Race to the Top
Steve Williams
March 28, 2010
"...and states that outperform the rest will be rewarded with a grant.”
On July 24, 2009, President Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced Race to the Top, a 4.35 billion dollar fund to be parceled out to a handful of states that meet the federal government's standards for education reform.
http://www.ed.gov/blog/2009/07/president-o... Race to the Top is a competition between the states for federal grants, awarded based on the evaluation of proposals from states as to how well they meet the federal government's ideas about what is needed to reform our education system. The criteria are four:
1) Adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace.
2) Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals.
3) Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices.
4) Turning around our lowest-performing schools.
There are a few things wrong with this picture.
First is the fact that education is the province of the states, not the federal government. Ten states did not even submit proposals: Alaska, Maine, Maryland, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Washington. Presumably, they are holding the line, and exercising their state's rights to determine what is best for the education of their citizen youth.
Secondly, the proposals that were submitted were judged by a panel of five individuals for each state. There were forty states that applied, plus the District of Columbia. So a panel of 205 judges have determined the sixteen states chosen as finalists in the competition, and this number will be pared down to some unspecified, much smaller number of states, who will be determined the winners. And this is how it will be determined that 4.35 billion of the nation's taxpayer's money will be distributed?
http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010... Thirdly, are the criteria set by the federal government even valid? It seems to be all about test scores, statistical analysis of data, closing schools and firing teachers. At this point, I'd like to use as a case in point, the beating death of Derrion Albert, an honor student at Christian Fenger Academy High School in Chicago's South Side. Where in this program is any thought given to the situation of those students who have to fear for their lives when they go to school? Here is a quote from Secretary Duncan at the October 7 news conference following Derrion's death:
"We also met with Fenger students and parents and the principal. And the students -- it was amazing -- were united in the request for one thing. They want mentors. They want more adults in their lives who care about them. They're extraordinary children at Fenger, and they want us to meet them more than halfway."
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/10/ho... Now where in Race to the Top is there anything about mentoring students, educating the whole person, parent involvement, or most importantly, providing a safe environment for our children's education?
In concluding, I will refer to the following information from PURE, Parents United for Responsible Education. But first is an explanation of the acronyms used in the PURE's commentary. I encourage all of us to research this issue carefully. What I have presented hear is just the tip of the iceberg.
CPS: Chicago Public Schools
http://www.cps.edu ISBE: Illinois State Board of Education
http://www.isbe.state.il.us ACSD: Association for Christians in Student Development
http://www.acsd.org NEA: National Education Association
http://www.nea.org From PURE (Parents United for Responsible Education):
http://pureparents.org/index.php?blog/show... Renaissance 2010 Shares Blame for Increased School Violence
Responsibility for the tragic death of Fenger student Derrion Albert belongs first and foremost to the perpetrators. Their families must take a share of the blame, and all parents must step up, be visible in and around schools, and take more responsibility for their children's conduct. Police presence at Fenger was clearly inadequate given the imminent threat of violent retaliation for a shooting hours before the fatal riot.
But it is of critical importance to acknowledge that Mayor Daley's Renaissance 2010 program is a significant contributing factor to the increase in violence at Fenger and other affected schools. R2010 has radically destabilized already fragile communities by closing schools – often the only major community institution in some neighborhoods -- and by firing long-time teachers and staff and pushing students out and across gang territory to unfamiliar surroundings.
While the Tribune alluded to this reality by mentioning that CPS made nearby Carver High School into a closed-enrollment military school, you failed to add that Fenger also receives students from Englewood and Calumet High Schools, which are no longer regular neighborhood schools thanks to R2010, or that Fenger is in its first year of CPS-run turnaround under R2010, meaning that nearly all of its staff was fired and replaced this past summer.
Former CPS Chief Executive Officer, now Education Secretary Arne Duncan, wants to award federal Race to the Top grant money based on the extent to which states promote the "Chicago model" of school reform -- turnarounds, charters, and high-stakes standardized testing. These strategies have not worked in Chicago, and are hurting children. We must save our children from further expansion of these "reforms." We've got to tell the truth about what's been happening in Chicago and demand that Illinois and other states stand up for what is best for children.
****
More on the Fenger tragedy:
As usual, Substance is the only Chicago newspaper that pointed out that violence-disrupted Fenger High School is in its first year of CPS-run turnaround under Renaissance 2010.
The Tribune alluded to R2010, reporting that some in the community "blamed the violence on the school district's decision two years ago to convert Carver High School to a military academy, forcing many Altgeld students to transfer to Fenger."
Even murkier was the Sun-Times quote from a Fenger mom, "They opened this school up and said everything has changed. Nothing has changed," she said.
The Sun-Times fails to explain that the "change" was the 2009 CPS turnaround.
Substance reports the full story -- that only nine of the more than 100 Fenger teachers were kept in the turnaround, and that "Part of the toxic mix at Fenger was created when the Board of Education closed and radically reorganized Carver High School, Englewood High School, and Calumet High School on the city's South Side...." so that neighborhood students were turned away from their local school. According to Substance, "At public hearings in February 2009, and earlier, teachers, community leaders and others ...warned that disrupting the general high schools of Chicago’s South Side would lead to increasing gang violence and destabilization.
CPS claims that the R2010 "hearings" are important, but clearly no one at CPS was listening.
http://pureparents.org/index.php?blog/show... Will Obama and Duncan Listen?
Will ISBE? Because it's the RTTT proposal ISBE writes that will determine how this program affects Chicago schools. ISBE's upcoming meeting schedule is pasted in below.
Here are some thoughtful comments about the four basic tenets of Race to the Top-- turnarounds, tying teacher evaluations and salaries to test scores, national standards, and expanding charter schools.
Will they listen???
On turnarounds, from NewsTips, quoting Julian High School student Shantell Steve, who was featured in President Obama's speech to students:
"School closings and staff changes are especially bad for the most vulnerable students. (Steve said) 'We have to change schools without getting rid of all the teachers, because they are our support system.' Steve invited Ron Huberman to Julian to see the turnaround that’s happening there without firing the teachers and having to shut the school and reopen it. She said there’s 'great progress' at Julian, adding, 'If we can change a school like Julian we can change any school.'
On using test scores to judge teachers, from an essay in the Sacramento Bee written by award-winning teachers:
"We urge Duncan and Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger to go back to school regarding the use of test scores for teacher evaluations. Currently, state education policy prohibits this practice; experts in education, testing and even economics have argued that state tests are not designed for teacher evaluation and will not yield reliable results. You are taking in us in a direction that will harm our schools and our students. The policy changes promoted through Race to the Top will undo California's thoughtful, research-based and consensus-driven state education policy in an attempt to qualify for federal grants.
On national standards, from ASCD:
"We believe it is both premature and inappropriate for the Department of Education to require states to adopt a set of 'common core' (i.e., 'national') standards as a condition to be eligible to apply for and receive this federal grant."
On charter expansion, from the NEA:
"Despite growing evidence to the contrary, it appears that the administration has decided that charter schools are the only answer to what ails America's public schools -- urban, suburban, exurban and rural -- and all must comply with that silver bullet. We find this top-down approach disturbing; we have been down that road before with the failures of No Child Left Behind, and we cannot support yet another layer of federal mandates that have little or no research base of success and that usurp state and local government's responsibilities for public education."
***
Posted By: Steve Williams
Sunday, April 18th 2010 at 9:22AM
You can also
click
here to view all posts by this author...
