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Duncan also elaborated on the main goals of the "the race to the top fund" in a conference call with reporters, Wed. March 11. Fifty states doing their own thing has created "a race to the bottom"; the administration wants to reverse that, Duncan said. The "race to the top funds" will be used to strengthen standards, methods of measuring student success, modernize information technology to track student progress and rewarding teacher excellence.
"I wish there was one thing we could do to solve all of our education problems but obviously it's much more complex than that," Duncan added. "These strategies collectively are going to help drive dramatic change."
The education secretary also expanded on Obama's explanation of his administration's plan on teacher incentives. Duncan, the former Superintendent of Chicago Public Schools, recalled that his district saw great success when it asked teachers to design an incentive and rewards program themselves. "This idea of doing stuff with people rather than to them is very important," he explained to reporters. He added that while test scores will play a role in determining teacher excellence, they cannot be the sole factor.
"This is something we have to work on," Duncan stated, sounding a note of cooperation on how to put these reforms into place. "We have to work with the unions, superintendents, state superintendents. They're a lot of great people working on this."
Both of the teachers unions have expressed an enthusiastic willingness to work with the administration to design and implement the proposed reforms.
Echoing the president, Duncan also linked the importance of education reform to recovering from the economic crisis. "We have to educate our way to a better economy," he said.
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