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race to the race to the top
November 11, 2009
Final Race to the Top guidelines keep rule that may exclude NY
The U.S. Department of Education released final guidelines for its $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant program this evening, leaving a provision that could ban New York State from applying for the funds still intact.
States that bar districts from using test scores to evaluate teachers and principals are ineligible for the fund. The language of the requirement remains exactly the same as in the draft rules released in July. The draft proposal sparked a debate about whether a New York State provision that bars using student data in teacher tenure decisions will exclude the state from the competition for grant money.
However, the final criteria does provide more context on how student data should be used to evaluate teachers and principals than did the draft proposal. The regulations call for states to develop evaluation methods that use student test scores as a “significant factor” in rating teachers and principals, but notes that it should be one factor among several categories for which teachers should be judged.
New York’s teacher tenure law sunsets next June, and some state officials, including State Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, have said the provision’s expiration date allows the state to be eligible. State education commissioner David Steiner has argued that the law does not exclude New York from the competition because it relates exclusively to tenure decisions and not other forms of teacher evaluation. And several state officials, including Governor David Paterson, said they have personally lobbied U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to boost the state’s chances.
The U.S. Department of Education’s time line for the application specifies that states “that are ready to apply now” should do so in a first round of applications due in mid-January; other states that need more time to comply with the eligibility requirements or to develop their grant proposals can wait until June.
According to the executive summary of the final regulations, states’ applications will be evaluated using a point system. States will earn points based on their plans for turning around the lowest-achieving schools, efforts to develop rigorous common national standards, improving the ways states collect and track student data, and improving teacher training, certification and evaluation programs. States’ plans to train, support and evaluate their teachers and principals are the most heavily-weighted factor in the application.
Here is the executive summary of the final regulations:
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November 11th, 2009 10:07 pm
[...] The federal Department of Education released final guidelines for its competitive $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant program this evening, with the eligibility requirement that could ban New York State from applying for the funds still …Read Original Story: Final Race to the Top guidelines keep rule that may exclude NY – GothamSc… [...]
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November 11th, 2009 10:56 pm
[...] The federal Department of Education released final guidelines for its competitive $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant program this evening, with the eligibility requirement that could ban New York State from applying for the funds still …Read Original Story: Final Race to the Top guidelines keep rule that may exclude NY – GothamSc… [...]
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November 12th, 2009 12:50 am
[...] The federal Department of Education released final guidelines for its competitive $4.3 billion Race to the Top grant program this evening, with the eligibility requirement that could ban New York State from applying for the funds still …Read Original Story: Final Race to the Top guidelines keep rule that may exclude NY – GothamSc… [...]
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November 12th, 2009 9:13 pm
On its face, the language of the final Race to the Top guidelines make New York State ineligible because the guidelines state that no state-level restrictions may exist that allowing student data to be used in teacher evaluations. This is stated as an “eligibility criteria.”
Yet, state officials have argued that since New York’s law applies not to all teacher evaluations but just tenure decisions (which albeit are teacher evaluations), New York is not disqualified. I directly asked Joanne Weiss, the head of the federal Race to the Top program this question at a public conference, and she accepted this distinction.
Now, I find the distinction absurd, but this conversation clearly indicates the federal Department of Education will not disqualify New York’s application on this basis, although it obviously will be a negative factor in the scoring of New York’s application.
For a more extensive discussion of this issue, see my additional comments at: http://bit.ly/21KpKM
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December 29th, 2009 10:08 am
The Rt3 solutions for improvement point the blame for a district’s failure on four areas: fire the Principal, fire the teachers, divide the school into charter schools, and dissolve the school. Rt3 assumes ahead of time that it must be the leadership that is the problem. If not leadership, it must be the teachers who cannot teach. If not the leadership who cannot lead or the teachers who cannot teach, then it must be all the rules and regulations bogging down the school so a change to a charter school that does not have to follow these cumbersome rules and regulations must be the answer, and finally…public schools do not work so we must dissolve the school and send the students to private schools that work (also not under the cumbersome rules and regulations). Maybe the answer should be to accept the following premise: “We cannot expect every student to learn the exact same thing in the exact same way in the excat same amount of time.” If we accept this premise, then Rt3 along with NCLB, will not work. A few questions might help explain my feelings: Does every student need to learn the exact same things? Do all student learn the same way or do some learn better via auditory, visual, and kinetic means? Does it take some students longer to grasp a concept or work a problem? Is the goal to learn the content or skill, or to be the fastest doing it? Rt3 is the wrong way to improve student learning.
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January 20th, 2010 11:04 am
I am working on a class project at my school about the “Race To The Top” program. I have been trying to find information about it for a few days now! I am really lost and I need some help! If anyone has info could they please be of assistance to me! Thank you very much!
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January 22nd, 2010 6:23 pm
What kind of information are you looking for exactly? I may be able to help.
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