Major disappointment
The US Department of Education had the opportunity today to send a clear signal–that the Race to the Top is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that very good wouldn’t be good enough, that only the biggest and boldest plans would merit consideration.
Instead, the administration accepted 15 states and Washington, DC–nearly 1/3 of all applicants–as finalists.
The list includes Kentucky, a state with no charter law and New York, which brashly rejected reform legislation–including a critical cap lift provision–in advance of the deadline. It includes Colorado, which backed off of important reforms related to teachers, and Ohio, whose proposal was weak in a number of areas.
I’ll have more to say about these applications in the hours and days to come, but for now my major reaction is disappointment. In an interview with Education Week at the beginning of December, Secretary Duncan said the following:
It’s interesting to me that you have folks out there that don’t quite believe that we’re going to keep a high bar. It’s sort of amazing to me. The more explicit you guys could be would be helpful. It’s going to be a very, very high bar. People won’t believe it until we do it. Obviously, hold us accountable for sticking to that. I can’t be more clear or explicit about it.
By sending forward a number of states with such glaring deficiencies, the Department did not set a “very, very high bar.”
I was preparing to heap praise on the administration for doing as they had suggested–only shining a spotlight on the very best of the best. I expected a finalist list of 5 and was quietly hoping for 3. My worst-case scenario was 12. I never would have imagined 16.
–Andy Smarick
Related posts:
- Major concerns raised by Georgia
- Ohio wins a major award – aka the ‘leg lamp’ of education
- Nation’s biggest RTT disappointment
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March 4th, 2010 at 11:58 am
Andy, what happens next?
Are all these 16 assured of some money, or is that in some subsequent selection?
Thanks.
March 4th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
[...] With the RTTT Finalist List Andy Smarick is feeling some: The US Department of Education had the opportunity today to send a clear signal–that the Race to [...]
March 4th, 2010 at 12:17 pm
How ironic that Arne Duncan, the basketball bracketologist, has given us the sweet 16 RTTT states/territories to choose from just before March Madness!
March 4th, 2010 at 6:34 pm
[...] Andy Smarick calls the list of 16 a major disappointment. He was hoping for five finalists or even [...]
March 4th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
[...] So the early reaction is in. Flypaper’s Andy Smarick thinks there are too many finalists, and Edspresso agrees. Eduwonk is scratching his head over Ohio and New [...]
March 5th, 2010 at 1:11 am
Given an extraordinarily dismal history – from two decades ago through today – of negative audit findings re its handling of federal programs and their funds, the fact that the NYS Education Dept. was listed as a RttT contender makes it crystal clear that RttT is at heart a political grant program, period. According to the USDOE’s own Inspector General, NYS Ed. basically promises the world, and then does exactly what it pleases with federal money. And allows its LEAs to do the same. Review of USDOE OIG audits and follow ups, and corroborating audits and reports from the NYS Comptroller, basically document that program names and “requirements” exist only in lip service form in NY, and have for the past 20 years.
From what I understand, the RttT reviewers were tasked with examining only the applications put before them: real world evidence was strictly excluded. Making decisions based on fiction and druthers is a pretty poor way to try to shape the future of real children’s educations, and lives.
Why shouldn’t reviewers have given NYS Ed. good grades based on its self-proclaimed history of raising scores and graduation rates? Information about a recent audit from the NYS Comptroller reported that NY’s schools, which grade their own students’ exam papers, inappropriately inflate their scores – and that NYSED knew of this pervasive practice but did nothing about it, was conveniently kept from the reviewers’ folders. Similarly, federal audits describing how it continuously ignores formal reports showing that LEAs misuse funds and violate laws was maintained safely outside the reviewers’ horizon. The applications might as well have been vetted at the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, such little relevance to real world performance and capability did USDOE allow. Blinkers!
So much for “Change you can believe in.” This is pork politics, Chicago style. Nothing less, but certainly nothing more.
March 5th, 2010 at 8:53 am
[...] have even fewer options for high-quality instruction. This has Thomas B. Fordham Institute scholar Andy Smarick wishing that "we could give a little attention to preserving the high-performing, high-poverty [...]
March 14th, 2010 at 4:11 pm
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March 15th, 2010 at 7:50 am
[...] I wrote on Flypaper, I’m very disappointed with the department’s decision to name 16 states RTT finalists [...]