Chicago schools could be model for nation

CHICAGO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- U.S. educators say lessons learned in Chicago could provide a model for improving the nation's troubled public schools.

Arne Duncan, who has led Chicago's school system as chief executive officer through its transformation, is President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. education secretary.

Chicago's public school system, once considered one of the nation's worst, rewards school employees for performance, recruits new charter schools and offers some students cash for good grades, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

During Duncan's seven-year tenure, teacher-training has been reinvented and some low-performing schools closed and reopened with new staff, the Post said.

"Obama chose Arne Duncan for a reason, and part of that reason is the experimentation that Duncan has done in Chicago and his real attention to data and outcomes," said Elliot Weinbaum, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. "I expect that experimentation to continue on a national scale."

Except for some clashes with the teachers' union, the changes were made with little organized opposition, the Post reported.