Former U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (Credit: Department of Education)

Arne Duncan’s administration of the Education Department saw plenty of notable accomplishments: billions of new dollars for preschool, a rewrite of the country’s primary K-12 education law, and a record high school graduation rate.

Yet for all he achieved in his seven years, Duncan said he’s disappointed to leave office without having made sufficient progress in several other areas, including school desegregation.

He sees the connection between his top three self-proclaimed disappointments — failure to further expand preschool, offer financial aid to undocumented students and clamp down on gun violence. They all reflect an unwillingness to protect and invest in children, he said.

“It’s just not seeing our children as the assets — as the extraordinary potential — that they truly are,” he said in a recent phone interview.

More notably, perhaps, is Duncan’s admission that he couldn’t do enough to desegregate the country’s schools. In some regions, America’s schools are now more segregated than they were in the late 1960s.

“I would give myself a pretty low grade on that,” he said.

Duncan said the department poured millions of dollars into magnet schools, public schools with a specialized focus or curriculum designed to draw a diverse group of students. Some, like those in Hartford, Connecticut, are making a big impact, but the program largely failed to make a noticeable difference integrating the country’s schools.

“I don’t so much blame those districts and schools,” he said. He posited that perhaps his department didn’t ask grant recipients the right kinds of questions, or didn’t give the money to the right places.

The country “can and should do more” to integrate schools, both by race and income, he said. Duncan said he’ll never advocate integration achieved by forced busing, but instead thinks schools should offer a wide variety of excellent choices to entice all types of families.

Duncan was one of President Obama’s original Cabinet appointees in 2009. He left office at the end of the year and returned to Chicago, where his family had moved last fall. Duncan said he’s been talking to people locally and nationally about what he’ll do next but for now is enjoying time with his two kids, Ryan and Claire, helping with homework and making them breakfast.

Duncan’s successor, John King, has a “huge interest and passion and expertise” in school desegregation, the former secretary said. He predicted King would make the issue a primary focus during his limited time in office. (King signaled during a Martin Luther King Day speech that he intended to do just that.)

Although Duncan painted desegregation efforts as largely a flop, there were both successes and failures at all levels of education — preschool, K-12 and higher education, he said.

For the youngest children, Duncan was pleased at the federal investment during his tenure, which topped $1 billion, but was frustrated he couldn’t persuade congressional Republicans to do more.

In K-12, he touted the country’s record high school graduation rate. Although that rate, around 82 percent, has risen, and dropout rates have fallen for every racial subgroup, there are still around 750,000 students leaving school every year with “basically no chance of being successful,” he said.

And in higher education, Duncan cited funding increases to the Pell Grant program, higher college attendance and graduation rates for students of color, and a new emphasis on campus safety and preventing sexual assaults. He’s discouraged, though, that the United States no longer leads the world in college completion rates. The top spot is shared by Canada and Russia, where 53 percent of 25- to 64-year-olds have a “tertiary” degree, according to the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development. In the U.S., it’s 41 percent.

“In every area, I am both proud of the progress and frustrated that as a nation we’re not getting better, faster, and there’s still tremendous unmet need at every level,” he said.

Perhaps Duncan’s biggest priority in recent years — expanding federal supports for preschool programs — is also one of his biggest letdowns.

“We’re cutting off our nose to spite our face. It just makes no sense,” he said. Duncan and other pre-K backers often point to research that investing in early learning programs saves money in the long run as children are kept out of costly special education programs and are less likely to be incarcerated or become teen parents.

He also cites two areas that were arguably not under his purview — the failure to pass a bill allowing federal financial aid eligibility for undocumented immigrant college students and any kind of substantive change to gun laws — as among the areas he would’ve liked to see a different outcome.

A 1982 U.S. Supreme Court ruling requires states to enroll students in public elementary and secondary schools no matter their immigration status. (The Education Department during Duncan’s tenure released written guidelines reminding districts of that obligation, particularly after waves of unaccompanied children came to the country from Central America in recent years.)

