Parental Engagement Twitter Chat: Arne Duncan’s #EpicFail

The topic of Arne Duncan’s July Twitter chat was “Parental engagement”. And that’s ironic for two reasons:

  1. He received a lot of parental engagement on the chat he probably wasn’t expecting.
  2. He didn’t “engage” much with the parents who were asking him the tough questions regarding his education policy that affect their kids.

In fact, Duncan didn’t say much, but parents and educators certainly did.

His first tweet:

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YAWN….

That’s like saying, “As parents, we know the sky is blue,” or “we know our kids like ice-cream.”

He then tweeted:

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And that’s when he stepped in it, because parents know exactly what questions to ask.

In fact, here are just a few of the hundreds of tweets that poured in by parents (To see the full bombardment of questions, go to Twitter and search #PTChat):

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Seldom throughout the chat, the education secretary got a few easy ones thrown down the middle over the plate that he had no problem taking a swing at:

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Wendy  was one of the only people The Education Secretary responded to.

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And parents got engaged and used all kinds of strategies hoping the Secretary of ED would engage with them back:

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But, he didn’t answer any of these tweets, and they kept coming in. Many were from educators:

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Not surprisingly, Mr. Duncan didn’t use any of his 140 characters to answer.

Sadly, parents wanted answers about their children with dyslexia:

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To the dyslexia concerns, Mr. Duncan said only:

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Lots of people speculated that it wasn’t him on twitter at all. That it was probably a 23 year-old intern who knows very little about eduction. Although the intern could probably come up with better ed policy than Arne Duncan.  About 30 min into the chat, Duncan went silent.

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Ultimately this Twitter Chat #epicfail on the part of Arne Duncan. Some suggestions:

  1. When talking about parental engagement, be sure you’re ready to actually engage with parents.
  2. Use less catch phrases that mean absolutely nothing and get in and answer the tough questions.
  3. When engaging with parents of dyslexic kids, try not to throw dyslexia stats and figures at them. They know the stats.
  4. If you organize a Twitter the chat, man up and stay in the game. Don’t bail before it’s over.
  5. Choose topics you’re willing to participate in with parents. Otherwise, it looks like a 23 year old intern is tweeting for you.

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5 Responses

  1. Renee Masilon

    When I was in high school, we took some tests but not SOLs. Just to present one example of what worked, my senior year was amazing. They offered remedial English, regular English, GT and AP. That was when there were no children left behind. Those who are in charge now of many things have, I think, made it so that all children are left behind and belong to a group of mediocre students / future adults. So ask yourself, why? What is to be gained by this?

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  2. Arne Duncan pushes for ‘parent engagement’ — and gets some angry feedback - The Washington Post

    […] “I want to describe a set of educational rights that I firmly believe must belong to every family in America—and I hope you’ll demand that your leaders in elected and appointed offices deliver on them. They come together as a set of rights that students must have at three pivotal stages of their life, to prepare them for success in college and careers and as engaged, productive citizens.” First, every child should have the right to attend a free, high-quality preschool…. Second, I believe all children have the right to high, challenging standards and engaging teaching and leadership in a safe, supportive, well-resourced school….[And]  I believe we must see an affordable, high-quality college degree as every child’s right.” The announcement, according to the Education Department, “complements work by the Education Department to reach out to parents—from the Dual Capacity-Building Framework for Family-School Partnerships, to tools that can help families and students select the best colleges for their needs, to support of Parent Training and Information Centers and Resource Centers.” Who would argue with those rights? (Nobody I know.) The question for Duncan is what, over seven years, he has done to ensure those rights for parents.  Were his policies geared to achieving educational equity for each student? (No.) Or was his chief policy initiative something called Race to the Top, which forced states to compete for federal funds by promising to implement specific reforms Duncan favored, such as expanding charter schools and requiring that teachers be evaluated in part by student test scores. (Yes.) Did he take any important steps to bring about a change in the way public schools are funded so that the poorest schools don’t wind up with the fewest resources? (No.)  Did his department talk about the need for high-quality teachers but then support with many millions of dollars a program called Teach For America, which recruits new college graduates, gives them five weeks of training and then sends them into the neediest public schools? (Yes.) Did he make a major push on early childhood education and quality preschool in the first term of the Obama administration, given that it is the No. 1 right of parents? (No.)  Etc., etc. Duncan, as noted above, made his July Twitter chat all about parents rights, and he sure heard from some engaged parents. He just didn’t appear to know what to do with them. Here is an account of that chat, by Kathleen Jasper. She is an educator who created the ConversationED Web site, which offers a platform for conversations about education and courses for schools, districts and companies on action research, leadership and technology. This appeared on the Web site’s blog. […]

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  3. Strauss: Arne Duncan pushes for ‘parent engagement’ — and gets some angry feedback | Local National News

    […] Duncan, as noted above, made his July Twitter chat all about parents rights, and he sure heard from some engaged parents. He just didn’t appear to know what to do with them. Here is an account of that chat, by Kathleen Jasper. She is an educator who created the ConversationED Web site, which offers a platform for conversations about education and courses for schools, districts and companies on action research, leadership and technology. This appeared on the Web site’s blog. […]

    Reply
  4. Jane Feldman

    Arne Duncan only wants engagement from people who agree with him. At a recent speech in Denver, the participants were screened so that parents and teachers who do not support his “reform” efforts were not invited. Parent engagement is important, but the Secretary dismisses the views and comments and people who think he and the Administration are on the wrong track. That is not engagement.

    Reply

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