Education Secretary Duncan, Redskin Legend Darrell Green Set Tone For New School Year

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(Thursday) September 2, 2010

By Carla Branch
alexandrianews.org

The stars came out to welcome the Alexandria City Public Schools system staff back to school at the 2010 Convocation. U. S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan talked about moving education excellence forward; Washington Redskin great Darrell Green was there to give a pep talk on engaging communities in education; Alexandria Mayor Bill Euille offered words of encouragement and support; the children and grandchildren of friends and neighbors honored Ferdinand Day and the Superintendent’s Songsters entertained the audience with inspirational and amusing tunes.

“Welcome to the 2010 Convocation, or, as I like to call it, the ACPS family reunion. This is the only opportunity we will have to be physically all together in one place,” said Cathy David, deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction. “This is an amazing school division with amazing staff and students and we are looking forward to a terrific year.”

ACPS honored Fred Day for his work as a member of the Alexandria School Board and for serving as the first African-American chairman of a public school board in Virginia. “”This is not the first time we have transformed T. C.,” said Greg Baldwin, a Dean of Students at T. C. Williams High School. “Mr. Day was involved in the first transformation when we desegregated a school system in the late 1950s and early 1960s.”

Keisha Boggan is the principal at Francis C. Hammond 1 Middle School. “It is because of your leadership, Mr. Day, that the sons, grandsons and granddaughters of your neighbors and friends can teach and serve as principals in the very school system where you could not attend or teach because of the color of your skin and we thank you for that,” she said.

ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman presented Day with the flag that was flown over the U. S. capitol on President Barrack Obama’s inauguration day, a gift from Virginia Congressman Jim Moran (D-8). “I am so grateful to all of you and to all of my friends in Alexandria,” Day said. “You may be standing on my shoulders but I stood on the shoulders of many people who were there to support me wherever I went. I am grateful; I am grateful; I am grateful.”

Achieving Educational Excellence

“For the past 18 or 19 months, I have traveled to 41 states visiting schools just like this, meeting excellent teachers, principals, parents and students. For the past week, I have been on a bus tour of eight states in the south and northeast and I have met some amazing educators and students,” Duncan said.

He visited Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas, famously integrated in 1957 by nine black students. “That school is now predominantly African-American and is one of the highest performing high schools in the country. White students are coming in from the suburbs to attend Central, a remarkable occurrence,” Duncan said.

He visited an elementary school in Mobile, Alabama. “Eight years ago this school was the worst performing school in the state. Now, because of the hard work of a courageous principal and dedicated staff, it is one of the highest performing schools in the state. The principal’s life was threatened, dead cats were hung in the school and there was graffiti everywhere. It wasn’t easy, but the dedicated adults in that community have transformed that school,” Duncan said.

Duncan’s efforts led to the passage of a jobs bill for teachers. “Everyone said I was crazy to support such a bill in these economic times but the alternatives were unacceptable – 160,000 teachers on unemployment wouldn’t have been good for them or for the children in our classrooms.

“In a generation, we have gone from first in the world in college graduates to twelfth. We have a 25-percent high school dropout rate, which is 40%, 50% or even 60% among black and Latino students in some communities. Those who think education is expensive should consider the cost of ignorance,” Duncan said.

He spoke about the accomplishments of the Obama administration in education. “We have made college more affordable by taking money away from subsidizing banks and putting it into Pell grants without that costing the American taxpayer one more dime. We are forgiving federal student loans for those young people who wish to work in education or in public service. We are investing more money in early childhood education because that is the key to closing the achievement gap.

“We have to fix No Child Left Behind and we will do that in a bipartisan way either this year or early next year. Education is nonpartisan and non-ideological. No Child Left Behind finds 50 ways to punish failure and no way to reward success. We must get rid of Adequate Yearly Progress and reward growth and progress.

“We must prepare every child to succeed in college or in a career. Today, some form of post-secondary education is essential, whether it is attending a four-year college or university, a community college or a trade or technical school.

“I wish I could focus on early childhood education or K-12 education or higher education for the next two years but I don’t have that luxury. Many have said that education is this generation’s civil rights and we must make changes now. In the past, the Department of Education has been part of the problem and we must change that. We must rely on good ideas from state and local education leaders and we must encourage implementation of those good ideas if we are to make lasting change,” Duncan said.