Cleveland Plain Dealer...
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urges community support of schools and schoolchildren
By Patrick O’Donnell  
September 9, 2011 

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged the entire community - parents, neighbors, churches, non-profits - to help schools and provide support for students as he stopped in Cleveland Wednesday as part of a week-long tour of the Midwest. 

Duncan, the top education official under President Obama, headed a 45-minute discussion of community involvement in schools at Cleveland’s East Technical High School, stressing that students need mentors and guidance and that school districts need help filling those roles. 

“There has to be an entire city rallying behind the effort,” he told the audience of 1,000 people in the school’s auditorium. 

As he boarded his bus after the event - painted to be a rolling Department of Education advertisement - he repeated his push for people to help every child, particularly those in need. 

“We’re either going to sit on the sidelines and watch them drown or we’re going to step up and help,” he said. 

Duncan’s visit was part discussion and part pep rally, with student performers - a choir, jazz band and drumline - playing almost as long as the panelists talked. 

Duncan, Cleveland schools Chief Executive Officer Eric Gordon and other panelists skimmed the surface of several educational issues, including graduation rates, measures of student progress, challenges facing urban districts and upcoming changes to No Child Left Behind.

arne-duncan-eric-gordon.JPGView full sizeTony Dejak, Associated PressArne Duncan, second from right, speaks in a panel discussion in Cleveland Wednesday. To his right is Cleveland schools chief Eric Gordon. 

Duncan told the audience that the time of well-paying jobs without a high school diploma has passed and that students now need training beyond high school to succeed. He said the nation needs to find ways to cut high dropout and low graduation rates to survive economically. 

Though many students have strong family support, many do not. Duncan, joined by Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships and Robert Velasco II, the acting head of the Corporation for National and Community Service, said churches, nonprofits and community groups can provide afterschool activities and mentors that can give kids good relationships with adults as they grow up. 

Panelist Rev. Tracey Lind of Trinity Cathedral told the audience that her church members volunteer at Cleveland’s Marian Sterling Elementary School and come back wanting to do more to help. 

“Their perspective is broadened,” Lind said. “They see the challenges and they’re moved to organize.” 

Panelist Nikki Gentile, a teacher at Marian Sterling, said assistance from volunteers, either working directly with students or by raising money or donating clothes, has helped tremendously. 

Duncan drew applause when he said No Child Left Behind, a school accountability program started under President George Bush, holds schools to unreasonable standards. He and Obama are seeking changes from Congress to the program. 

Among the changes he wants would be to measure schools based on how much students learn in a year, not by whether students have reached a certain level. He said No Child portrays schools as failing when students that start at a lower point advance and rewards schools that make little improvement with already successful students. 

Expecting no changes from Congress soon, he said he expects to announce a plan for states to apply to be exempt from No Child requirements if they have their own evaluation method in place and can show they turn around failing schools. 

“I’m not prepared to go through another school year with a broken law,” he said. 

He was headed to a Wednesday night appearance in Toledo and also plans visits this week to Detroit, Merillville, Ind., Milwaukee and Chicago. 

Read it at the Cleveland Plain Dealer