Race to the Top - or Bottom?
President Barack Obama's Race To The Top program offers a tantalizing prize of increased federal money for those states who meet their criteria for school improvement and reform. In these recessionary times the prize is very tempting.
It is a competitive grant system in which one-third of the applicants receive funding and two-thirds do not. Unfortunately for Maine, it favors authorization of charter schools and linking teacher compensation to student performance.
To enter into the RTTT competition, the Maine Department of Education submitted three bills that it believes will enhance Maine's chances for receiving money:
LD 1799, An Act to Encourage the Use of Models in the Collection and Use of Student Achievement Data,
LD 1800, An Act to Adopt the Common Standards Initiative, and
LD 1801, An Act to Promote the Establishment of Innovative Schools.
At public hearing MEA President Chris Galgay opposed LD 1799, the bill tying student test data to teacher evaluation, supported the innovative schools described in LD 1801 and testified "neither for nor against" the national Common Standards of LD 1800.
MEA has problems with RTTT and its misapplication of test data.
Galgay questioned why the Maine Legislature in its haste to scramble after a few dollars would cede control over its public schools to a federal government which only pays 10% of the costs.
The RTTT plan suggests that new testing systems will enable administrators to evaluate teachers based on how far they have advanced their students.
MEA remains unconvinced and opposed LD 1799, taking the position that the existing Maine law establishing a firewall between student tests and teacher performance should remain in place. President Galgay testified in opposition by saying, "Using student test data to evaluate a teacher is not only unfair, it is inaccurate."
MEA's Representative Assembly has enacted resolutions setting Association policy in opposition to tying teacher evaluation to the Learning Results (adopted 1998) or tying educator evaluations and contract renewals to student/school performance under Chapter 125 or ESEA "No Child Left Behind" Act (adopted 2003).
In discussion with the Department and other stakeholders, the concept of charter schools was converted into the innovative schools described in LD 1801 that could be supported by the Association.
As MEA President Chris Galgay describes them: "Innovative schools, unlike charter schools, provide safeguards for children and accountability to school boards and taxpayers."
On LD 1800, MEA resisted the general framework of a national curriculum as expressed in the Common Core Standards while accepting the general premise for setting high standards.
"Although they might seem like a good idea," opined Galgay, "our concern is that they could override all the work we have done here in Maine on Learning Results. It is our understanding they must be adopted in the entirety and not adopted selectively."
MEA will continue to monitor the development of the RTTT grant application, and work with the Department to enhance prospects for obtaining funds while protecting educator interests.
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