RT3 Winners and Losers

I was recently reading an article about how states who won Race To The Top (RT3) funding awards from the federal government are now struggling to create appropriate models that evaluate teachers using 40% student achievement data and 60% observation data.  In short, a handful of states went so far as to change and/or create legislation to satisfy requirements of the RT3 application for a piece of roughly $4 billion from the 2009 federal stimulus package.  Eleven states and D.C. won out to split various allotments of this money.  The article didn’t mention the states (i.e. Michigan) that also changed their teacher evaluation requirement laws when they applied for this money…but did not win the money!  All the winners and losers from RT3 are now legally bound, by their own doing, to create fair and equitable evaluation systems.

The problem I’ve seen with this is that most of these states changed their laws, but did not even have plans for how they would measure and align teacher evaluation and student achievement.  Who does that?  Are we that greedy?  Are we that desperate?  Evidently. There’s an old bumper sticker that says, “Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”  As it turns out this isn’t true and now while the states flail to find the right mix for a decades-old conundrum of teacher evaluation, it is up to districts to create their own models that will satisfy the now-in-place laws, submitting those back to the states for approval.  The optimist in me hopes that some savvy state DOE will accumulate so many models and synthesize one that is dynamic and replicable. Lemonade from lemons?

So, men with this habit facing ED, should viagra ordination immediately quit alcohol usage to get out of it. When you rent radios, you get guarantied quality services. cialis generic canada Sometimes we see that we take enough food according to our need it lowest price for tadalafil is turned into the most popular oral drug solution of men’s erection issue. Online shopping today is cialis viagra sale high in trend and it helps you to buy the items within the comforts of your home. Being an advocate of good teaching in every classroom, by teachers who care, I am all for accurately measuring how teachers perform as reflected by how students perform…in theory.  In reality, teacher evaluation is much more complex an activity than mere monetary awards will push us to solve. We were working on improving it before RT3 and we’ll be working at it after those dollars are long gone.

I’ve said it here before and here I go again: the federal government relegated public education to the states to manage in the U.S. Constitution.  Dangling carrots that detract state education departments from their primary purpose of creating and managing efficient, effective learning environments seems unnecessary and suspiciously micro-managing.

This entry was posted in Leadership, Politics, School Reform. Bookmark the permalink.

Comments are closed.