21st Century Scholar

“Yes, we can,” exclaimed Senator Barack Obama after winning the presidential primary in South Carolina nearly four years ago. The slogan signified hope and change for a country that desperately needed it. By alluding to Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers, it also hinted at a promising new future for the working class and [...]

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is having a difficult summer. First, calling No Child Left Behind a “slow-motion train wreck,” Duncan announced he would circumvent the Bush administration’s law by issuing waivers to states that adopt high proficiency standards. Like Race to the Top, Duncan has used his executive authority to leverage reform. Politicians and [...]

by Randy Clemens In the comic book universe, identifying superheroes and supervillains is relatively easy. For instance, if you can’t tell by the ominous outfit or menacing scowl, you can certainly recognize villains by their evil machinations to takeover and/or destroy the world. In the education reform universe, the task is not so simple. First, [...]

by Randy Clemens Most students across the country–unless they attend year-round schools–are beginning summer vacation, a curious relic of a bygone age. At the turn of the 19th century, a three-month summer break made sense. Schools did not have air conditioning. Wealthy urban families vacationed. Middle- and lower-class urban families wanted to vacation. Agrarian communities [...]

by Randy Clemens Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has said that education is the civil rights issue of our time. While provocative and well-intentioned, the Secretary’s sentiment isn’t entirely true. That is not to say I disagree–education is part of the issue–but to target education as the last stand for civil rights is short-sighted. Poor [...]

by Randy Clemens Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently received a service award from Harvard’s Phillips Brooks House Association, a student-directed social service organization. During his speech, he rightly stated that education is the civil rights issue of our generation. Secretary Duncan’s speech is a necessary piece–the acknowledgement of inequitable opportunities and resources–to completing [...]

by Randy Clemens Throughout the black blizzards of the Dust Bowl, confidence men defrauded desperate men and women by auguring rain. Some promised to release mysterious rainmaking chemicals into the air; others said they would blast the clouds apart with balloons and dynamite. These charlatans made decent incomes from false promises. What’s the lesson to be [...]

by Randy Clemens Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently said he wanted to require “parent and community input” in the reauthorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Afterwards, National Journal’s Education Experts, a blog featuring an array of education professionals, posed the question “Can Communities and Parents Help Turn Around Schools?” The prompt elicited a [...]

by Randy Clemens The Los Angeles Unified School District has a problem, a reported $640 million deficit problem. Rather than staff or permanent salary reductions, Supt. Cortines recently suggested cutting the school-year by six days, including five instructional. Of course, no one likes the idea (except for students, maybe). The suggestion, however, illustrates just how dire LAUSD’s fiscal crisis is. Cortines’ words also highlight [...]

by Randy Clemens In the coming months and years, we will increasingly talk about innovation in education. Words like creativity, innovation, transformation, and entrepreneurship will become part of our daily vocabularies. All are catchwords for reform. Larry Cuban, an excellent  scholar, writes about the history of reform (see references). He reliably returns to the same [...]