Arne Duncan, the Chicago schools chief, told the Senate on Tuesday that he would work for “real and meaningful change” in the nation’s schools if confirmed as education secretary, and he said he hoped president-elect Barack Obama’s own example as a model student could inspire millions of American children.

“Never before has being smart been so cool,” Mr. Duncan said.

But Mr. Duncan did little to resolve the curiosities of educators and policymakers about how he and Mr. Obama intend to bring about change in American education, which over the next year is likely to include an attempt to the rewrite the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law, the most important statement of federal policy on public schools.



“I have seen the law’s power and its limitations,” Mr. Duncan said, but he provided no examples of concrete changes he will seek. “I agree with the president-elect that we should neither bury NCLB nor praise it without reservation.”

In a confirmation hearing before the Senate educaiton committee, Mr. Duncan laid out a thoroughly pragmatic and non-ideological educational agenda, vowing to do “anything that works” to raise achievement in public schools.

The Obama Administration intends to expand early childhood programs, foster the opening of more charter schools, improve teacher training and recruitment, and increase access to college for low-income students, Mr. Duncan said.

Mr. Duncan, who is 44, walked a careful line among rival factions of the nation’s educational reform movement, neither fully endorsing nor rejecting those who want to squeeze teachers and administrators harder to raise student achievement, nor a rival faction that contends schools alone are not capable of closing achievement gaps between poor and affluent students without broader federal investments in school-based health clinics and other social programs.

The Senate appeared likely to give quick approval to Mr. Duncan nomination.

“I think you’re the best,” said Senator Lamar Alexander, one of several Republican senators who praised Mr. Duncan’s record as chief executive of the nation’s third largest school district. “I hope I still think that a year from now.”

Sen. Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa, chaired the hearing in place of Senator Edward M. Kennedy, the committee chairman.