(From The Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2010)
By STEPHANIE BANCHERO and NEIL KING JR.
The Obama administration awarded $3.4 billion to nine states and the District of Columbia in a national competition to encourage school reform that spurred far-reaching changes in many cash-starved states, but left some losers bitter over the murky standards.
The awards unveiled Tuesday are part of the administration’s $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” competition, a program that set in motion a national effort to tie teacher evaluations to student achievement, increase the number of charter schools and overhaul low-performing schools.
The states named to receive sums from $75 million to $700 million each were Hawaii, Rhode Island, Maryland, Massachusetts, Ohio, North Carolina, Georgia, New York and Florida.
The program, a signature initiative of President Barack Obama that has won support in both parties, spurred many states to take decisive steps to improve K-12 education. Colorado passed a teacher evaluation law making it more difficult for teachers to earn tenure and easier for them to lose it. Illinois and New York lifted limits on the number of charter schools. Thirty-five states adopted a set of common learning standards setting out what students should know at each grade level in math and language arts.
Education Sec. Arne Duncan called the process a leap forward. “These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” he said. “Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and bold commitment to education reform.” Charles Barone, director of federal policy for Democrats for Education Reform, a lobbying group, said the program “sends a message to all states that it is politically possible to adopt dynamic reforms.”
But jilted states and other observers questioned the validity of a scoring system that left out states such as Colorado and Louisiana–which many had considered shoo-ins based on their reform efforts–while awarding money to Hawaii, which made few changes to strengthen its application. Some observers noted that seven of the 10 winners have governors who are Democrats.
Critics also pointed to a clear tilt toward Eastern states with big cities and states in which teacher’s unions signed on to the applications.
“The administration’s unwillingness to reward the real reform states shows a complete lack of political courage,” said Mike Petrilli of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, a non-profit group that pushes for higher educational standards. “The rhetoric of Race to the Top has turned into a farce.”
Some questioned whether the support of teacher unions may have influenced the outcome. States received extra points if they persuaded local or state union leaders to sign their applications. Neither Colorado nor Louisiana was able to garner many signatures. Hawaii, however, got widespread teacher support.
Precisely what propelled each state into the winner’s circle wasn’t clear because the Education Department declined to release final score cards until Wednesday. The department used a panel of outside judges to score each application based on 19 criteria, including willingness to open charter schools and efforts to link teacher evaluations to student achievement. States were graded on a scale of zero to 500 points. Judges were selected by the department for their expertise in education policy. Their names have not been made public.
Mr. Duncan was authorized to overrule the panel and select states he deemed worthier than others, but he declined to do so. He said he felt the process was “fair and impartial,” and that political leanings played no role in the selection process. He said he couldn’t point to specific reforms that helped states win, but most toughened teacher evaluations and relaxed restrictions on the growth of charter schools, which are public schools run by non-government groups. Mr. Duncan said union support was important, but not the only factor in the awards process.
Alex Da Silva, spokesman for the Hawaii Board of Education, said his state deserved to win, pointing to the academic growth students are making, quick adoption of the standards adopted by 35 other states and the District of Columbia, and a promise to tie teacher evaluations to student gains. Hawaii was in such dire financial straits last year that it cut the school year from 180 to 163 days, he said.
Colorado, which finished 17th among 19 finalists, had been widely viewed as the top contender in the competition, and Mr. Duncan said Tuesday that he wished he could have funded the state. Dwight Jones, Colorado Commissioner of Education, said he was “shell-shocked” that his state didn’t win and he pointed to the lack of teacher union support as one reason.
“There is a real disconnect for me because we did exactly what the administration urged us to do–adopt significant reforms,” Mr. Jones said. “So we adopt the ambitious reforms and create the conditions to make dramatic changes, but we don’t win because not everyone signed on. That worries me.”
Deborah Fallin, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Education Association, said the union supported Colorado’s application in an earlier Race to the Top round, but the state didn’t win then, either. The union withdrew support in the second round after lawmakers passed a teacher evaluation law that make it easier to get rid of low-performing teachers. “They want to blame us no matter what,” she said.
Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers union, said teacher support of the applications should have played a role in the judging, noting that, in addition to Hawaii, winning states Florida, New York and North Carolina enjoyed teachers’ backing.
Race to the Top was launched last year. Delaware and Tennessee, who both have Democratic governors, won a total of $350 million in a first round. Thirty-five states and Washington, D.C., applied for the second round awarded Tuesday. Another $350 million has been set aside for a race to improve student assessments; that money has yet to be awarded.