Ask the House EdLabor Committee to Ask EdSec Duncan Your Questions

Questions for Ed Sec. Duncan's May 20 House EdLabor Committee Hearing

Dear Representatives,

While I support many of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's reform goals, a considerable body of evidence and many education experts draw other parts of the Secretary's agenda into question.

To date, Secretary Duncan has not publicly addressed many of these doubts and questions. I would greatly appreciate your asking the questions below during his May 20 hearing in the EdLabor Committee:

<b>1. The "One Bad Apple" Effect on Class Test Scores:</b>
Recent <a href="http://www.hoover.org/publications/ednext/domino_effect.html">research</a> published by the Hoover Institution by UC-Davis economics professor <a href="http://www.econ.ucdavis.edu/faculty/scarrell/">Scott Carrell</a> and University of Pittsburgh economics professor <a href="http://www.econ.pitt.edu/facpage.php?uid=108">Mark Hoekstra</a> found that one disruptive student in a classroom significantly "reduces peer student math and reading test scores." They continue, "The results of our analysis provide evidence that, in many cases, a single disruptive student can indeed influence the academic progress made by an entire classroom of student."

The study seems to seriously undermine the validity of any attempt to evaluate (and pay, retain, and promote) teachers based on their class performance on standardized tests.

Secretary Duncan has greatly increased funding for data-tracking "value-added" measurement systems that he says he intends to use for teacher evaluation, and possibly for retention and promotion.

<b>Question: </b>In light of this research, does the Secretary intend to track the number of confirmed disruptive students, and the number of reported disruptive incidents, in each teacher's classroom? Not to do so would seem to place teachers unlucky enough to have disruptive students in their classrooms at an unfair disadvantage.

<b>2. Correcting the "Koreans spend more time in school" claim:
</b>Libby Quaid of the Associated Press this week "<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5husRstDOy6YVktMTCOP-pknQw7pAD988GTU00">fact-checked</a>" Sec. Duncan's much-repeated justification for longer school days, weeks, and years: Korea's "longer school year."

Quaid writes:

<i>South Koreans do have a longer school year, measured in days. But Americans actually spend more time in school. The average U.S. eighth-grader has 1,146 instructional hours a year, compared with 923 hours a year in South Korea.

In fact, the U.S. has more instructional hours than many better-performing countries, though that <b>raises a separate question about how well American schools spend classroom time.</b>

</i><b>Question: </b>Has Sec. Duncan considered shifting the focus from <i>how much time is spent</i> in school to <i>how time in school is spent</i>?

<b>3. Professional Development for Teachers to reduce the achievement gap:
</b>We hear very little from the Secretary about reducing the achievement gap by increasing teacher preparation- and professional development hours, yet international comparisons show America falls far behind top-performing nations in precisely this respect.

According to Stanford University professor Linda Darling-Hammond (<a href="http://www.srnleads.org/resources/publications/nsdc.html">research here</a>):

<i><b>U.S. teachers average far more net teaching time in direct contact with students (1,080 hours per year) than any other OECD nation.</b> By comparison, the <b>OECD average is only 803 hours per year for primary</b> schools and <b>664 hours per year for upper secondary schools</b>. <b>U.S. teachers spend about 80 percent of their total working time engaged in classroom instruction, as compared to about 60 percent for these other nations&rsquo; teachers</b>, who thus have much more time to plan and learn together, and to develop high-quality curriculum and instruction.

<b>In most countries, about 15 to 20 hours per week</b> is spent on tasks related to teaching, such as preparing lessons, meeting with students and parents, and working with colleagues. By contrast, <b>U.S. teachers generally have from 3 to 5 hours a week</b> for lesson planning, which is done independently.</i>

<b>Question: </b>Since we all agree that excellent teaching is an important goal, how does Secretary Duncan intend to create the conditions in prep and professional development time enabling excellent teaching in other nations, but lacking in the US?
<b>
Final Question:</b> Sec. Duncan was one of only two signatories to both the <b>Education Equality Project</b>, and of <b>the Broader, Bolder Approach to Education </b>initiative.&nbsp; Since taking office, he seems to have spent a disproportionate amount of time and energy supporting the Education Equality Project (Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton visited him in Washington last week), and to have given far less attention to the Broader, Bolder community. <b>Please ask him if this perception is accurate, and if not, what he has done in support of the Broader, Bolder Initiative.

</b>Thank you for your consideration.

[Your name]