Myth: REPA will help Indiana win "Race to the Top"

Dr. Bennett and Gov. Daniels have repeatedly said that the radical, unsound changes that REPA contains will help Indiana win the Federal Government’s “Race to the Top.” “Race to the Top” is a competition put forth by the Obama administration in which states can receive part of a $4 billion package by proving that they are putting forth sound, researched, and effective educational reform. Indiana Citizens find it interesting that in the following article Indiana isn’t mentioned as one of the states putting forth such measures. In fact, of all the educational reforms mentioned in this article none of them are akin to the radical reforms in REPA. It is time to call out the Daniels’ administration for lying to us about why they are rushing to get REPA ratified.  Indiana Citizens thinks that a clue as to the real reasons might be in the quote from the article below, “States are rushing to stitch together grant proposals that will win points, but many could just turn out to be short-term political plays.”


A link to the original article is at the end.

November 11, 2009



States Compete for Federal School Dollars


By SAM DILLON


DENVER — Colorado’s lieutenant governor, Barbara O’Brien, has been parsing every public statement by Education Secretary Arne Duncan for nuances that could help her position the state as a winner in the $4 billion competition for federal school dollars known as Race to the Top.


And officials in dozens of other states have been doing the same, said Gene Wilhoit, executive director of the Council of Chief State School Officers, a nonpartisan association of state superintendents of education.


“Whenever we have a conversation about any issue these days, Race to the Top is the gorilla in the room,” Mr. Wilhoit said.


The last time education officials were reading tea leaves so obsessively was after the 2001 No Child Left Behind law reshaped America’s public school landscape. Now Race to the Top is again redefining what Washington calls reform, setting in motion a new cycle of federal school improvement efforts.

States’ hunger for details should be sated when final rules are released this week, a Department of Education official said.


The $4 billion is the most money Washington has ever given to overhaul schools. It is to be awarded in two rounds, in April and September, to about a dozen states that propose bold schemes to shake up the way they evaluate and compensate teachers, use data to raise achievement and intervene in failing schools. With $16 billion in school budget shortfalls projected for next year, states are hungry.


Experts say the process is like watching dozens of states bid for the Olympics.


Some critics question whether the competition will bring the sweeping changes to America’s public schools that the administration is seeking.


“I’m hugely concerned about unintended consequences,” said Frederick Hess, an education director at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research policy group. “States are rushing to stitch together grant proposals that will win points, but many could just turn out to be short-term political plays.”


Colorado has mounted one of the most energetic campaigns. Gov. Bill Ritter Jr., a Democrat, has directed $7 million in federal stimulus money to programs he hopes will improve Colorado’s chances. And he put Ms. O’Brien in charge of assembling hundreds of state officials, mayors, educators and residents for dozens of public meetings to discuss strategies for improving schools.


Ms. O’Brien has enlisted foundations, nonprofit groups and University of Colorado - Denver professors to help. Colorado’s effort so far, she said, has consumed 5,000 hours of staff and volunteer time.


Fifteen states, financed by $250,000 grants from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, have enlisted high-powered consultants to polish their proposals.


In Oklahoma, Gov. Brad Henry, who had not named an education secretary, recently appointed an education innovation adviser, tasked with landing federal money. The State Board of Education also recently raised Oklahoma’s academic standards, among the nation’s lowest.


Wisconsin is also competing. Gov. James E. Doyle has backed several education bills recommended by the Obama administration, including one that would remove a prohibition on using student data to evaluate teachers, which the administration has made an eligibility requirement of the grant competition.


President Obama traveled to Madison, Wis., last Wednesday and urged lawmakers there to revoke the prohibition, praising California and Indiana for recently taking the same step. By week’s end, Wisconsin lawmakers had done so, too.


Melody Barnes, the president’s domestic policy adviser, called the response from states “overwhelming” and said the competition had already produced important policy changes. “We’ve seen quite a lot of movement, and we haven’t even put out the applications yet,” she said.


One skeptic is Jeanne Allen, executive director of the Center for Education Reform, a Washington group that supports charter schools.


“Some states are just doing what is easy and inconsequential to get qualified for Race to the Top,” she said, and the administration has been portraying minor changes to state laws as significant school reform victories.


The administration has congratulated states “merely for fulfilling budgetary promises of charter funding after the states had first wiped the funding off the books,” Ms. Allen said.


Mr. Obama praised Delaware, for example, for allowing a one-year moratorium on new charter schools to lapse in July, even though that was when it had been scheduled to expire.


“Delaware is getting brownie points for that?” Ms. Allen said.


But Kate Walsh, president of the nonprofit National Council on Teacher Quality who has advised several states on Race to the Top strategy, said praise from the White House did not mean a state would win money next year. Mr. Duncan might include only two or three states among first-round winners to signal that only plans that intend to thoroughly transform state school systems can win, Ms. Walsh said.


“I worry about a backlash from furious states that don’t get money,” Ms. Walsh said.


At the State Capitol here one recent morning, Ms. O’Brien, the lieutenant governor, presided over a meeting of officials working on Colorado’s proposal. There was a review of plans to turn around 80 of the state’s low-performing schools, an update on efforts to create a more thorough teacher evaluation system and discussion of other issues.


“Let’s not forget, we’re producing a blueprint for this state for the next two decades,” Ms. O’Brien said. “So this has to be something we can live with, win or lose Race to the Top.”


As in every state, Colorado’s challenge is to develop a bold proposal — and persuade powerful interests to accept it. Teachers’ union representatives have been participating in the public meetings, and Ms. O’Brien expressed confidence that the union would eventually endorse Colorado’s proposal. But a union spokeswoman said it would withhold judgment.


Persuading Colorado’s 180 local school boards to endorse the proposal is another daunting task. The state education commissioner, Dwight D. Jones, recently barnstormed the state, meeting with dozens of local school superintendents and board members.


“We’re one of those Western states with a rich history of local control,” Mr. Jones said. “There were lots of questions about what does it mean to have a state sign on to common standards with other states. Some people said we shouldn’t chase a shiny new penny. I said our Colorado agenda aligns well with what Secretary Duncan is encouraging.”

 
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/education/11educ.html?emc=eta1