If those students make it to college, though, they aren’t eligible for federal student loans or Pell Grants.

Duncan said gun violence was the hardest issue he dealt with during his time as Chicago’s school superintendent, and the problem has only gotten worse.

He compared the U.S. to Australia, where a conservative government changed gun laws in the wake of a mass shooting in 1996. A generation of children have grown up there not knowing what a mass shooting is, while in the U.S., such violent events seem to happen several times a week, he said.

Testing backlash

“Other nations just value their children, value lives, more than our nation does. There’s no other way to put it,” he said.

Duncan also defended his administration’s emphasis on tying teacher evaluations to student test scores in part through No Child Left Behind waivers and Race to the Top grants. Some have said those policies caused a proliferation of tests, a factor in the national backlash to testing and the opt-out movement.

It’s important, Duncan said, to compare a new policy to what was in place before it. In this case, some states had laws totally barring tying test scores and evaluations.

“It was unbelievable to me,” Duncan said. “It was basically saying that great teaching doesn’t matter.”

A total ban on linking test scores and evaluations doesn’t strengthen teaching as a profession, nor does it help kids, he said.

The administration also challenged states to think about the amount of time spent on testing, he said.

“My hope is that five years from now, [states and districts will] be much smarter” in how they implement testing and teacher evaluations, he said. “The way to get better [at it] is not to put your head in the sand.”

#EDlection2016

Duncan said he’s been frustrated that education issues haven’t been more prevalent — or oftentimes mentioned at all — in the presidential campaign. In particular, he thinks all candidates should have to answer how they’ll increase access to early childhood education (and if they won’t, why not), what their goals are for high school graduation and dropout rates, and how they’ll get the U.S. to once again be the global leader in percent of college graduates.

“This is in our nation’s interest. A good strong military is our best defense, but a good education system is our best offense,” he said.

The other education issues that have come up in the campaign so far — say, Hillary Clinton’s unfavorable comments on charter schools — are “small-ball sound bites,” Duncan said.

No one person or party has a monopoly on good ideas on how to tackle those issues, he said, it’s just essential to have the conversation at all: “We’re fighting for kids here and we’re fighting for our country.”

This article was produced in partnership with The74Million.org.

Cynthia Lim, Executive Director of the Office of Data and Accountability, told the LA School Report today that parents should not worry when the see the results fro last year because the new tests are not comparable to previous statewide measures in how they are structured and how they are given — by computer.

Her explanation was part of a district strategy to ease anxieties among parents who may be fearful that the new tests leave the impression that their children are regressing in their academic pursuits. That is not the case, Lim said. It has always been clear to school administrators here and elsewhere that a new form of testing, based on the Common Core State Standards, would drive down test results in the early years.

“We are expecting that scores will be lower than what we’ve seen in the past in terms of what we would say is proficiency, because the tests are really different than what we’ve had for the last 10 years,” Lim said.

Not only are the new tests different in how they pose questions, the new scoring system is tougher, but Lim said the test material isn’t necessarily more difficult for students or any more advanced.

“It is a different way of teaching; the material is not harder, we are assessing deeper levels of thinking among students,” she explained. Rather than multiple choice questions or basic recall questions, the students are asked to explain how they got to an answer.

Lim sent a letter to the school board and Superintendent Ramon Cortines last week, warning against comparisons between the old test scores and the new ones. She noted: “The percentage of students who will have ‘met or exceeded standards’ on the new tests will be lower than the proficiency rates we have seen with the old California Standards Tests.”

Lim said, “There’s no way to compare the test scores. So even if you were advanced on (the California Standards Test) and this year you’re ‘Nearly Meeting Standards,’ it doesn’t mean that you’ve gotten dumber. We are assessing different skills. It’s new to teachers and new to students in terms of how we’re assessing. I think as people get more familiar, scores will most likely increase.”

