Posts Tagged ‘cronyism’
Obama’s Education Secretary Choice Average at Best
So here we go, why aspire to the best and brightest when you can accept average at best? Arne Duncan is Barack Obama’schoice for Secretary of Education, yet why choose Mr. Duncan when the reports coming from Illinois are that the educational system is average at best and for those whom live there, they might even argue with you that it is actually quite below average.
What are Arne Duncan’s qualifications? Did Mr. Obama choose Arne Duncan because his jump shot is far superior to Mr. Obama’s? Did he choose him because he is a fellow Harvard alumn? Or was it because Arne Duncan and Mayor Daley are so tight? Did Duncan actually call Daley his mentor in the news conference? I’d have to go back and check the video.
With all that is going on with Blagojevich, it seems silly appointing another Chicago crony to the national political scene. Is this just a Daley machine political appointment? Or was it a payoff to the Unions to keep them happy since Chicago ranks 7th in teacher’s salaries and around the same ranking in student to teacher ratio.
I mean wasn’t there someone else in the nation, maybe from a State where statistics showed that the State was excelling in educational reform, for this appointment? Wouldn’t that be the new fresh change Obama supporter were looking for? Why just settle for average.
The following is statistical information for Illinois’ average school system.
Illinois |
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Contact Information Testing Director: Joyce Zurkowski NAEP Coordinator: Andy Metcalf IL State Dept. of Education |
Student, School/District Characteristics for Public Schools |
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Student Characteristics Number enrolled: 2,111,706 Percent in Title I schools: 54.4% With Individualized Education Programs (IEP): 15.3% Percent in limited-English proficiency programs: — Percent eligible for free/reduced lunch: 37.2% Racial/Ethnic Background White: 56.4% Black: 20.6% Hispanic: 19.0% Asian/Pacific Islander: 3.8% American Indian/Alaskan Native: 0.2% |
School/District Characteristics Number of school districts: 875* Number of schools: 4,434 Number of charter schools: 29 Per-pupil expenditures: $9,175 Pupil/teacher ratio: 15.8 Number of FTE teachers: 133,857 |
‘–‘ : data unavailable |
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* Local school districts only (type 1, 2) | |
Source: Common Core of Data, 2005-2006 school year (non-adjudicated) <!– (except per-pupil expenditures, 1998-99) –> |
History of NAEP Participation and Performance |
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Scale Score
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Achievement Level
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State | [Nat. | Percent at or Above | |||||||
Subject | Grade | Year | Avg. | Avg.]* | Basic | Proficient | Advanced | Graphics | |
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Mathematics (scale: 0-500) |
4 | 2000 | 223 | [224] | 63 | 20 | 2 |
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2003 | 233 | [234] | 73 | 32 | 5 | ||||
2005 | 233 | [237] | 74 | 32 | 5 | ||||
2007 | 237 | [239] | 79 | 36 | 6 | ||||
8 | 1990n | 261 | [262] | 50 | 15 | 2 | |||
2000 | 275 | [272] | 67 | 26 | 4 | ||||
2003 | 277 | [276] | 66 | 29 | 6 | ||||
2005 | 278 | [278] | 68 | 29 | 5 | ||||
2007 | 280 | [280] | 70 | 31 | 7 | ||||
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Reading (scale: 0-500) |
4 | 2003 | 216 | [216] | 61 | 31 | 8 |
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2005 | 216 | [217] | 62 | 29 | 7 | ||||
2007 | 219 | [220] | 65 | 32 | 8 | ||||
8 | 2003 | 266 | [261] | 77 | 35 | 3 | |||
2005 | 264 | [260] | 75 | 31 | 3 | ||||
2007 | 263 | [261] | 75 | 30 | 2 | ||||
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Science (scale: 0-300) |
4 | 2000 | 150 | [145] | 68 | 31 | 3 |
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2005 | 148 | [149] | 64 | 27 | 2 | ||||
8 | 2000 | 148 | [148] | 59 | 29 | 3 | |||
2005 | 148 | [147] | 58 | 27 | 3 | ||||
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Writing (scale: 0-300) |
8 | 2007 | 160 | [154] | 90 | 37 | 2 |
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* Includes public schools only |
n Accommodations were not permitted for this assessment |
For more information Arne Duncan’s record you can find it here.