Could you imagine the howls of outrage if George W, Bush appointed as Secretary of Education a school administrator from a district where 83% of eight graders tested below grade level in reading and less than half of all entering freshmen graduate from high school? We'd hear words like "incompetence", "failure", and "the destruction of public education".

But when Obama makes precisely such an appointment, we are told that the new Cabinet member is an "innovator" and "reformer" who will continue "experimentation on a national scale".

City schools chief executive Arne Duncan, President-elect Barack Obama's choice for education secretary, pushed that performance-pay plan and a host of other innovations to transform a school system once regarded as one of the country's worst. As Duncan heads to Washington, the lessons of Chicago could provide a model for fixing America's schools.

"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, assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. "Duncan's willing to try new things and see if they work, hopefully keep the ones that do and drop the ones that don't. I expect that experimentation to continue on a national scale."

Now I will give Duncan some credit -- he has introduced some meaningful reforms into a district that has been troubled for decades by corruption, incompetence, and union intransigence. But the reality is that, by virtually every measure, the district remains a failure in terms of its primary mission -- educating every student to his or her fullest potential, and preparing them to function as productive citizens.

As a teacher, I am NOT reassured by this appointment -- and I am shocked by the whitewashing that the press are giving Duncan and his record.