Education Secretary Arne Duncan made his first big staffing announcement late Friday (interesting timing). Carmel Martin will become the assistant secretary for planning, evaluation, and policy development, a position most recently held by William Evers.
Martin has an extensive background in education policy but she was most recently chief education adviser to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, the chairman of the Senate education committee.
It’s hard to tell where she stands on policy priorities. In 2007, Martin was fairly tight-lipped during the failed attempt to reauthorize the NCLB law, and it was never clear where Kennedy was headed on debates about “multiple measures” for accountability, for instance, or performance pay for teachers.
Since Duncan, Obama, and Obama adviser Linda Darling-Hammond have been reluctant to engage in the “Broader, Bolder” v. “Education Equity Project” debate, it seems like Martin will fit right in.
Peter Cunningham, a communications consultant who worked for Duncan and the Chicago Public Schools, was announced as assistant secretary for communications and outreach. Alexander Russo predicted this was coming not long ago over at This Week in Education.
Darling-Hammond remains a wild card, but perhaps that will change next week. See some thoughts on this here at Teacher Beat (scroll to the bottom of the post.)