Bedford Public Library

How schools work, an inside account of failure and success from one of the nation's longest-serving secretaries of education, Arne Duncan

eng

contains biographical information

index present

non fiction

How schools work

1046078127

Arne Duncan

an inside account of failure and success from one of the nation's longest-serving secretaries of education

Drawing on nearly three decades in education--from his mother's after-school program on Chicago's South Side to his tenure as Secretary of Education in DC--How Schools Work follows Arne (as he insists you call him) as he takes on challenges at every turn: gangbangers in Chicago housing projects, parents who call him racist, teachers who insist they can't help poor kids, unions that refuse to modernize, Tea Partiers who call him an autocrat, affluent white progressive moms who hate yearly tests, and even the NRA, which once labeled Arne the "most extreme anti-gun member of President Obama's Cabinet." Going to a child's funeral every couple of weeks, as he did when he worked in Chicago, will do that to a person. How Schools Work exposes the lies that have caused American kids to fall behind their international peers, from early childhood all the way to college graduation rates. But it also celebrates the countless everyday heroes Arne has encountered along the way: teachers, principals, reformers, staffers, business people, mayors, and presidents. How Schools Work will inspire parents, teachers, voters, and even students to demand more of our public schools. If America is going to be great, then we can accept nothing less

Lies, lies everywhere -- If we build it, they will come -- "The number is zero-point-two" -- The consortium -- "We need the carrot" -- One blue, one red -- Strange bedfellows -- Twenty-five pounds of apples and three pounds of cheese -- "We matter!" -- How schools work