United States Secretary of Education

The United States Secretary of Education is the head of the U.S. Department of Education. The Secretary is a member of the President's Cabinet, and fifteenth in line of United States presidential line of succession. The United States Secretary of Education deals with Education policy.

The Secretary is advised by the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, an advisory committee, on "matters related to accreditation and to the eligibility and certification process for institutions of higher education."

As of January 1, 2016, the position is vacant. Acting Deputy Secretary of Education John King, Jr. assumed the duties of the position as Acting Secretary of Education,.

List of Secretaries of Education

      Democratic       Republican

Living former Secretaries of Education

As of February 2016, there are eight living former Secretaries of Education, the oldest being Shirley Hufstedler (1979-1981, born 1925). The most recent Secretary of Education to pass away was Terrel Bell (1981-1985), on June 22, 1996.

Of Education

The tractate Of Education was published in 1644, first appearing anonymously as a single eight-page quarto sheet (Ainsworth 6). Presented as a letter written in response to a request from the Puritan educational reformer Samuel Hartlib, it represents John Milton's most comprehensive statement on educational reform (Viswanathan 352), and gives voice to his views "concerning the best and noblest way of education" (Milton 63). As outlined in the tractate, education carried for Milton a dual objective: one public, to “fit a man to perform justly, skillfully, and magnanimously all the offices, both private and public, of peace and war” (55); and the other private, to “repair the ruins of our first parents by regaining to know God aright, and out of that knowledge to love Him, to be like Him, as we may the nearest by possessing our soul of true virtue” (52).

Influences

The influences at work in the tractate are an interesting blend of Renaissance humanism with its emphasis on the via activa, tempered by the more contemplative medieval concern with personal redemption. It is clear, however, that the overwhelming thrust of Milton's educational programme as outlined in the tractate is centred in the public objective. This is likely a reaction to the scholasticism that dominated the medieval university from the twelfth century, which still held sway in Milton's time (Ainsworth 25).

List of education ministries

An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, Ministry of Public Education, and so forth, and the head of such an agency may be a Minister of Education or Secretary of Education. Such agencies typically address educational concerns such as the quality of schools or standardization of curriculum. The first such ministry ever is considered to be the Commission of National Education (pl. Komisja Edukacji Narodowej, lt. Edukacinė komisija) founded in 1773 in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Following is a list of education ministries by country:

Africa

John King

John (or Johnny) King may refer to:

Politics

Arne Duncan

Arne Duncan (born November 6, 1964) was the United States Secretary of Education from 2009 through early 2016. His tenure as Secretary was marked by controversy. Conservatives and some parents opposed his push for all U.S. states to adopt the Common Core Standards to determine what students had learned, and teachers unions disliked his emphasis on the use of data from student tests to evaluate teachers and schools. Nevertheless, he enjoyed strong support from U.S. President Barack Obama who praised his work at the Department of Education by saying, "Arne has done more to bring our educational system -- sometimes kicking and screaming -- into the 21st century than anybody else."

Duncan previously served as superintendent of the Chicago Public Schools from 2001 to 2009.

Early years and education

Duncan was raised in Hyde Park, a Chicago neighborhood encompassing the University of Chicago. He is the son of Susan Goodrich (née Morton) and Starkey Davis Duncan, Jr. His father was a psychology professor at the university and his mother runs the Sue Duncan Children's Center, an after-school program primarily serving African-American youth in the nearby Kenwood neighborhood.