Duncan, Arne

▪ American education administrator

born Nov. 6, 1964, Chicago, Ill., U.S.

      American education administrator who was chief executive officer of the Chicago Public Schools (2001–09) before serving as U.S. secretary of education (2009– ) in the administration of Pres. Barack Obama (Obama, Barack).

      Duncan was born to a family of educators in Hyde Park, a neighbourhood on the South Side of Chicago. His mother ran a tutoring program for underserved children, and his father was a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago. Duncan graduated from Harvard University with a B.A. in sociology in 1987. While at Harvard, he cocaptained the school's basketball team, and his athletic prowess earned him a place on a professional team in Australia. Over the next four years, he played and coached for a number of teams in Victoria and Tasmania, and he tutored underprivileged students in his free time.

      In 1991 Duncan returned to the United States, and he helped launch the Ariel Education Initiative, a nonprofit endeavour that provided financial and material support for schools in low-income areas. He became director of the Chicago public school system's magnet school program in 1998, and three years later Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley (Daley, Richard M.) named him the CEO of the Chicago public school system, the country's third largest. One of Duncan's primary challenges was ensuring compliance with Pres. George W. Bush (Bush, George W.)'s No Child Left Behind act, which set federal standards for public schools. While Duncan supported some elements of the act, such as closing underperforming schools, he stressed the need for flexibility in implementation at the state and district level. In 2008 Obama nominated Duncan, his longtime friend, to serve as secretary of education, and he was confirmed by the Senate in January 2009.

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