The race is on. But does everyone want to run with the Race to the Top money? And where are we going with it?
In discussing the $400 million Race to the Top grant that Georgia won this week, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he was not concerned that the November election might usher in new state leadership ambivalent about the federal dollars and anxious about the federal oversight.
“This is bigger than any governor or any school chief,” he said. “Hundreds and hundreds of individuals put in a huge amount of hours and came up with a great plan. This isn’t about any one person.”
But is it about 10 or 20 people? Georgia is about to elect a new governor and new school superintendent who could be leery, if not hostile, to federal intrusion into Georgia schools. That new regime might well result in a whole new slate of leadership at the state Department of Education. So it could be that more than a few contributors to the state’s RTTT application are not in place come January.
GOP school chief candidate John Barge has already had an apparently mutually unsatisfying stint at DOE, and some agency officials say privately it is unlikely that he would keep them on staff or that they would stay.
While Barge says he will accept Race to the Top funds now that Georgia has won one of the coveted grants, he has also said, “In my view, the amount of money we could receive from Race to the Top does not justify yet more federal government intrusion and bureaucratic micromanagement of our local schools.”
And Republican gubernatorial candidate Nathan Deal has been so conflicted on whether he would even accept Race to the Top dollars that he prompted Sonny Perdue to give a little speech for his sake at the press conference where the governor announced the grant: “I want to say once again, for many who have feared that this is federal intrusion, the feds gave us no rules. They said, you put together a plan that you can implement.”
And that is why the governor’s policy director, Erin Hames, has moved to DOE, to convert the 200-page Race to the Top application into action. Two hours into her new DOE chief of staff job Thursday, the former-teacher-turned-attorney talked to me about why all of Georgia, not just the 26 partner school districts, should be thrilled with the grant.
These districts, which make up 41 percent of public school students in Georgia, are: Atlanta, Ben Hill, Bibb, Burke, Carrollton, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, Dade, DeKalb, Dougherty, Gainesville, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Jones, Meriwether, Muscogee, Peach, Pulaski, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Valdosta and White. By the numbers, the districts include 46 percent of Georgia’s students in poverty, 53 percent of Georgia’s African American students, 48 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of the state’s lowest achieving schools.
These districts get half the $400 million to underwrite a series of innovations and pilots that are outlined in the application, Hames said, but that still leaves $200 million for the refinement of a student information system, the creation of teacher evaluation tools that use student growth as their basis and improved professional development for all educators.
Hames hopes that the new leadership will keep her on the DOE staff, noting that she came to the post with the full support of the State Board of Education. “There are 37 governor’s races right now, so 37 states are going through the same thing,” she said.
“This was developed with a large group of stakeholders and a strong commitment of local Georgia systems,” she added. “When the new leadership sees that local commitment, I don’t think this is going to fall apart.”
Susan Walker works with one of those stakeholders; she is policy and research director for the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education. There’s concern about the impending leadership shift and about possibility the state could jeopardize its Race to the Top grant, she said.
“The governor and the state school superintendent have most of the power in how we implement this, so there is this big question mark,” she said.
“I hope that everyone can see that this is a huge chunk of money for a state that is still reeling from the financial crisis,” Walker said. “Ultimately this is going to benefit our kids. It is going to help us keep going with the good things we have put in place. It is important that this momentum continue.”
And if it doesn’t, Secretary Duncan said the feds will call the race. “If any state does not implement well, we will simply stop funding them,” Duncan said.
An unprecedented federal education program that dangled $4.35 billion in competitive grants to accelerate school reforms, Race to the Top will affect 13.6 million students, a million teachers and 25,000 schools in the 12 states that won the money.
“These are taxpayer dollars. We want to make sure that each dollar is spent extremely wisely. We have every hope and every reason to believe that states will be successful,” Duncan said. “But, if at the end of the day, we are feeling that a state is not acting in good faith or doesn’t have the capacity, will or courage to implement their plan, we are absolutely prepared to stop funding a state. . .But I have every confidence that Georgia will do a great job and take student achievement to another level.”
