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States' Race to the Top: Where Are They Now? - with Michigan update
10/21/09
06:14:21 am, Categories: Announcements [A] There has been spike in state action for Race to the Top qualification in recent weeks. Final regulations aren’t due until sometime in November. Still, states are moving on what they know now, and using RttT as an opportunity to pursue the broad overlap between reform strategies with a strong track record of success and the 19 priority areas laid out under the draft regulations published in late July.
The list here is not comprehensive, but it does reflect action in states where reform efforts have been pursued or spotlighted in the public sphere. There are sure to be sleeper states preparing plans or taking actions that have yet to emerge, so keep an eye out, and feel free to forward any significant info. on anything we’ve left out.
We also highly recommend that you consult The New Teacher Project’s report "Interpreting Race to the Top" which was updated in early September. A color chart handicapping state competitiveness according to TNTP’s estimation is reproduced below.
Here’s a rundown (in alphabetical order):
California. California is a key state to watch. It is used to getting the federal green light for education funds no matter what its policies look like, and state officials seemed to be taken by surprise as the President and the Secretary stayed firm throughout the year on their pledge to invest only in those states ready, willing, and able to undertake fundamental reforms. To its credit, it has sprung into action like at no time in recent memory.
Governor Schwarzenegger signed legislation on October 11th that would tear down the state firewall between student achievement and teacher evaluations. But all this did was allow the state to meet one of the two RttT eligibility criteria. Moreover, by no means does it represent a proactive effort to undertake rigorous teacher evaluations at the state level.
Senator Gloria Romero, the Democratic Chair of the Senate Education Committee from East L.A., would like to take it a lot further. Any state leader looking for a Race to the Top game plan could do no better than to start with the opening statement she gave in August, where she struck all the right rhetorical themes and drilled down to state law provisions around teacher evaluation that the state has simply been pretending aren’t there (you really have to wonder why other elected leaders, and policy experts at the state’s prestigious universities, have been so unwilling to be similarly candid).
The Sac Bee editorial board spoke glowingly about a recent State Senate hearing, and urged the state to aim high on a litany of issues. On Sunday, the Sac Bee published an interview with Arne Duncan in which he outlines areas where he thinks state policy changes are most needed; in an earlier interview with Politics K-12 reporter Michele McNeil, Duncan suggested that even with lifting the firewall, California still had a long way to go.
Keep an eye out to see if California makes a case for special treatment given its severe budget woes. No one can doubt that their state budget could use a huge infusion of cash to prevent further cuts to vital state programs like health care for children and massive teacher layoffs. But when it comes to education, California has been shortchanging its schools for decades (see this report on California’s pre-recession spending on education relative to its wealth, and this piece by a former Sacramento insider who blames special interest tax breaks for CA’s education funding woes).
So does California need budget help? Yes, that’d be great. Do they deserve to siphon education reform funds away from other states if they don’t develop an ambitious plan simply on the basis of their economic need? Seems a tough case to make given their reform and budget history and the small amount of RttT money relative to the gigantic nature of their state budget problems.
Colorado. Colorado arguably has the biggest head start and the most momentum. (see CO’s RttT website: here). Lt. Governor Barbara O’Brien, who is leading the RttT effort, has been convening meetings for months. CO sessions are scheduled through the end of October on each of the four RttT criteria.
Education Commissioner Dwight Jones has been on the road drumming up support, and was in District 51 (Durango, Montrose, Grand Junction and Glenwood Springs) Monday and Steamboat Springs yesterday.
Delaware. Delaware stakeholders are holding a daylong session at the University of Delaware on October 27th. From the agenda, it looks like they are serious.
Delaware has huge assets compared to other states because of the existing "Vision 2015" project, comprised of a broad range of players. Given that comprehensiveness is one of two eligibility criteria under the draft regs, Delaware would seem to have exactly what the Department of Education says it’s looking for.
Kentucky. Kentucky, like 10 other states, has no charter schools now because it has no state authorizing law. But that could be changing.
Two bills to create charter schools or "public school academies" have been filed at least in part as a result of the state’s RttT aspirations.
Support is said to be growing, but the politics will be tricky. Gov. Steve Beshear says "all options are on the table." Teachers unions are vowing to lobby against the bills, on the basis that they are "anti-public school." Supporters include an odd, but increasingly common across the country, alliance of "a group of black Louisville pastors and the Bluegrass Institute, a conservative education think tank."
Louisiana. Louisiana is one of the states that lifted its charter school caps in response to RttT in June. And it was one of only two states (the other being Florida) to receive the top rating of "highly competitive" under TNTP’s analysis.
A "unified group" of education and community-based organizations launched a statewide effort in August. In a personal communication, Tom Vander Ark says a phase 1 RttT grant is "Louisiana’s to lose."
