History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Themes in the news for the week of November 9-13, 2009
- 09-23-2009
-
A weekly summary of themes in education news provided by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
'Race to the Top' Guidelines Announced: Teachers Cautious but Optimistic
By UCLA IDEA staff
Funds from ‘Race to the Top,’ one of the education components of the federal stimulus package, will be distributed soon to a small number of states on a competitive basis. California and other states are scrambling to pass legislation to make themselves eligible. The state Senate’s bill, introduced by education committee chair Gloria Romero, “embraced many of the Obama administration's proposals, including lifting the cap on the number of charter schools allowed and using test scores as an evaluative tool” (Los Angeles Times.)
This week, Secretary Duncan and the Education Dept released new rules for the Race to the Top funds. The new rules promise both a greater focus on student outcomes and attention to a broad set of indicators of teacher effectiveness. This balance marked a new spirit of partnership with teachers and teachers unions. “Secretary Duncan’s approach is right on target. It is time to end the finger-pointing, set aside differences and start working together on behalf of our students. When schools work, it is because the entire community—businesses, teachers, their unions, kids and parents—has a stake in that success,” said American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten (American Federation of Teachers).
Weingarten, who had opposed key elements of draft rules proposed earlier, was pleased with the final version. She noted changes that were made to ensure that teachers are evaluated on multiple measures; not just student achievement (The Washington Post). The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, also offered cautious optimism for the final rules, but still thought that there is too much focus on linking student test scores to teacher performance (The Washington Post).
States will compete for “points” in order to get a piece of the $4.35 billion ‘Race to the Top’ funds. A 500 point scale measures states’ plans to “enact a variety of reforms, including implementing data systems, turning around low-performing schools, and paying effective teachers and administrators more” (Los Angeles Times).
“They worked hard to find the right balance. I see a real culture shift in these regulations from what we had seen in the previous administration. At the end of the day, the culture shift is about can we collaborate, work together to make schools better,” said Weingarten (The Washington Post).
Print this
