Education Secretary Arne Duncan

If Education Secretary Arne Duncan can change, he reasons anybody can.

Speaking at the conference Thursday night, Duncan pledged not to use three words he's become known for in his brief tenure: extraordinary, dramatic and incent. (We just had to get them into this piece more than once, however. Happy hunting.)

He slipped but once (on incent), but took the opportunity to outline the possible dramatic changes that may be coming, soon, to the American education landscape.

Duncan said while policy makers and the general public have been astonished by some parts of the Democratic administration's education agenda, including the expansion of charter schools and a push for performance-based pay for teachers, honest discussion about the topics is necessary.

In the meantime, he pledged to do whatever he can to incent educators to be extraordinarily more open and honest about their students and schools.

"That lack of willingness to open up actually impedes progress," he said in response to a question by EWA Public Editor Linda Perlstein.

He noted that while the press may sometimes be too quick to discredit a potential education reform initiative, its collective power can also highlight severe failures.

"We don't ask that you go easy on us," he said.

Don't worry, Secretary Duncan. That's probably not something us education reporters would consider changing for a second.