The scores this year will not be used to determine if schools are “failing” nor will they be used for the evaluation of teachers, Lim said.

The district is not concerned with the lower scores for now. A decade ago when the tests were changed, they saw a similar drop in scores. This time, the tests are taken completely on computer tablets — some questions require listening, others include writing exercises. They are also subject to “computer adaptability,” which means an incorrect answer is followed by an easier question, a correct answer leads to a harder question.

District officials say they are especially concerned that parents may react negatively to a perception that their child is not scoring well on the new test. “We worked with our local district on our talking points because it does not mean our kids are getting dumber,” Lim said. “It means that we’re assessing them in a different way than we ever have before. It’s actually a more holistic view of students and how they learn.”

The actual scores by school, district, county and state will be released by the state and available to the public in mid-September. The state is a few weeks behind in releasing the scores, Lim said.

In 2013, 40.6 percent of California’s public high school graduates took at least one AP exam before graduation, compared with 25.3 percent 10 years before.

Though AP participation among LAUSD students also increased over the same period, a little under 18 percent of district high school students were enrolled in an AP course last academic year, according to district figures.

The number of California graduates from low-income backgrounds taking an AP exam also increased, tripling over the past decade according to the College Board’s California supplement. Among African American and Latino students the increases were .5 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, while participation among white students decreased by 8.4 percentage points in the 10 years.

The AP report still reflects demographic disparities in the quality of the scores. Among Latino and white students, 35.2 and 31.5 percent of students, respectively, graduated from high school with a passing grade on an AP exam. Among African American students, only 2.4 percent graduated with a passing grade.

In California, 29 school districts were cited by the College Board’s AP Honor Roll, which recognizes districts that increased both AP exam participation and the percentage of students scoring passing grades. LAUSD was not among them.

Previous Posts: LA Unified Sees Big Rise in AP Enrollment and Exams; State To Defray Costs of Test Fees for Low-Income Students

L.A. Votes: Greuel Fights Back 
With the clock ticking down to election day, the Los Angeles mayor’s race is getting testy. LA Times

LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy Seeks No Child Left Behind Waivers
With California unable to get a waiver from the No Child Left Behind law, LAUSD and nine other districts have launched an effort to create their own data-based accountability systems — and have more freedom in how to spend tens of millions in federal dollars. LA Daily News

More Students Taking and Passing Advanced Placement Exams
More students in the Los Angeles Unified School District took and passed an Advanced Placement exam last year, reflecting a rise in success on the college-level tests in California and nationwide. LA Times
See also LADN

L.A. Unified Set for Funding Boost Under New State Formula
After five years of crippling budget cuts, the Los Angeles Unified School District would receive an estimated $820 more per student over the next two years under Gov. Jerry  Brown’s proposed new funding formula. LA Times

In California, Thousands of Teachers Missing Needed Credentials
The last time Charlie Parker took a social studies class, he was a teenager with an Afro and Jimmy Carter was president of the United States. Yet here he was, standing at the front of a classroom, trying to teach dozens of high schoolers subjects that never appealed to him when he learned them more than 30 years ago. CA Watch

State Releases District Breakdowns Under School Funding Formula
Districts and charter schools now know how they’d make out under Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Local Control Funding Formula, his plan for sweeping school finance reform. EdSource

Thousands of Children Could Lose Head Start Services Under Sequestration
Just one week after promising to inject funds into early childhood education in his State of the Union address, President Obama is warning that the Head Start program will instead face cuts if lawmakers fail to reach a compromise over the budget. KPCC

An L.A. Unified Road Map
A six-year study provides a wealth of information on how to recruit, assign, pay and, when necessary, lay off teachers in ways that help students most. LA Times Editorial

LAUSD ‘Jails’ Fill With Teachers as Misconduct Complaints Rise
They call it “teacher jail” – the administrative offices where nearly 300 Los Angeles Unified educators accused of misconduct spend months on end reading, blogging or texting. LA Daily News

