Linda Darling-Hammond for Education Secretary??

[Thrill]

The remaining Cabinet posts are all subject to quiet, intense lobbying, and a source sends over a letter sent by 40 deans of education schools backing Linda Darling-Hammond, a Stanford professor and head of Obama's education transition team, as secretary of education.

"This country needs the coherent, comprehensive blueprint for education transformation that Dr. Darling-Hammond has helped President-elect Obama articulate – a visionary plan she has championed throughout her career as a catalyst for real change. We whole-heartedly encourage you to put her in the primary position to help turn this blueprint into reality – the Secretary of Education," says the letter.

There's also a lobbying campaign against her by those who, like David Brooks, see her as too close to the "establishment," which is to say the teachers unions and progressive educators.

I'm also told Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP, has called top transition aides John Podesta and Jim Messina to weigh in on Darling Hammond's behalf.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1208/Lobbying_for_DarlingHammond.html?showall

The letter

Dear President-Elect Obama:

We are writing this letter to express our enthusiastic support for Linda Darling-Hammond, Ph.D., as the next Secretary of Education. The schools and colleges of education that we represent, share a passionate commitment to working with the U.S. Department of Education in moving toward the goal of assuring that all of America’s children receive a world-class education.

As deans and former deans of schools of education at research institutions, we have a unique vantage point from which we view the challenges facing public schools, teachers, children, and parents. Now, more than ever before, America’s children need and deserve a person who understands the complexities of those challenges. We need a leader who is committed to the deep and far-reaching changes critical to public school improvement and survival, someone who understands what it will take to accomplish this transformation. Linda Darling-Hammond is that person.

Dr. Darling-Hammond is currently the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at Stanford University. Throughout her career as a teacher, scholar, school reformer, and policy leader, she has been a force for effectively bringing about serious, thoughtful and systemic reform in schools.

In a field that has often fallen prey to fads and unproven theories, Dr. Darling-Hammond's work is based on extensive research, solid evidence, and experience gained from her hands-on work building and studying successful schools and practices. She combines a bold vision, based on her work with successful schools, with a courageous commitment to overcoming the obstacles to change. We believe this is a winning combination.

Dr. Darling-Hammond has worked with a range of stakeholders to find solutions to the problems schools face. She knows how vital it is to build bridges and work with many constituencies to make schools work for all children.

This country needs the coherent, comprehensive blueprint for education transformation that Dr. Darling-Hammond has helped President-elect Obama articulate – a visionary plan she has championed throughout her career as a catalyst for real change. We whole-heartedly encourage you to put her in the primary position to help turn this blueprint into reality – the Secretary of Education.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the undersigned,

[elleng]

1. Well I VOTE FOR HER!

Her kid or kids went to school where mine did, in DC!

[saltpoint]

2. I believe Jim Jeffords deserves consideration also.

[cali]

6. Jim is ill. He lives, I believe, in an assisted living facility

He has some form of dementia. Very sad.

[saltpoint]

7. O my. I did not know. It is a terrible loss. His public record

on education has been exemplary and then some.

Bush done him dirty and shortly afterward Jeffords became independent, caucusing with Democrats.

I withdraw the suggestion in recognition of Jeffords' service to ideas and their transmission to young people.

[gblady]

3. She seems very impressive....

her Wiki bio is informative...
she started out actually setting up schools...so she has hands on, ground up experience...
which, IMHO, is so essential in creating change.

This is one of the KEY areas needing reform in our country...
so vitally important as we look to fundamentally change our systems.
Far too many are ill served by what now exists.

[LWolf]

4. While not the best,

she's the only half-way decent choice on Obama's "short list" of horrors.

[elleng]

10. ?

?

[LWolf]

11. ???

?

[saltpoint]

5. Here is another possibility.

https://engineering.purdue.edu/BME/HomepageFeatures/CrdovaNewPurduePresident

[Medusa]

8. Darling-Hammond is a champin of school reform

and she's had experience doing it. She'd be a great candidate for the job.

[Thrill]

9. DPS chief Bennet may be offered job

DPS chief Bennet may be offered a federal job
Lauded, blasted in Denver and eyed for job upgrade to D.C.
By Jeremy P. Meyer

Michael Bennet is talked about as education secretary in an Obama Cabinet.

Eight months into Michael Bennet's job as superintendent of Denver Public Schools, the Ivy League attorney-turned-educator faced arguably his most difficult moment.

A group of African-American ministers and black community members stood up at a board meeting to sing "We Shall Overcome" in opposition to Bennet's plan to shut down 112-year-old Manual High School, which served mostly a minority student body.

One minister declared "war" against the district; another called the closure racist; and another said Bennet was acting like a "dictator."

Bennet — a lifelong Democrat, married to an environmental attorney, raised by liberal parents and champion of civil rights — found himself on the opposite side of a battle he had long fought.

Almost three years later, Manual High School has reopened, the school and the district are pushing student achievement, and at age 44, Bennet is being considered for the position of secretary of education in Barack Obama's Cabinet.

At least one minister who led the fight against Bennet and Manual's closure now sings his praises.

"It seemed to have worked out and we have patched up our differences," said the Rev. Paul Burleson of the Greater Metro Denver Ministerial Alliance. "We hold no bitterness."

Bennet's quick smarts, political skills and ability to surround himself with experts has made him a star in the education world — one of two superintendents said to be on the shortlist to become education secretary.

"He's like how Barack Obama has been depicted, constant and confident," said Lucia Guzman, a former school- board member who helped shepherd Bennet into the superintendent position. "He's a visionary, able to look far and wide and very deep into the issues at hand."

Still, critics say achievement in Denver schools looks much the same as when Bennet arrived.

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_11222405

[DerekJ]

12. Better than Cruella

:P

[elleng]

13. Check this PBS series:

http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/today2.html

[BzaDem]

14. She is very against Teach for America. n/t

[makinguphumans]

15. She has done a great critique of the program with an eye

towards improvements. There are lots of problems with the program. But she has backed off a bit more recently when a few ways to improve the program were addressed/or are in progress.