Education Secretary Arne Duncan

The selection of John Deasy to lead the nation's second-largest school system, expected Tuesday, would give the Board of Education a leader who is eager to make sweeping changes and who has earned the respect of disparate and often warring forces in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Taking on some of the thorniest issues in the system as top deputy to Supt. Ramon C. Cortines, Deasy has worked productively with union leaders, key community activists, the mayor's office and charter school operators.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will call for all states and school districts to make public whether their instructors are doing enough to raise students' test scores and to share other school-level information with parents, according to a text of a speech he is scheduled to make Wednesday. "The truth is always hard to swallow, but it can only make us better, stronger and smarter," according to remarks he plans to deliver in Little Rock, Ark. "That's what accountability is all about -- facing the truth and taking responsibility.

Calling the status quo "morally inexcusable" and "economically indefensible," President Obama defended his administration's sweeping education initiative Thursday before an audience that has been among the most skeptical of the plan — the National Urban League. "Education is an economic issue — if not the economic issue of our time," Obama said at the organization's centennial gathering in Washington. "We've got an obligation to lift up every child in every school in this country, especially those who are starting out furthest behind."

The year ended much as it had begun, with multitudes filling a sun-splashed football stadium to hear speakers offer words of hope and inspiration. One big difference: No one booed this time. It was less than a year ago that Birmingham High School in the San Fernando Valley received approval to pull out of the Los Angeles Unified School District and become a charter school — still publicly funded but with its own local leadership and budget. The decision followed months of bitter infighting involving teachers, administrators, students, parents and the teachers union, with charges and countercharges flying between those who supported the charter conversion and those who opposed it. It was a scale model of the larger battle being waged over charter schools nationally.

In a high-stakes competition, Tennessee and Delaware were awarded $600 million Monday, the only states to win grants in the first phase of "Race to the Top," the Obama administration's $4.35-billion education initiative, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. Duncan said both states showed that they had overwhelming support for their overhaul plans from all stakeholders -- including teachers' unions, parents, and local and state school officials. Such support weighed heavily in the decision.

What wouldn't California do for $700 million right now? That's not a rhetorical question. With U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan parceling out more than $4 billion to states that conform to his vision of school reform, California's Legislature is just one of dozens that are frantically revamping their states' education systems for some of that cash. Should California succeed, its share would be somewhere between $350 million and $700 million. To obtain the money, Sacramento must pass legislation that would serve as the basis for an application.

The Obama administration has made a promising move regarding school reform with its "Race to the Top" program. The $4.3 billion in federal grants is intended to reward states and schools that introduce new models of innovation and accountability. What needs reform just as badly as the schools, however, is the No Child Left Behind Act, a well-meant but ham-handed law that actually encourages schools to lower their academic standards and that often leaves behind the students who most need help.

Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Wednesday pledged federal support to fight a surge in youth violence in Chicago and other cities, calling the brutal beating death of a teenager on the city's South Side a wake-up call for the country. But neither offered specifics or outlined any strategies on how the government would help quell the increase in the number of violent deaths among teens. Duncan and Holder were sent to Chicago by President Obama to meet with officials, parents and students from Christian Fenger Academy High School after the beating death of a 16-year-old sophomore was captured on a cellphone video.

A chilling cellphone video of a Chicago honors student's fatal beating has captured national attention, and President Obama responded Thursday by announcing that two Cabinet secretaries would travel to his hometown next week. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan would meet Wednesday with school officials, students and residents and talk about school violence. "Obviously, [the incident] is of great concern to the president, as somebody who lives in Chicago," Gibbs said.