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64 comments Add your comment
irisheyes
August 27th, 2010
11:07 pm
Trust me, this money will never get to the classrooms. Our school just did their Title 1 budget this year, and of a budget of over $100K, my classroom is getting $100 worth of a classroom periodical. The vast majority is going to “technology upgrades”. While fancy smartboards are cool, why aren’t we making sure that we have enough of the basic supplies first? Another portion is going for after school tutoring, but only in grades 3 – 5. Guess it really doesn’t matter if the kids learn in the early grades or not. So, you can see why I’m skeptical about this money. Even if it does make it to the actual schools, administrators will be so enamoured with the money, that they’ll blow it on bells and whistles to impress parents. Plus, don’t forget, that some of the money is to help pay for merit pay. @Maureen, I’ll be interested in the article you’re posting on Sunday. I might have to print it and send it anonymously to Alvin.
irisheyes
August 27th, 2010
11:09 pm
Off topic (sort of). Our leadership team was told last week that there will NOT be any CRCT in 1st and 2nd grade this year. I haven’t heard this anywhere else, so I was curious if anyone here had heard the same thing.
rosie
August 28th, 2010
10:09 am
A few questions about the RTTT $$$:
Half of the $ will go towards developing a student information system, teacher evaluation that takes into account student performance and staff development? This money simply means lots of money to some company developing the information system. Georgia just spent a ton of money developing ClassKeys and it hasn’t even been implemented statewide so let’s develop another teacher evaluation system. As far as staff development, let’s take teachers out of the classroom and teach them all about the latest educational fad. Don’t forget all the money you must spend on consultants teaching the newest fad. While the teachers are out, your schools will be staffed with substitutes that can do little more than babysit.
Why is the person in charge of all of this a person with very few years of teaching experience? I think Mrs. Hames taught 2 or 3 years in North Carolina. She left the classroom to become an attorney? Got to wonder about that one?
em
August 28th, 2010
11:11 am
Now that Georgia has won Race to the Top funds, the fact that federal guidelines are attached to their acceptance does NOT bother me. That ship sailed a long, long time ago. My fear is that those federal dollars will NEVER find their way into a classroom. Rather, I fear that those dollars will be surreptitiously diverted to feed and preserve the educrats of this state so that if any funding does trickle down to the classroom it will be mere pennies on the dollar. Let’s hope the politicians and bureaucrats will do the right thing because in my small school system, there is no more “fat” to cut. If the State of Georgia is going to require a free and public education from grades K to 12 for 180 days, then by God, fund it and fund it adequately. As my daddy so eloquently says, “ it’s time to sh** or get off the pot.”
catlady
August 28th, 2010
12:51 pm
Can we get full, current publishing of the disbursement of these funds (like Sept 3, 3M to XYZ company for completion of working student tracking system)? That way, when we see $165M for RTTT “coaches” we can scream bloody murder.
catlady
August 28th, 2010
12:56 pm
Ms. Downey, seriously, could the AJC research and publish the non-teaching staff (administrators, CO administrators, CFO operations, technology, etc) to student ratios for each system, along with teacher/student (actual teachers working every day 8-4 with students)? Lay it all out, system by system. Let all the taxpayers see how their money is being used.
Teacher/Learner
August 28th, 2010
12:58 pm
There’s a critical piece missing from this discussion…assessment of this new, “Improved” curriculum. If by the end of 5th grade students will be expected to read texts, construct viable themes from that text supported by evidence from the text and thoughtful reasoning, how will that abililty be measured? By a child reading a test passage and choosing the best answer from an array of choices OR by the child reading a book or literary short story, and writing a constructed reponse on demand or across the year at several points? You cannot determine a child’s ability actually read and construct abstract ideas from multiple choice tests. so, this all important data tracking system may simply be filled with numbers related to the same packaged mindlessness we have now…OR it could be made something real, and important…not very hopeful for the latter, but I am ever hopeful.
