Miguel A. Cardona, the former commissioner of education in Connecticut, became the U.S. Secretary of Education on March 2, 2021, taking office in the midst of an historic pandemic that had profoundly reshaped the nation's schools. In his initial months on the job, Cardona- also a one-time public school teacher and principal--has focused closely on…

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan by NAESP Executive Director Gail Connelly. In this interview, Secretary Duncan discusses the Obama administration's vision, initiatives, and goals for America's elementary and middle-level education and the impact on the nation's principals.

This article presents an interview with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. In this interview, Duncan talks about the goal for his work leading American schools and how merit pay, charter schools, and mayoral control would improve student learning.

The U.S. Senate will soon render its advice and consent to the nomination of Chicago Public Schools Chief Arne Duncan to be secretary of education. The word "education" is not mentioned in the Constitution, and the federal government has historically played a limited role in funding and regulating public education across the country. The…

The author of this article states that, for more than 20 years, public educators have developed a professional inferiority complex and a strong sense of hopelessness. After all, he claims, the dominant message over those years, including from some within the profession, has been that educators have caused the declining quality in public schools.…

"Education Week" Staff Writer Michelle R. Davis sat down with Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, on January 9, 2006, in the secretary's office at the U.S. Department of Education. This article contains excerpts from that interview. Secretary Spellings notes that being a parent of school-age children has given her an unusual…

Reading First, part of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, seeks to lift reading achievement by encouraging the use of reading programs that have been scientifically proven to work. Reading First, which accounts for just 2 percent of federal education spending, is helping many districts to achieve promising results--including Richmond, Virginia,…

The federal government has responded to criticism of the No Child Left Behind Act by giving states greater flexibility in how to comply. Analysts worry that the law's purpose is being lost along the way. Since U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced that she would take a "common sense" approach to carrying out the No…

The author forthrightly declares in this book of essays on school reform that teachers are no more saintly than anyone else, that poor schools should be closed and lousy teachers should be fired, that philanthropy may sometimes do more harm than good, that teaching experience is not essential to being a school principal, that schools should be…

Discussed are the conflict-of-interest provisions of the Federal Ethics in Government Act of 1978 that limit the activities of high level officials after they leave government service. Designed to deal with officials with inside information who return to private positions of influence, the law's brovisions are seen as much too broad. (JMP)

This author believes the NCLB is a masterpiece of language manipulation. She feels that she can almost live with NCLB's flawed funding and unrealistic expectations. What she can't live with is its blatant failure and the hubris of those who willingly trade personal and political gain for our children's futures, regardless of skin color, accent,…

This summer, "Instructor's" Editor in Chief, Bernadette Grey, traveled to Washington, D.C., for an exclusive one-on-one meeting with the U.S. Department of Education's high-profile leader, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings. Appointed by President Bush, Spellings is responsible for the overall direction, supervision, and…

There are almost 3,000 charter schools operating in the United States. In Arizona about 500 charters enroll about 74,000 students. The question of whether charter schools "work" is, therefore, of considerable interest to policymakers and the public nationally and in Arizona. To charter school proponents, the fact that charters exist is…