My Perspective: More Aid for Education Coming

Education in America is getting another boost from the Obama administration. On Friday, President Barack Obama along with the Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan launched their ‘Race to the Top’ contest for schools and states. Dangling the promise of $5 billion in grants, President Obama pressured states to embrace his ideas for overhauling the nation's schools, ideas that include performance pay for teachers and charter schools. To get the money, state officials may have to do things they, or the teachers' unions, dislike. But in a recession that is starving state budgets, the new "Race to the Top" fund is proving impossible for some states to resist. Already, seven states — Tennessee, Rhode Island, Indiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Colorado and Illinois — have lifted restrictions on charter schools so they can compete for the money.

"Not every state will win, and not every school district will be happy with the results," the president said Friday. "But America's children, America's economy, America itself will be better for it." Officials from nearly a dozen states, including Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, and Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, joined Obama and Education Secretary Duncan Friday at the Education Department to announce the rules for the competition. Broadly speaking, the president wants states to do four things he considers to be reforms — toughen academic standards, find better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, track student performance and have a plan of action to turn around failing schools. The nation cannot succeed in the 21st century unless it does a much better job of educating its children, Obama said.

"In a world where countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow, the future belongs to the nation that best educates its people, period," Obama said. "We know this. But we also know that today, our education system is falling short." There is broad agreement about Obama's assessment. Only about one-third of U.S. students could read and do math at current grade levels on national tests in 2007, the most recent year for which data is available. And the high school dropout rate is dismal — 1 in 4 kids. Obama can't really tell states and schools what to do, since education has been a state and local responsibility throughout the history of this country. But he has considerable leverage in his ability to reward states that follow his path and withhold money from those that don't.

The $5 billion fund was part of the economic stimulus law passed earlier this year. It is a fraction of the $100 billion that was included for schools, but the fund is massive compared with the estimated $16 million in discretionary money Duncan's predecessors got each year for their own priorities. "None of them had the resources to encourage innovation that we have today," Duncan said. Moreover, the $5 billion fund has taken on added importance because in many states, the bulk of the stimulus money is being used to fill increasingly larger budget holes, and not for the innovations Obama wants.

A report from the Government Accountability Office earlier this month said school districts are planning to use the money mostly to prevent teacher layoffs. Duncan envisions the grants going to perhaps 10 to 20 states that can serve as models for innovation. A state will have to meet a series of conditions to earn points and boost its chances. Some of those conditions are controversial, especially among teachers' unions, which make up an influential segment of Obama's Democratic base. For example, the administration says it will not award money to states that bar student performance data from being linked to teacher evaluations. Several states, including California and New York, have such a prohibition. Obama supports performance pay, which links teacher bonuses to student achievement using measures that include test scores. Many teachers don't want test scores to be used because tests can be deeply flawed, because kids aren't tested in every subject and because kids have more than one teacher.

But there are also elements the unions will embrace; states can earn points by submitting letters of support from state union leaders. American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten and National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel were also on hand for the announcement. Applications for the grants will be available in October and due in December, and the first round should be awarded in March.

Still the release of the long-awaited requirements for the $4.3 billion ‘Race to the Top’ education reform program by the U.S. Department of Education has set the hurdles that states will have to jump to gain shares of that money. While the overall shape of the program is similar to what was announced last winter, the details released Friday give sharper focus to some key requirements, including tying of teacher evaluations to student performance, a level playing field for charter schools, improved standards and testing and use of education budgets for reform. These standards are not new notions to education but when it comes to federal grant dollars, they are innovative and unprecedented. While some might feel that the President and the Secretary of Education are putting steps in place that could signal the end of public education as we know it, others see this is a welcome embrace that public education is failing and that a combination of charters and public must exist in order for America’s youth to get the world class education that is needed in the 21st century.

Now some states like Colorado have already started to implement some of the things that President Obama and Secretary Duncan want. Colorado education officials long have maintained that key education legislation and programs of the last two years – updating of standards and assessments, establishment of a growth-based accountability system, the innovation schools law and creation of educator identifiers – position the state well for R2T (as the program now is being abbreviated). Colorado also has had charter schools for more than a decade. But, implementation of many of those improvements is in the future, so the state now will see just how well it stacks up. According to a DOE document, R2T is intended as “both a reward for past accomplishments and an incentive for future action.”

