(From The Daily News, August 10, 2009)
By JOE WILLIAMS
Frank Sinatra understood well New York‘s tendency to visualize itself as king of the hill, top of the heap – even if the evidence doesn’t always back it up. Even on K-12 education, despite an appalling achievement gap between the haves and the have-nots, we New Yorkers like to think we’re ahead of the curve.
The reality is that the Empire State’s self-absorbed, feel-good approach to education policy is on a collision course with President Obama‘s plans to promote pragmatic change in our nation’s schools by rewarding only the most progressive states through a $4.3 billion federal “Race to the Top” reform contest.
In announcing the draft guidelines for the contest last month, Obama declared that eligible states must not have “legal, statutory or regulatory barriers” to using student achievement data to evaluate teachers.
For a nation that is looking to improve the quality of its public schools, this requirement would seem to be a no-brainer, with or without the federal incentives. If one teacher is working miracles in the classroom, consistently improving student learning, and another is consistently doing the opposite, it only makes sense that a principal or school system be able to take that fact into consideration.
But if Obama sticks to his word, and at this point he is giving no indication he will not, states like New York, Wisconsin and California are going to have trouble applying for Race to the Top, much less winning some of the much sought-after cash.
Why? Because, surprise, New York has in place precisely such a ban – a law that said that the one question that could not be asked when principals make tenure decisions for teachers is whether or not their students are actually learning. A state Legislature that has historically had trouble passing its budgets on time was suddenly a model of efficiency when it came time to slide this law through the sausage-making process.
Still think we’re top of the heap?
Other states like Tennessee, Rhode Island and Illinois have changed their laws under this new federal spotlight. Officials in Wisconsin have announced their intentions to consider revising their laws to bring them into the 21st century.
Not New York.
Officials here seem to be hoping the tension will be resolved with some sort of back-room deal involving our state’s powerful Washington politicians.
In fact, many state officials and union representatives deny, in the face of clear and overwhelming evidence that says otherwise, that our law actually prevents student achievement from being used in teacher evaluations. They insist the state is in compliance with the federal requirement because our state’s law refers only to tenure decisions, not to year-by-year evaluations.
It’s a patently ridiculous argument.
If numbers tell us that a teacher is failing his or her students, he or she should not get lifetime job protection. Period, end of story.
The Race to the Top contest was designed to get states to think twice about artificial limits they impose on teacher evaluations or the number of public charter schools that are allowed to open, and to prompt new conversations about how to improve our schools.
This is that conversation.
It turns out, President Obama’s mandate for change doesn’t square well with New York’s deluded self-image. So in the interest of horse-trading, here is a deal that can work for everyone: Obama should declare that New York is a winner in the Race to the Top contest.
The President should then present new state Education Commissioner David Steiner with a larger-than-life check for $1.
It’s a win-win for everyone. New York gets to keep feeling like a champion, and Obama gets to preserve the integrity of his contest and his larger reform agenda for public education. And most importantly, the bulk of the federal money for education reform will actually go to states that deserve it.