Duncan's speech

I just finished finished reading Secretary Duncan's speech on the future of ESEA/NCLB. Checker already weighed in here, but let me add a couple other thoughts.

1. The administration continues to suffer from a bit of cognitive dissonance when it comes to the role of the federal government. In the speech, the Secretary uses many of his favorite lines showing his support for the concept of local control ("I'm even more convinced that the best solutions begin with parents and teachers..." "We don't believe that local educators need a prescription for success..." "As a former superintendent, I can tell you that I never looked forward to calls from Washington..."). But this is the same administration that is requiring states to address each and every one of the federal government's 19 favorite reform ideas in order to get Race to the Top funds. At the risk of being too blunt: either the federal government has the answers or it doesn't.
2. The secretary offered tepid support for NCLB. While he gives it credit for abstruse contributions like exposing achievement gaps, looking at outputs, and advancing accountability, he didn't praise a single concrete program or approach. This suggests to me that just about everything is on the table for reconsideration.
3. Duncan played to the left, resurrecting old, familiar attacks. For example, despite the largest appropriations increases in ESEA's history, NCLB "was underfunded." Despite the safe harbor provision and pilots/waivers on differentiated accountability and growth models, NCLB "unfairly labeled many schools as failures even when they were making progress (and) places too much emphasis on raw test scores rather than student growth."
4. There will be more listening. Although Duncan's "Listening and Learning" tour has taken him to "30 states and hundreds of schools," Assistant Secretaries Carmel Martin and Thelma Melendez will convene more gatherings to solicit additional ideas from the public as they lead the crafting of the administration's reauthorization proposal.
5. To his credit, Secretary Duncan made appropriate use of Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" to make the case that we need a greater sense of urgency when addressing education problems.
6. Finally, and probably most interesting to deep-in-the-weeds policy wonks, Duncan strongly implied that NCLB's goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students will be jettisoned. "Let us build a law that demands real accountability tied to growth and gain in the classroom rather than utopian goals."