Secretary of Education
4
3.6
- noun
- /ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri əv ˌɛdʒʊˈkeɪʃən/
- Formal
:
Secretario de Educación
- U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige issued the call to action during remarks at the first annual Teacher Quality Evaluation Conference in 2002.
- U.S. Secretary of Education
- former Secretary of Education
Examples
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Only nine individuals have held the position of Secretary of Education in the U.S. government.
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U.S. Secretary of Education John B. King
Academic text (2016) -
Richard W. Riley, U.S. Secretary of Education
Academic text (2004) -
Secretary of Education Richard Riley called arts education "a vital part of our effort" in a press statement released February 23.
Academic text (1993) -
Margaret Spellings is a former Secretary of Education under President George W. Bush.
Blog text (1) -
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wants to improve the No Child Left Behind program.
Academic text (2011) -
Zack has lobbied U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to make civic education a national priority.
Academic text (2011) -
A videotape produced by the Coalition and narrated by news anchor Charles Osgood will feature a speech by Secretary of Education Richard Riley and testimonials from several celebrities.
Academic text (1994) -
Margaret Spellings (2008), former U.S. Secretary of Education, suggested that states should stop inaccurate reporting because this obscures the scale of a national dropout crisis, estimated to be 1.2 million students a year.
Academic text (2011) -
As Secretary of Education, he emphasized the importance of early childhood education.
Synonyms
14
3.9
A government official in charge of national education policy and schools
How Expert
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'secretary' (a senior official) + 'of' (linking role to domain) + 'education' (the field/institution) clearly denotes the official in charge of education. This possessive/role construction is cross-linguistically common (e.g. "Minister of Education"), so a B1 learner who knows the constituents will readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Secretary of Education comes from the older role of a secretary as a trusted helper who kept a leader's papers and private matters. That's why a Secretary of Education today is the government official who is the 'head' responsible for national education.