Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education appointed by Obama earlier this week, can be expected to "think of new, innovative ways to make the schools better."
Duncan cites sports as being an "extraordinary teaching ground" for life's lessons where you learn important values like: hard work, unselfishness, teamwork, sacrifice, accomplishing personal goals and how to judge character. He was a professional basketball player in Australia and pick-up game colleague of President Elect Obama. He was quoted as saying playing basketball at Chicago High Schools is a "bridge builder" with students.
According to Edutopia, Duncan shut down Chicago schools that performed poorly and reopened them with entirely new staffs. He started coaching and mentoring programs for teachers. He also supported a boom in new charter schools with diverse models, from military academies to single-sex schools, and piloted a program to pay teachers bonuses for top performance -- two controversial innovations Obama supports.
More on Duncan and what we might expect from the new Secretary of Education ........
http://www.edutopia.org/arne-duncan-chicago-public-schools-video
