselves, who might be a little scared of going back into school where they didn’t
have a great time, we have to think of very nontraditional ways. What does that mean?
It means doing pot luck dinners. Food helps tremendously to bring parents into schools.
It means knocking on doors, it means giving out home phone numbers and cell phone numbers,
teachers and principals doing that and making parents feel not that they’re an intrusion
or not that they’re something that, you know, we stop them in the door, but they have
to be full and equal partners in education. So we, as educators, I think, have to provide
great leadership particularly for those parents that might be disengaged and, not surprisingly,
those parents who aren’t as involved their students are probably going to struggle unless
we do something very differently. So knocking on doors, reaching out, opening our school
doors, exchanging phone numbers, making sure that every parent knows how much we care about
them and how much we care about their children’s education. I think, you can’t overstate
the importance of building those personal relationships.
Lady in Yellow suit: I just want to say I am a new mom and have some that are going
to middle school for the first time and I have some that are – I have a younger one
that’s in the 4th grade. I just want to say that I noticed a change in education and
I wanted to be better, and I want to know how can I, as a community leader, volunteer
at my school and also as an employee paying tax dollars. How can I make the school better?
Sec. Duncan: Well, to make that I wish every parent and every education employee had your
commitment and your desire to see improvement, and I have spent the last two days here in
Arkansas and there is so much progress here and a real sense of hope and momentum and
I think this State is really going in the right direction. So how do all of us, parents,
employees, tax payers, community members, State stakeholders, how do we step up? First,
we have to be engaged, we have to be involved, whether or not we have children in our local
schools, we have to make sure where we’re tutoring, where we’re mentoring, and where
we’re coaching. We have to make sure our schools are improving every single year and
that we’re part of that conversation. Where things are working, we have to build upon
successes. Where things aren’t working, we have to have the courage to stand up and
challenge the status quo and be part of the solution and ask folks to do more and to help
them get there with the active engagement of every adult. It is just so critically important,
our children have one chance, one chance to get a quality education and when children
get that education, they have a world of opportunities in front of them, when children don’t get
that chance, they see doors start to close very, very quickly. So, the stakes have never
been higher and all of us have to be actively engaged in the education process. So finding
ways to volunteer, finding ways to attend school board meetings, finding ways to provide
internships for students, finding how to reach out to students where their own parents might
not be too engaged and give them – be the role model the mentors they need. All of us
can find a way to make a difference and if all of us understood the stakes and how critically
important this is, our country would be in a much better place today.
Lady in pink sweater: I’m Meredith Thomson and I’m from Louisville, Kentucky and my
question is what can we as parents do to continue to support better funding for arts programs
in our schools?
Sec. Duncan: Hi Meredith. I just left Louisville a couple of weeks ago to play in a …. Basketball
tournament which we were lucky enough to win, so I have fond memories of your city and have
a real good sense actually of the schools there. I worry a lot in tough budget times
that often one of the first things that gets cut are extra curriculars and arts, and I
think that is such a short-sighted decision and a damaging decision. So we have done everything
we can to try to use the bully pulpit. I‘ve written letters to school districts around
the country urging them, even in tough budget times, to hang on to the arts funding, dance,
drama, music, whatever it might be, visual arts, we have to give our students a chance
to develop their sense of self-esteem to develop their skills and let me be clear, this isn’t
just for high schools students, this is the elementary school level as well. Finally,
we’re trying to put our money where our mouth is and one of the biggest concerns I
have heard as I travel the country is the route of nailing of the curriculum. All of
our children deserve a well-rounded education, a world-class education and so, as part of
our FY ’11 budget, we’ve asked for a billion dollars to support a well-rounded education
and arts are absolutely front and center in that. But this is an area of real concern
and unfortunately in many districts as you well know around the country now are cutting
back in arts, and we have to do everything we have to – we have to do everything we
can to challenge to fight that trend.
Lady in pick, green and white shirt: My question is why are our schools promoting our children
without the academics – the proper academics for going to the next level? This is my question
for the next grade level. Thank you very much.
Sec. Duncan: Thank you Sister ____ that is such a hugely important issue, and I’ll
tell you a quick personal story. One of the reasons I committed to education for my life’s
work, is I took a year off between my junior and senior year in college to tutor in my
mother’s intercity tutoring program. And one of the students I worked with was a high
school basketball player who came to me, wanted some help to get ready for college. He got
great grades -- was actually on the B honor role, he went to school every single day and
wanted to get ready for his college entrance exams. When I sat down to tutor him, he was
basically – basically functionally illiterate. He could not put together two sentences. It
was actually heartbreaking – here was a 16-year old young man who had played by the
rules, who had done everything right, he had no idea how far behind he was and how he was
absolutely unprepared for college work and why was he in that situation? He was there
because he had be socially promoted throughout his life. And when we move students on when
they’re not ready, when they don’t have the skills to be successful, we basically
guarantee their failure long term. So we have to work at every single grade level to make
sure students have the skills to progress through the next level. If they need more
help after school, weekends, summers, we have to be there with them. We have to challenge
parents to be part of the solution. But when we socially promote students and ultimately
graduate them sometimes with a diploma, they can’t read. We do them a great, great, disservice
and to me this is absolutely inexcusable.