One potential glitch: Louisiana’s superintendent of education Paul G. Pastorek warned at the end of September that the state’s "career diploma" may not pass muster due to questions about its rigor, an issue heightened in the context of the common core standards initiative.
Maine. Maine is one of 11 states without a charter school law. Attempts to pass a state charter school law failed earlier this year, though many observers think the climate for charters in Maine is getting better with each passing day.
At a conference in Augusta last week, Associate Assistant Deputy Secretary Scott Pearson of U.S. DOE said the lack of a state charter school law would put Maine at a disadvantage in competing for RttT funds, adding that while “’by no means do we believe charters are the silver bullet’ to excellence, their ability to innovate added an important tool to the educational package."
Massachusetts. At a widely publicized event in July, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick appeared with Secretary Arne Duncan to announce a big expansion (27,000 new seats) of charter schools. It was seen as particularly significant because key state leaders previously had not been charter school supporters.
Here’s one quote: "Formerly a charter-school critic, [Boston Mayor Thomas] Menino said he is fed up with opposition from the Boston Teachers Union. ‘I’m just tired of it. We’re losing kids.’"
This was just a proposal, and since then there has been some back and forth about the specifics, but the push does seem to be gaining some grass roots traction. The Boston Foundation and Stand for Children are spearheading a coalition effort to develop a comprehensive proposal. Keep an eye on it.
"[The] proposal would remove caps for “schools of excellence” that have demonstrated success in Michigan or other states. A limited number of original charters could still be awarded each year to aspiring charter school founders that have a sound plan to meet the needs of students, but have not operated charter schools to date."
Smart caps were among the proposals recommended by Democrats for Education Reform in its RttT memo to Secretary Duncan back in February.
Hat to @saramead for tweeting the link.
Nevada. Politics K-12 reported last week that Nevada does not seem inclined to tear down its firewall between student data and teacher evaluation. If the criteria for RttT qualification stand in the final regs that are released in November, Nevada is out.
New York. Conservative education activist Thomas Carroll accused Governor Paterson of having no education reform plan in a recent Huff Po piece. It’s hard to argue with him.
On the most visible issue to date, the state firewall between student data and teacher evaluation, the state seems to think it can slip under the wire based on discussions with the U.S. Department of Education. This is in part because such data can be used in "some" evaluations ("just" not tenure; I argued against this reasoning here). But the fact that state legislators and UFT President Randi Weingarten have signalled their willingness to let the firewall expire next year and that a new teacher evaluation system is in the works for New York City seem to be providing mitigation.
Lifting the firewall would merely allow the state to qualify under the draft regs. But there are signs of proactive school reform starting to emerge.
On Monday, Assemblyman Sam Hoyt introduced a bill to raise the state’s charter school caps. It got a good amount of press coverage, and while Paterson has not come out on favor of it, he reportedly told Hoyt to "go for it."
While comments by state leaders earlier this year led many to believe that New York planned to rest on its self-perceived laurels and reputation, and more or less phone-in its RttT application, more recent comments by Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch suggest that the state may try to be more ambitious in its proposals. I saw Tisch speak on Saturday at the New York State Charter Schools conference and, if I heard right, she is upping the ante in terms of changing state policies in line with the priorities set out under Race to the Top saying "everything is on the table."
Look for a role by David Steiner, who was voted in as State Education Commissioner in July, and was involved at Hunter with, among other things, creating what looks to be a high-quality alternative teacher preparation program - Teacher U - in collaboration with Uncommon Schools, KIPP, Achievement First, TFA, and others.
Secretary Duncan is giving a big speech on teacher prep tomorrow at Teachers College, Columbia (not known as a bastion of support for the types of reforms President Obama and Duncan are pursuing). Perhaps we’ll hear more there.
Ohio. Ohio is one of the states rated "competitive" by TNTP but they have several apparent problems.
One key problem is the state’s charter school caps, the result of a longstanding political impasse between "charters by all means necessary" proponents, and Democratic charter school opponents, for whom Republican support for even low-performing charters has provided easy political fodder.
A second is that Democrats in the state are not known for bold education reforms. Governor Strickland signaled earlier in the year his desire to compete, perhaps as part of a consortium, but there has been little in the way of public hearings or coalition building. The state website says RttT FAQ’s "are still in development."
On their blog, State Board of Education member Susan Haverkos and former State Board member Colleen Grady say:
"Ohio may fall short on grant criteria in several areas including:
- disparate treatment of charter schools in funding and facilities assistance
- existing cap on charter school expansion
- failure to utilize student achievement data in teacher and principal evaluations, licensure, compensation, tenure and dismissal,
- P-20 coordination in light of the recent elimination of the Partnership for Continued Learning
- more alternative licensure pathways including options that do not involve institutions of higher education, and
- rigorous evaluation of teacher and administrator preparation programs."
