However, just because a super (or state super) didn’t teach, doesn’t mean they have to be simplistic and shallow in their understanding. Visit schools, talk to teachers, read all the best books written in the past half-century…

Some supers are quite sophisticated about pedagogy, others are purely political animals.

Being a school administrator is not like running a business – there are similarities but a lot of differences. I’m disturbed, but not surprised that a number of successful business leaders seem to think that they can be school administrators as well.

There are always exceptions to the rule….but that would be rare.

Anyway, for the 8th grade history test, all of it’s useless since they are tested on what they learned in 6th and 7th grade as well as 8th, (and with our standards, who has time to reteach what they learned?) they test what we haven’t even taught yet, and the questions are mostly recall information and fact-based and don’t involve having kids use the basic skills they need to understand history and geography.

(You might be wondering how I know all this since I don’t look at the test, but my colleagues tell me this even though we’re not supposed to talk about the test.)

So when Arne Duncan talks, I don’t place much stock in it. I see him as a dilettante–dipping his toes into the current popularity pool on pedagogy, but not a serious student of educational practices. How can he be if he doesn’t know what it’s like to create, deliver, and evaluate lessons, to scrap everything you planned for that teachable moment or because you realize that the kids just aren’t gettting it and you need to reteach, or because half your class has come down with the flu?

I just want to add one thing: I think it’s worth looking not only at Chicago as a model of where Duncan’s policies could lead, but also New Orleans.

http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/news/index.php?item=2514&cat=5

The USA Today’s piece was written in response to a recently released report. It’s possible that the paper raised similar questions earlier on, as well, but maybe not.

http://perimeterprimate.blogspot.com/search?q=arne+duncan

And there’s a slew of other education bloggers also providing early warnings on Duncan’s deception and similar deceit. You can find most of them on the Perimeter Primate’s blogroll. The mainstream media is coming later and later to the party.

Arne Duncan is, by all accounts, a nice guy and a terrific basketball player, but he isn’t much more than a wannabe Harvard technocrat with a sweet jumper.

Look at his resume. He has never been a teacher or school administrator. He got his start in the education racket when he got to play with the nonprofit funded by his childhood friend, who had become a Wall Street CEO.

Then, in Chicago, where it is all about “who you know,” this likeable bball star jumped straight to just below the pinnacle of the Chicago district leadership, before later becoming its “CEO.” He would play pick-up with Barack Obama at lunch.

Now he’s the top education official in the country, based not on his achievements but on having the right monied and powerful backers.

Sound familiar, Oakland?