While in Sacramento during a national bus tour, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said the biggest challenge facing public education is complacency. He challenged parents and students to demand more of those in charge.
Duncan spoke Wednesday to a group of more than 40 mayors and school superintendents from across the state, who met in Sacramento for a panel discussion on education issues, such as California's No Child Left Behind waiver and the hot button topic of tying test scores to teacher evaluations.
Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson hosted the education panel, which included his wife, Michelle Rhee, founder of the school reform group StudentsFirst.
"We want to listen and learn," Duncan said about his back-to-school bus tour. "We want to know how we can be better partners."
Several participants, including Rocklin Unified School District Superintendent Kevin Brown, asked Duncan the status of California's application for a waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind law. Duncan said California's waiver request is still being looked at and he had no additional information.
Brown also pressed Duncan to rethink tying test scores to teacher evaluations. Duncan said the link should be part of teacher evaluations, but not the entire picture.
Loretta Kalb started her reporting career at The Sacramento Union, moved to KOVR-13 as a television reporter, editor and producer, headed to The Associated Press in San Francisco and eventually returned to Sacramento and joined The Sacramento Bee. Throughout her career, she has covered the state Legislature, courts, local government and, now, education. She is a Chico native and an Elk Grove resident.
Diana Lambert began her journalism career as a proofreader at the Lodi News-Sentinel. She is now a senior writer at The Sacramento Bee covering K-12 education and California State University, Sacramento. Previously she was The Bee’s Elk Grove bureau chief. Lambert was raised in a military family and lived at bases around the globe. She attended four high schools, graduating from Tokay High in Lodi and then Sacramento State University. She lives in Elk Grove.
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