Wisconsin Educational Policy Analyst Asserts State’s Failure in Race to the Top Predictable, Avoidable
[Madison Wisc..] Wisconsin’s failure in the Educational Race to the Top is tied to policy makers’ reluctance to buck the will of the powerful Wisconsin teachers’ union.
Christian D’Andrea, an educational policy analyst with the John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy in Madison, says the state doomed its application when it failed create a strong tie between teacher compensation and student performance, a position long-opposed by the Wisconsin Education Association Council.
“Many of the proposed changes lagged behind the Race to the Top standards,” said D’Andrea. “Wisconsin’s reluctance in adopting more strenuous and nationally-recognized student testing likely dropped the state in the rankings, that and their reluctance to adopt a centralized longitudinal data system to track both students and teachers meant Wisconsin’s failed to measure up to competitors.”
D’Andrea said the staggering achievement gap between student groups was also likely a key player in this year’s failure, as the lack of educational progress between students was no doubt a troubling figure for the application’s reviewers.
“The bottom line is other states are pursuing a vigorous reform agenda that includes tying teacher compensation and discipline to student performance and Wisconsin policy makers would not be that bold,” said D’Andrea. “WEAC successfully fought off attempts at more sweeping reforms aimed at increasing teacher accountability, and Wisconsin lost out on these one-time funds.”
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[...] WEAC Win = Wisconsin’s Loss in Ed Funds Fight | MacIver Institute - Jul 27, 2010 … Wisconsin Educational Policy Analyst Asserts State’s Failure in Race to the Top Predictable, Avoidable Wisconsin’s failure in the … maciverinstitute.com/2010/07/weac-win-wisconsin’s-loss-in-ed-funds-fight/ [...]
Yes, I agree that Wisconsin School Boards should have the ability to discipline or fire teachers and principals based on student performance – just as employees in any other field of employment are held accountable. But, if that’s the reason that Wisconsin didn’t get “chosen”, the unions should be thanked. Race to the Top (RTTT) is a poison pill. It will not effect the “educational reform” that proponents claim.
A close study of the program reveals an effort to profile and track our children via a computer data system in each state capitol. States are allowed to spend as much as 50% of their “awards” on this new bureaucracy. Within 48-hours of each test, schools are required to send each student’s score to the government centralized data collection agency. Students private profile and each test score will be accessible by the Federal government – and other unknown “Researchers”, thanks to an effort to break down barrier state laws that formerly protected students’ right to privacy. Here, in Wisconsin, one such bill was passed last December.
One has to wonder why the Federal government needs access to these intimate details of each child’s education. I’ll leave that for others to decide for themselves.
Another costly component of Race to the Top is an enormous amount of teacher and administrator re-education… workshops… training… WHY? Aren’t these people highly educated professionals, many of whom have decades of classroom experience?
After Wisconsin failed the first round, one Reviewer raised valid concerns over any possible benefits to school districts outside of Milwaukee should Wisconsin become a part of the Race to the Top:
“While Wisconsin has some areas of real strength in its application, such as ambitious plans, for an instructionally useful assessment system and encouraging the development of charter schools, it also suffers from some profound weaknesses. For example, the application is so limited in its discussion of educator evaluation, how those evaluations will be conducted, and the potential uses of the resulting data. And, while the application describes robust plans to intervene in Milwaukee, it provides relatively limited support to the other LEAs, many of which have relatively stagnant growth. So, while there is at least some attention paid to all four reform areas, the quality of these efforts varies tremendously.”
It is clear that the Race to the Top is intended to be a power grab, wresting control over all aspects of local decision-making from school boards that are accountable to their voters and transferring this power to State and Federal government entities. It remains evident that the Federal government knows the dollars that will filter down to local school districts will not be enough to fund the mandates and they fully expect a burden to be placed on local districts, and ultimately, our taxpayers. The actual wording implies that the State will have at least some measure of authority over our budget decisions because the statement reads that they expect states to “repurpose… local sources of funding”. I find this to be totally unacceptable.
“In light of this analysis, we conclude that States can propose high-quality Race to the Top plans within the Department’s suggested budget ranges, particularly given that, as part of their reform plans, States are expected to coordinate, reallocate, or repurpose other Federal, State, and local sources of funding to support their Race to the Top goals.”–4000-01-U, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, 34 CFR Subtitle B, Chapter II, Docket ID ED-2010-OESE-0005, RIN 1810-AB10,
Race to the Top Fund
Thank God Wisconsin dodged the bullet. Pity the states that didn’t.