To Duncan, Incentives a Priority

New Secretary of Education Eyes Use of Proposed Fund

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan says he is eager to use a proposed $15 billion federal incentive-grant fund in part to reward states, districts, and even nonprofit organizations that have set high standards for the students they serve.

“With this fund, we really have a chance to drive dramatic changes, to take to scale what works, invest in what works,” Mr. Duncan said in an interview last week, his first full week at the helm of the Department of Education. He said he would aim to “reward those states that are pushing very, very hard to get dramatically better.”

Mr. Duncan’s comments came in a wide-ranging interview with Education Week in which he named as priorities reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, expansion of prekindergarten programs, and improvements in teacher...