Charter Proponents Focus On Shutting Down Failing Schools
On Wednesday morning, NACSA head Greg Richmond will join New Jersey Schools Commissioner Chris Cerf and California charter schools advocate Jed Wallace at Washington D.C.’s National Press Club to announce a new campaign, “One Million Lives,” that aims to crack the whip on the duds. Huff Po

School Funding Changes Debated at Educators Meeting
Educators at a private meeting Tuesday sounded off on an expected proposal to increase state financial support to disadvantaged school districts. KPCC

High School Grad Rates Tell a Tale
Let’s assume, for sake of argument or column-writing, that the fundamental task of any public school system is to maximize the number of students who graduate from high school and are ready to either enter the workforce or further their educations. Sac Bee

Local Votes of Confidence: Most Bonds, Parcel Taxes Pass
Proposition 30, raising statewide taxes to support education, was a nail biter, struggling to get a majority of voters behind it. But that wasn’t the case for most K-12 parcel taxes and school construction bonds on the ballot Tuesday. Ed Source

The Prop 30 Windfall – Not Yet
In its first year, more than $2 billion of Prop 30 funds will be used to start paying off the nearly $10 billion in deferrals, those late payments that forced cash-strapped district to borrow money.  Those payments should free up funds so in 2013-14, districts will start to see some real money. Ed Source

LAUSD Teacher Named One of Five California Teachers of the Year
Veronica Marquez, a fifth-grade teacher at Harmony Elementary School in South Los Angeles, was named today as one of five California Teachers of the Year by state schools Superintendent Tom Torlakson. Daily News

Where Did the Lottery Money Go?
The truth is that education budgets have shrunk so much that the lottery money just goes into the pot to help pay for what is needed—as permitted by law. But that was never its purpose. Galatzan Gazette 

Formal Recommendations on Revising Statewide Testing Due Out This Month
Setting the stage for perhaps the most critical public school issue that will come before the Legislature next year, the state board of education held its first public hearing Thursday on plans for shaping the future of student standardized testing in California. SI&A Cabinet Report

Dan Walters: What to Do if Proposition 30 Fails?
As the political odds turn against Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure, political insiders are turning their attention, however reluctantly, to the fallout should, indeed, voters reject the sales and income tax hike on Tuesday. Sac Bee (Commentary)

How Proposition 30 Can Still Win
If the November turnout is only 62 percent of registered voters, Proposition 30 will lose because that electorate will be much more like a non-presidential year electorate than what we are used to in a presidential year. Fox and Hounds

More coverage of UTLA’s refusal to sign off on the Race to the Top application: CBS, ABC, Witness LA and KPCC

San Jose Unified, Teachers Reach Breakthrough Evaluation, Pay Plan
The superintendent of San Jose Unified and leaders of the district’s teachers union have agreed on an innovative evaluation and compensation system that, if implemented, would be significantly different from any in California. Ed Source

State and School Officials, Students Getting First-Hand Look at Computer Testing
Small-scale trials of new computer-aided assessments are underway. They will be used starting in 2014-15. SI&A Cabinet Report 

The October 19th issue of the United Teacher states that, “the union continues to push back against LAUSD’s proposal to link a percentage of a teacher’s evaluation to his or her individual Academic Growth Over Time score. AGT is LAUSD’s version of VAM, or value- added model, which research studies show to be an inaccurate and unstable measure of teacher effectiveness.”

The two sides have been deadlocked despite pressure to meet a court-ordered deadline of December 4, 2012. LAUSD last month declared an impasse and requested mediation, which union head Warren Fletcher called “premature.”

At the heart of the dispute is how to implement a recent ruling in the Doe v. Deasy case, which requires that student test scores be included as a factor in teacher evaluations. That ruling was based on a lawsuit against LAUSD brought about by a group of parents who claim the district is not complying with the Stull Act, a 1971 law that requires student progress be used in performance evaluations of teachers.

