Obama's $4.3 Billion "Race to the Top" Department of Education (DoEd) program administered by Chicago friend, DoEd Secretary Arne Duncan is a high priced federal intervention into national, state, and local education policy.
Initially there were 3 major criticisms: 1)"Race to the Top is a Charter School initiative. Charter schools create a 2nd public school system, a duplication of services in a weak economy. If you cannot educate in School 1, why start over in School 2? 2)"Race to the Top" created a competition between states and "consortia" of states for federal DoEd money. 3)What was the identified problem in school achievement, the student, teachers, or schools? How can you propose a solution if you haven't identified a problem?
The Obama DoEd money may be a "trojan horse" deployed by the Democratic Administration in the months before the primary elections. Enormous amounts of state and local educator time and energy has been devoted to the compilation of voluminous reports required for the "Race" applications. In Round One, only Delaware and Tennessee tentatively "won", $100,000 million and $500,000 million respectively. New York, Goergia, North Carolina, Ohio, Washington, DC, Illinois, Hawaii, Maryland and Rhode Island are in Round Two, filing paperwork for the "Race" funds.
Published Federal press releases of state "winners" have not mentioned that these are preliminary awards and amounts, pending review of an additional application by November. Applications are further complicated by which school districts and charter schools choose to "sign on" to the state application. These are not uniform awards to the states or to schools within the states by population or other criteria.
Despite generating huge volumes of data for government data entry technicians, it is not clear how any actual distribution of funds could occur.
DoEd Secretary Arne Duncan notes "the creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking", relinquishing the concept of standards.
The New York Daily News reports New York has tentatively been awarded $240 million of $700 million to be disbursed over 4 years in Round Two. New York goals would include creating testing standards for math and reading for 3rd - 8th grades and High School which are "rigorous, globally competitive, and consistent". New York has not made a final decision to continue the application for these funds.
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer reports Ohio has been tentatively awarded $400 million, $29.8 million for Cuyahoga County. The Ohio Education Department interprets the amounts as a reform effort determined by the number of students in low-income families. This is hard to reconcile with achievement criteria, based on student and school performance data on OH standardized tests.
Schools at the highest level of achievement are held to that standard for a 2-year period, from which they fall by not achieving more. If you have an "A", your "A" will fall to "B" for not raising above the "A". Under this interpretation, the best students at the best schools probably would not receive funding, until they fail. So the best must "Race to the Bottom" to get the most "Race to the Top" funding.
In OH "no teacher will be left behind". The OH goal is to train teachers in instructional strategies that vary by building. Marilyn Tromer, OH State Superintendent, said the money "will be used to bring more tools and services to OH teachers so they can better track their students' achievement". Other OH goals include improving graduation rate by 0.5%, halving the gap between minority and white student graduation rates and test scores, and halving the gap between OH and the best performing states in national math and reading assessments.
In New Jersey, the "Race to the Top" has been divisive. Governor Chris Christie fired his Education Commissioner for early "Round" application errors.
There is a minimum $100,000 application amount for state school districts which apply to "Race to the Top". Government analysts and penny counters must have been off the day Obama introduced this legislation to Congress. Why appropriate more money if less will do? The "Race to the Top" terms resemble commission-based collateral business loan applications.
There is another question. With a $1.5 trillion dollar federal deficit, where is the loan money coming from? US students not able to learn under normal conditions may not be able to study under the pressure of a foreign, particularly United Arab Emirate (UAE), lien against the schoolhouse, their teachers, themselves or their parents.
"Save the little red schoolhouse!"
Photos: Top--One-room country schools were common in the US in the 1800's. One teacher taught all grades. Teaching methods stressed memorization and discipline.
Next--1930's Progressive Education teachers rejected the formal teaching methods of the 1800's. Pupils learned about community life by building a miniature town.
(The World Book Encyclopedia, 2003)
Other references include: The New York Daily News, The (Cleveland, OH) Plain Dealer.
Email mkrause54@yahoo.com or mkrause381@gmail.com for a copy of this blog or other blogs posted by mary for monthlynotesstaff on http://monthlynotesfour.blogspot.com (when indexed) or http://monthlynotes.blogspot.com on www.google.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment