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Arne Duncan calls for addressing gun violence in final speech as education secretary
Washington Post | 12/30/15

Behind the Headline
Arne Duncan’s Legacy
Education Next podcast | 10/14/15

In his last speech as U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan spoke in the basement of a Catholic church in Chicago last week about the impact of gun violence on children.

As Emma Brown noted in the Washington Post, Duncan drew a connection between gun violence and high school dropout rates in disadvantaged  neighborhoods, saying that both are the result of hopelessness that children feel when they grow up believing that they have a better chance of dying young than going to college or getting a job.

The country could save lives with a new “new deal” for kids, he said, that would provide broad access to preschool and meaningful incentives for great teachers to work in high-poverty schools, as well as mentorship and support for job creation in poor neighborhoods.

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In a recent episode of the EdNext Podcast, Michael B. Horn and Paul E. Peterson discussed Arne Duncan’s decision to resign and what his legacy will be as Secretary of Education.

In a forum in the Fall 2015 issue of Education Next, Rick Hess and Joanne Weiss debate “What Did Race to the Top Accomplish?”

A research article in the same issue looks at the reforms enacted by states as a result of Race to the Top.

In an article for Education Next that was published early in his tenure as secretary, Richard Lee Colvin wrote about what kind of education secretary Arne Duncan was expected to be.

— Education Next