But the teachers union has rejected the use of any testing data as part of the evaluation process, especially the measurement favored by LAUSD Superintendent Deasy, called Academic Growth Over Time (AGT). The union is under increasing pressure after AALA, the union representing principals and administrators, agreed last month to use AGT as a component in principal evaluations.

Scott Witlin, a lawyer who represented parents in the suit, says the Stull Act requires two factors to be measured when evaluating teachers: “First, you have to account for the academic progress of pupils towards the standards of the local district, and second, when applicable, you account for the progress of pupils according to California standards tests.”

LAUSD and UTLA have until December 4 to come to an agreement. If they don’t, according to Witlin, the judge could hold UTLA or LAUSD in contempt. “The date wasn’t picked out of a hat – all parties agreed they could get the job done by then.”

Related posts: LAUSD-UTLA Headed to Mediation, UTLA Calls Mediation Request “Premature”

Miramonte lawsuits are on hold, attorneys hope to settle KPCC: Attorney Luis Carrillo is the one who pushed for the stay. He says the temporary delay gives his clients a chance to engage in settlement discussions with the school district. The talks would be facilitated by a mediator and could begin as early as November.

Charters draw students from private schools, study finds LA Times: The study by a Rand Corp. economist found that more than 190,000 students nationwide had left a private school for a charter by the end of the 2008 school year, the most recent year for which data was available.

CSUDH grant will aid LAUSD math teachers Daily Breeze: California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson has received the first of three grants to support the development of math teachers in economically challenged areas of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Everything You’ve Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong Mother Jones: Attendance: up. Dropout rates: plummeting. College acceptance: through the roof. Kristina Rizga’s mind-blowing year inside a “low-performing” school. ALSO: The Kids Are All Right Mother Jones: Students today score better on tests than you did.

Colleges ranked by “bang for your buck”, California schools dominate list KPCC: The Washington Monthly’s top 10 “bang for your buck” schools include 5 in California: UC San Diego, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC Riverside.

Cramming For Tests Doesn’t Work, Says UCLA Study LA Weekly: The main problem? Sleep deprivation.

Fairfax music program’s loss Bev Hills’ gain Weho News: Ray Vizcarra, Fairfax High School’s bandleader, has taken a job at Beverly Hills High, after facing the prospect of likely being laid off.

Los Angeles college students face more crowds, fewer classes LA Times: Students on Los Angeles campuses struggle with trying to get needed classes, or any at all, as state budget cuts continue to take their toll on the community college system.

Middle Schoolers Make a Scale Model of 6 Blocks of Broadway Curbed (blog):  Middle school students at the Bresee Foundation summer camp have created a scale model of six blocks of Broadway and the whole thing is installed temporarily right now at the Blackstone Building at Ninth and Broadway.

El Camino Real Charter High School to stage reading of ‘8’ (Press Release): El Camino Real Charter High School’s internationally acclaimed theatre program has been selected as one of the only high school companies in the nation to stage a reading of Academy Award-winner Dustin Lance Black’s latest play, “8,” it was announced today. “8” is an unprecedented account of the Federal District Court trial in Perry v. Schwarzenegger (now Perry v. Brown), which ruled California’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples unconstitutional.

PTA Endorses Munger, Not Brown: The California Parent Teacher Association has endorsed Proposition 38, Molly Munger’s ballot measure to raise taxes to pay for education, which it helped write. It has also decided to stay neutral on Governor Jerry Brown’s more moderate proposal, Prop 30. PTA

UTLA President Sets Record Straight: In response to an LA Times article suggesting that an agreement had been reached, Warren Fletcher reiterates that his union has not agreed to any evaluation system that includes use of students’ test scores.  UTLA

Former Columbia Ed School Dean Calls For Smarter Testing: An op-ed in the Times from Arthur Levine argues for the development of “smarter testing,” like GPS:  “Tests should gauge what students are learning in real time and continually recalculate the instruction each student needs to learn it.” LA Times