Now that President-elect Barack Obama has tapped Chicago Public Schools CEO Arne Duncan to be secretary of education, the transition team’s plan is for Duncan to select his key department leaders within the next few weeks.

“The assistant secretaries, deputy secretary,  that is really in the purview of the secretary, of course, working with the White House,” said Eugene García, Arizona State University’s vice president for education partnerships, who is wrapping up his voluntary role as a member of Obama’s education agency review team now that Duncan has been named.

“We’re hoping he’ll have a pretty good team together by inauguration,” García said.

Those spots include two crucial posts for higher education:

·         The under secretary of education, who oversees policies and programs on post-secondary education, vocational and adult education, as well as federal student aid.

·         The assistant secretary for postsecondary education, who serves as principal adviser to the secretary on postsecondary education policy and legislation.

García believes that Linda Darling-Hammond, leader of Obama’s Education Policy Working Group who was in the running for secretary of education, is a likely contender for another top education post. Darling-Hammond is an education professor at Stanford University who launched Stanford’s Center for Opportunity Policy in Education and the School Redesign Network.

“She’s been very good on the policy side,” García said. “I think she’ll be there. If that’s what she wants to do, she’ll either be in the White House in domestic policy or she’ll be in the Education Department.”

Darling-Hammond did not respond to requests for comment from Diverse.

The National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education, a lobbying group representing 120 historically Black colleges and universities, is watching the next round of appointments for high-ranking Department of Education officials closely. The organization supported a number of  candidates for  education secretary, not including Duncan, said NAFEO President Lezli Baskerville.