Conversely, last week Republican state legislators unveiled a Race to the Top proposal although, playing to type, it only emphasizes charters and e-learning.
Rhode Island. The state just announced yesterday that it would be receiving assistance from three foundations, totaling $245,000, to prepare a reform strategy.
Rhode Island was one of the states that responded early to the Race to the Top challenge. At the end of June, the state approved funding for "mayoral academy" charter schools. The first such school, Democracy Prep Blackstone Valley, opened this Fall with 76 kindergarten students from surrounding districts. The school has a longer school day (8-4) and year (190 days rather than 180) and innovative staffing and salary policies. The official "ribbon cutting" took place on October 6th. There are already over 100 students on the waiting list for next year.
Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, who has stressed the importance of teacher quality and data systems, has assembled a Race to the Top steering committee which met for the first time in September and plans to convene subsequent meetings in November.
Utah. The state unveiled a budget proposal last week that would disproportionately cut funding for charter schools and cause 18 charter schools to close (no non-charters would be closed, natch). State leaders say they didn’t intend for this to happen and want to try and fix it. Oversight or not, Utah does not seem to be on top of the things it needs to do to compete, at least in phase one.
Wisconsin. Governor Jim Doyle, who does not have a record of pushing big education reforms, has been rolling out his plans issue by issue. Wisconsin got some notoriety earlier this year, both because of its student-teacher data "firewall" which would automatically disqualify it under the draft regs; and, when the National Center for Education Statistics reported that Wisconsin earned the distinction of being one of the states with the biggest Black-White achievement gap in the nation.
Yesterday, Doyle made a big announcement on the need for more learning time. Previously, he had pitched plans for "overhauling student testing, making student test scores a factor in teacher evaluations, creating new data systems." The Governor reportedly is also serious about pushing for mayoral control of Milwaukee schools. Observers report that there are some signs that teachers’ unions are more amenable to reform now than they had been previously because of the tremendous pressure to qualify the state for Race to the Top funds.
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Trackback from: STEM-ology [Visitor]
Are you in a STEM-qualified state?
Swift and Changeable has a comprehensive update on the states’ Race to the Top applications. As I’ve noted here before, STEM is a competitive but not an absolute priority, so many states will include STEM as a focus in their applications:
T...
Swift and Changeable has a comprehensive update on the states’ Race to the Top applications. As I’ve noted here before, STEM is a competitive but not an absolute priority, so many states will include STEM as a focus in their applications:
T...
10/21/09 @ 14:48
Comment from: Jeanne Allen [Visitor] · http://edreform.com
Really, really excellent overview of states. Keep it up! One slight amendment -- RI didn't race to the top this year. It approved it's Mayoral Academies last year, but this June their funding which had already been a go was suddenly stopped in budget negotiations. Advocates swung into action, asking the first question of Sec Duncan at the nat'l charter conf about what RI was about to do. He said (paraphrasing) states that didn't treat charters equitably would suffer. The advocates blasted that to the legis. and the press, who then blasted it out to the public, and voila, the sausage was re-sewn. Sorry for the detail but it's important to know the full story. Sadly, other states taking similar credit for doing so haven't done much.
10/21/09 @ 20:51
Jeanne - we told that story back in July here as part of a longer post on RttT action by states:
http://swiftandchangeable.org/index.php/2009/07/07/race-to-the-top-signs-of-the-times?blog=2
But you told it better.
Thanks.
--- Charlie
http://swiftandchangeable.org/index.php/2009/07/07/race-to-the-top-signs-of-the-times?blog=2
But you told it better.
Thanks.
--- Charlie
10/22/09 @ 10:25
Ditto sentiment "really excellent overview of states"
Transparency and accountability will be key to the success of programs reducing the gap between Black and Brown children and their white peers. I appreciate Arne Duncan holding states accountable for "not playing by the rules".
This is also a great time for "true" parent engagement. The Feds need to "follow the money" for children and family sake.
For many years the voice of parents of color, especially poor parents has been left out of education policy discussions.The time is Now for Connecticut parents to realize their power to make positive change in the lives of their children. As parents and community leaders, we will need to lead a focused, parent-led mobilization effort to improve educational options for students of color.
Great Job Swift and Change Able!
Transparency and accountability will be key to the success of programs reducing the gap between Black and Brown children and their white peers. I appreciate Arne Duncan holding states accountable for "not playing by the rules".
This is also a great time for "true" parent engagement. The Feds need to "follow the money" for children and family sake.
For many years the voice of parents of color, especially poor parents has been left out of education policy discussions.The time is Now for Connecticut parents to realize their power to make positive change in the lives of their children. As parents and community leaders, we will need to lead a focused, parent-led mobilization effort to improve educational options for students of color.
Great Job Swift and Change Able!
10/29/09 @ 13:50
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