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Interview: Arne Duncan

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By David Brancaccio - May. 01 (Interview) - Arne Duncan has a reputation for being one of the leading reformers of low-performing schools during his seven years as chief executive of Chicago's public school system. Widely known for his implementation of the radical "turnaround program"—in which some of Chicago's failing schools were shut down and reopened with an entirely new staff—Duncan became the Secretary of Education in January.

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In Your State: Stimulus Spending on Education

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - May. 01 (Special Report) - The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law by President Obama in February includes $100 billion of federal spending devoted to reforming the U.S. public education system.

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Work Hard. Be Nice.

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By Jay Mathews - May. 01 (Special Report) - Many people in the United States believe that low-income children can no more be expected to do well in school than ballerinas can be counted on to excel in football. Inner-city and rural children raised by parents who themselves struggled in school are thought to be largely doomed to low grades, poor test scores, menial jobs, and hard lives. These assumptions explain in part why public schools in impoverished neighborhoods rarely provide the skilled teachers, extra learning time, and encouragement given to children in the wealthiest suburbs. Educators who do not think their students are very capable are less likely to arrange challenging lessons and longer school days.

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A Radical Fix for Schools?

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By David Brancaccio - May. 01 (Special Report) - How is Secretary of Education Arne Duncan going to spend $100 billion in stimulus money—almost twice the education budget—to fix our nation's schools? During his seven years running Chicago's public schools, Duncan went head to head with the teacher's union and skeptical parents by closing down low-performing schools, getting rid of all the teachers, principals, even the janitors, and reopening them with new staffs as "turnaround schools." It's a drastic step, but the results have been promising. This week, NOW travels to Chicago to investigate the collateral damage of a top-to-bottom school makeover, and to get a glimpse of what the future of education might look like for the rest of the country. "We have to be willing to experience a little bit of pain and discomfort, but our children desperately need it and deserve it," Secretary Duncan tells NOW. "Just as we have to do it, unions have to change, principals have to change, teachers have to change, parents have to step up... business as usual is not going to get us there."

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Issue Clash: Merit Pay

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 -0700

NOW on PBS - By Dennis Van Roekel, Gary Ritter - May. 01 (Comment) - Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association and Gary Ritter, associate professor of Education and Public Policy and holder of the Endowed Chair in Education Policy at the University of Arkansas, debate the issue of teacher merit pay as an effective approach for reforming the education system.

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Debunking the "Bradley Effect"

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Joel B. Schwartzberg: - Oct. 23 (Opinion) - In any election poll you're going to have people who don't tell the truth, but my contention is that the so-called Bradley Effect did not decide that election. If you look at the actual results of the election, and you look at the polling before the election, you see that they're not really in conflict. The Bradley Effect is, in fact, a myth.

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Who Killed the Electric Car?

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 10:19:24 -0700

PBS - By David Brancaccio - Apr. 24 (Special Report) - NOW talks to director Chris Paine about his upcoming documentary "Who Killed the Electric Car?" The film looks at the hopeful birth and untimely death of the electric car, an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving salvation to some, but a profit barrier to others. In a film that has all the elements of a murder mystery, Paine points the finger at car companies, the oil industry, bad ad campaigns, consumer wariness, and a lack of commitment from the U.S. government. "[The film] is about why the only kind of cars that we can drive run on oil. And for a while there was a terrific alternative, a pure electric car," Paine said.

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Toxic Transport

Fri, 30 Jun 2006 08:34:54 -0700

PBS - Jun. 30 (Special Report) - Thousands of tons of hazardous chemicals are transported throughout the United States each day by trucks, trains and barges, often through heavily populated areas. Despite the danger they pose, national security experts say these transports are largely unguarded and very vulnerable to a terrorist attack. And the terrorists know it. American intelligence agencies have been aware for several years that Al-Qaeda is interested in targeting U.S. railroads. In 2002 the F.B.I. found photographs of U.S. railroad engines, cars and crossing in Al Qaeda's possession. "I'm sorry to say that since 9/11 we have done nothing in this area," Richard Falkenrath, formerly one of President Bush's top advisers on homeland security, said in Senate testimony last year.

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