“Race to the Top” funds come with strings attached
By Lawrence Hardy
Fall '09 -- States trying to qualify for grants from federal government’s $4.35 billion Race to the Top fund must show they can compare teacher data and with student achievement, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a major address in July outlining goals and requirements for the program.
That mandate would apparently disqualify California unless it changes a 2006 law which, in creating a teacher database, prohibited the state from linking teacher and student data, but permitted districts to do so. Duncan has repeatedly criticized that law.
Duncan also called on states interested in competing for the funds not to get in the way of other reforms, such as charter schools and alternative certification for teachers.
“States, for example, that limit alternative routes to certification for teachers and principals, or cap the number of charter schools, will be at a competitive disadvantage,” Duncan said. “And states that explicitly prohibit linking data on achievement or student growth to principal and teacher evaluations will be ineligible for reform dollars until they change their laws.”
President Obama joined Duncan in announcing the competition, saying that “for years we’ve talked these problems to death ... while doing all too little to solve them.”
Michael A. Resnick, NSBA’s associate executive director for advocacy, said, “Clearly this administration has a comprehensive plan for what its role is in helping schools to reach higher levels of student achievement, especially when it comes to students who are academically challenged. And clearly they are putting significant funding behind their plan.
“Time will tell whether there is the capacity to take everything to a nationwide scale, but this is an impressive start,” he added.
Sandi Jacobs, vice president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said Duncan is right to require states to connect teacher and student data. “We think that’s absolutely essential,” she said. “We think the Department [of Education] is talking about it in just the right way.”
But union leaders in California were skeptical of changing a law that was enacted after intensive negotiations with teachers.
“We suggest the state look very carefully at that before they make that move,” Gary Ravani, of the California Federation of Teachers, told the Los Angeles Times.
In addition to linking student and teacher data, Duncan is requiring three other “assurances” from states interested in receiving funds. “For starters, we expect that winners of the Race to the Top fund grants will work to reverse the pervasive dumbing down of academic standards and assessments that has taken place in many states,” Duncan said.
The third assurance is to boost teacher and principal quality, especially in hard-to-staff schools and subjects, and to find more effective ways of rewarding and retaining high-quality teachers. The fourth calls on states and district to restructure failing schools.
Said Duncan: “We cannot continue to tinker in terrible schools where students fall further and further behind, year after year.”
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