teacher&mom
August 28th, 2010
1:15 pm
@catlady…excellent idea
California Department of Education News « Stockton Teachers Association
August 28th, 2010
4:39 pm
[...] The race is on. But does everyone want to run with the Race to the Top money? And where are we going with it? Get Schooled By Maureen Downey In discussing the $400 million Race to the Top grant that Georgia won this week, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said he was not concerned that the November election might usher in new state leadership ambivalent about the federal dollars and anxious about the federal oversight. “This is bigger than any governor or any school chief,” he said. “Hundreds and hundreds of individuals put in a huge amount of hours and came up with great plan. This isn’t about any one person.” But is it about 10 or 20 people? Georgia is about to elect a new governor and new school superintendent who could be leery, if not hostile, to federal intrusion into Georgia schools. That new regime might well result in a whole new slate of leadership at the state Department of Education. So it could be that more than a few contributors to the state’s RTTT application are not in place come January. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution<http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2010/08/27/the-race-is-on-but-does-everyone-want-to-run-with-…> [...]
Real Reformer
August 29th, 2010
10:15 am
As a former teacher and the daughter of a former school superintendent and school board chair, I see both sides. I am an active volunteer at my son’s school and I see teachers going above and beyond the call of duty. I also see teachers who seem to be totally checked out and just getting by. There are also two extremes on the parent side. First, I see parents who are more concerned about why their child’s cell phone was taken away (reason: it’s against the rules and that is clearly stated!) than about whether the homework gets done. They annoy teachers constantly about things that should be THEIR responsibility because they don’t want to let their kids learn to be accountable for their own mistakes and apathy. They are so focused on their child getting the best grades, or not being penalized in any way for any reason, they will take petty complaints to the principal and beyond. They won’t let their kids learn that valuable lesson — life isn’t always fair, not every teacher will be your favorite. Learn to deal with it (of course, I exclude instances of physical and verbal abuse and other unprofessional behavior, which I have also seen)!!
On the other end of the spectrum, parents call and ask for directions to the school when their kid is graduating — they’ve never been there before for any reasons. Over half the parents won’t join the PTA. They don’t open their kids’ grade reports when they come in the mail. They expect the school to be disciplinarian, meal provider, and baby sitter.
Neither of these extremes is good. We need to think of teachers as professionals, pay them like professionals, and hold them accountable as professionals. BUT — parents need to be accountable, too. When parents are aware and informed of their child’s progress and problems, when they’ll courteously ask a teacher for assistance without accusing them, when they monitor their own children’s progress and don’t make excuses for their misbehavior or lack of interest in school, when they deliver the kids to school with a good night’s sleep and the supplies/resources they are supposed to have…
….when all that happens, I will be the first to support abolition of tenure, merit pay and bonuses for good teachers, and swift firing for those who don’t do their job.
It’s got to be mutual. I am tired of parents who will pay thousands for pro sports tickets, and won’t contribute a dime or a minute of time to schools. We get what we pay for.
Special Ed. Teacher
August 29th, 2010
3:21 pm
When politicians stop acting like they know how to fix education with policies that don’t work then maybe we can get back to helping children. When we have parent accountability in addition to teacher accountability then maybe we can help children. Most importantly when students are held accountable we will be able to help them become productive citizens. It takes a team effort to fix this problem and knee jerk reactions are not going to get it done. Quit looking for a quick fix to the problem. It is going to take hard work from all parties involved in the education process.
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Let's TEACH
September 1st, 2010
8:35 am
I guess I’m older than most of you here, but what I see in the school system isn’t teaching anymore, it’s testing to prepare for more tests. Is this NCLB…a GA problem…or what? No textbooks at the high school or middle school levels, which is a disgrace, and yet we want our children to learn. Give them the tools to learn. Give them a teacher that wants to teach and has the freedom to be able to do so, give them the books they need to reinforce what they heard in the class lecture that day. Instead of concentrating solely on the administrative portion of the school system, let’s put the kids first for a change!
Doris Argote
September 11th, 2010
7:00 pm
I found a Company called UEIS (Undercurrent Educational Information Systems) They have the only Electronic Teacher Observation Report that meets the RTTT requirements at a very reasonable price. This company can save the State of Georgia Millions of dollars that can be spent on the KIDS instead of developing a teacher evaluation system. Check them out at ueisdevelopment.com also visit
drsylvesterharris.com. It would be great to save part of those 200 million and invest the money where its truly needed. I hope someone can agree.