Education Secretary speaks to concerns from prospective educators
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel were greeted by an atrium full of students Tuesday at Emporia State University.
Duncan and his leadership team stopped in Emporia as part of a tour that is crisscrossing the country from Sept. 12 to 21 for various events aimed to promote the secretary’s Education Drives America campaign.
The NEA president and Duncan visited the National Teachers Hall of Fame, founded in 1989 by Emporia State University, the ESU Alumni Association, the city of Emporia offices, the Emporia Unified School District, and the Emporia Area Chamber of Commerce.
Ken Weaver, dean of the Teachers College, said Duncan’s visit affirmed the value of the National Teachers Hall of Fame and its specialness.
“Unlike all the other different awards that are available to teachers, only the National Teachers Hall of Fame recognizes career teachers,” Weaver said. “You cannot be nominated for the National Teachers Hall of Fame unless you have 20 years as a teacher.”
After the tour, Duncan and Van Roekel led a town hall discussion in the Visser Hall atrium with about 200 students, current and prospective teachers, administrators and other community stakeholders.
Duncan and his team had in mind to focus on the U.S. Department of Education’s RESPECT (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collaborative Teaching) project. The project aims to “rebuild the teaching profession,” and improving the teaching profession was a popular topic for Duncan to touch on.
Opening remarks were provided by Cynthia Apalinski, a third-grade science teacher from Lindon, N.J., and a 2012 Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the Department of Education, as well as ESU President Michael Shonrock.
The town hall meeting took questions from the audience, which ranged from topics like what obstacles educators face, funding education, preparing students to be teachers and sustaining programs in K-12 education.
Common core curriculum and standardized testing were frequently alluded to in the questions. A student teacher in music education asked how subjects that are not tested, such as music and physical education, will be sustainable with test-based assessments.
Duncan talked about the common worry of music programs being cut from public school curriculums. He fell back on a common answer he used throughout the meeting, which is it comes down to hiring qualified and talented individuals and retaining them. In terms of budget impact, he said, “it’s a complicated question.”
A question was asked about where support for teachers ought to come from.
“I’ve been pretty public that I think in many places, the entire pipeline doesn’t work,” Duncan said. “So there’s not one easy answer here. I think historically we haven’t attracted enough folks like you to come into schools of education, or come into teaching.”
Duncan cited a 2006 study that reported 62 percent of new teachers feel unprepared to enter the classroom, and called for reforms in education schools, arguing too many are sending out graduates who are not ready to teach.
Duncan said the amount of Title II money that is invested by the federal government in professional development each year is $2.5 billion, and he said he would like to spend closer to $8 billion.
“I think we should be paying teachers a heck of a lot more money,” he said. “Obviously, no one goes into education to make a million dollars, but you shouldn’t have to live in poverty, either.”
Earlier in the day, Duncan spoke on the steps of the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka. He spoke to a crowd of more than 100.
“We all know we have so far to go,” he said. “We as a nation are still far from truly achieving equal educational opportunity.”
He reiterated his words from the steps of Brown v. Board historic site in Topeka at ESU later in the day, saying more is needed in terms of equity among students.
He credited President Barack Obama in efforts to increase federal funding for Pell grants for college students and $5 billion in school improvement programs in an attempt to encourage achievement at schools with poor performance.
Duncan also said, however, that the nation is failing to live up to its core ideals and criticized efforts to cut state spending on education.
“America’s story is not the story of triumph of the status quo,” Duncan said in Topeka. “It cannot be the story of the preservation of privilege. When it comes to closing the opportunity gap, there can be no ‘us and them.’”
Kansas lawmakers increased education spending by about $40 million in the budget that took effect July 1. The Legislature increased base state aid per student by $58 to $3,838, reversing a string of reductions brought about by the state’s financial struggles.
Weaver said he and his colleagues expected the town hall meeting to be more than just a pep talk for prospective teachers.
“Here, probably, is the clearest evidence that our students are maturing within the profession while they are still undergraduates: the quality of questions that they asked,” he said.
Emporia Schools Superintendent Theresa Davidson was in attendance to hear the secretary’s remarks.
“I think that it’s good to know that they have a plan and that they are moving forward with that,” she said. “I think the opportunity for people in Emporia to hear him personally was good for Emporia and good for our educational community.”
Davidson said she thought the secretary was well received by the prospective and current educators in the room.
“We are experiencing so many changes, and some difficult times, financially,” she said. “Of course there are going to be those moments when you question whether it’s the profession you thought it was going to be when you went into it. … I’m sure there are those times, but personally, speaking from my own experience, I can’t imagine a profession that is more rewarding.”
Some of the other stops along the Education Drives America tour include Sacramento, Calif; Reno, Nev.; Salt Lake City; Cheyenne, Wyo.; Denver; Kansas City, Mo.; St. Louis; Evansville, Ind.; Lexington, Ky.; Charleston, W. Va.; Roanoke, Va.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C.