Much commentary in the days leading up to Friday’s announcement has focused on DOE’s requirement that teacher evaluations be tied to student performance, a touchy subject for teachers’ unions. States that bar such use, California and New York have been mentioned repeatedly, won’t be eligible for R2T. Colorado’s new identifier law (House Bill 09-1065) isn’t yet implemented and contains some restrictions on data use, so it’s unclear how that might affect the state’s competitiveness for the program. In many Colorado districts the rate of teacher firings is very low, as detailed in a recent EdNews report. The stimulus law that created R2T lists four areas of emphasis – standards and assessments, data systems, improvement of teaching and turning around struggling schools.

The DOE will be looking in applications for ambitious strategies and reforms to drive substantial gains in achievement, improve graduation rates and college success and close achievement gaps, according to a department document. “States will comprehensively address all four reform areas” in their applications, according to the document.

Here’s what DOE says it’s seeking in the four areas:
· *Standards and assessments: Common standards linked to postsecondary and career readiness, common assessments to measure what students both know and can do and support for local schools in implementing those. (Much of that is required by Colorado 2008 Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids law, but implementation is spread out over several years.)

· *Data: Systems need to be accessible to educators and the public, support-data driven instruction and improve knowledge about the effectiveness of instructional materials. (Colorado has made significant improvements in achievement data under the Colorado Growth Model but may lag in other data areas.)

· *Teaching and leadership: “Knowing which teachers and principals are effective, as judged in large part by multiple measures of student achievement and growth;” ensuring local leaders can use date “to inform key decisions such as evaluation, compensation, tenure, promotion and dismissal;” rewarding excellence and attracting talent to neediest schools, and “shining a light” on prep and credentialing programs. (See information above on Colorado’s identifier law.)

· *Struggling schools: DOE wants states to turn around “at least” the bottom 5 percent of schools, provide autonomy to ensure innovation; and allow choice, including favorable charter laws on funding, facilities and number of charters. (While it’s relatively easy to start charters in Colorado, the state may have issues with funding and with money for charter facilities.)

The DOE also has set a timetable for the R2T program. The requirements first will be subject to a 30-day comment period, and state applications will be invited in October. They will have to be filed in December, with first-round awards announced in March 2010. The deadline for a second round of applications will be June 2010, with grants awarded the following September. States not awarded first-round grants can apply for the second set. Individual grants are expected to range from $150 to $300 million. Reportedly, winning states can use half the money as they wish, with the other half awarded to school districts based on enrollment of Title I eligible students. The federal government has set aside $4 billion for those two sets of grants. A separate $350 million has been set aside for a standards and assessments competition. Winning states can use that money to improve their programs in those areas. Applications for that are expected to be due in June 2010, with awards in September. Total federal stimulus spending on education is about $100 billion.

Nonetheless, this marks a new beginning to education and while some may embrace these initiatives and others may not, the status quo when it comes to education is just not acceptable. However such change needs to be carefully implemented and tested before it is widespread. But at the same time, the ‘Race to the Top’ program pits states versus state in trying to address this nation’s educational woes and such a competition should be welcomed by all Americans because for far too long our states have spoken of education and have taunted that one state is better than the other but the truth of the matter is that when it comes to educational policies, no one state has all the answers. That’s why the ‘Race to the Top’ program will allow a broad range of states to compete for federal dollars that can embrace new initiatives that can work in all corridors of America with many states in the same region adopting the same policies of neighboring states while other states embrace ideas of states both near and far. Therefore public education is getting a much needed face lift and the fact of the matter is that more educational dollars are on the one once Secretary Duncan reauthorizes a modified version of ‘No Child Left Behind’. Thus besides the stimulus money and the ‘Race to the Top’ program many states will be receiving funds as well as grants from NOLB as well. This will be the most funds the DOE has ever got to deal with educational problems in our nation’s history.