By Elizabeth Ling, DFER New York State Director
Early this year, Governor Cuomo introduced a $125 million performance-based grant program to reward school districts that demonstrate success in student learning or in running their operations more effectively. The program encourages education innovations at the local level and the replication of good ideas across school districts.
This weekend the Alliance for Quality Education (AQE) released an inaccurate report arguing that the program will create “winners and losers” among school districts to the detriment of high-need districts.
For the grant designed to promote increased student performance, the AQE claims that too much of the RFP rubric is based on standardized tests, which account for 30% of total possible points in the grant process. In fact, this is a level that is lower than the 40% allowable for these tests in the state’s new teacher evaluation law, which was approved by the teacher unions NYSUT and UFT themselves.
Further, the AQE misleadingly points out that only 73 districts applied for that grant this year. In announcing these grants, the governor specified that districts must have approved teacher evaluation plans to receive an award. Currently only about 100 districts have plans approved by the State Education Department, a likely factor keeping some districts from applying. Additionally, high-need districts applied at a rate comparable to their representation in the total population. (Nineteen of the 73 grant applicants are high-needs vs. 202 that are high-needs among New York’s 677 districts, using the AQE’s numbers.)
Most importantly, we’ve already seen how rewarding education stakeholders who implement rigorous reforms can catalyze new efforts to boost student achievement, raise graduation rates, and give more students the opportunity to learn and succeed in college and the workforce.
At the federal level, President Obama’s $5 billion competitive Race to the Top grants have awarded states, districts, and consortia that develop robust education reform plans. With less than 1% of all K-12 funding from federal, state, and local governments, this initiative has generated new programs that evaluate and support teachers and revive failing schools, many in the highest-need districts.
It is for this reason that Obama’s Race to the Top grant was embraced nationally by the United Negro College Fund and the National Council of La Raza. It is why New York state’s winning Race to the Top application was supported by key advocacy and civil rights groups, including our state NAACP.
Traditionally in the world of education, there has been little focus on outcomes and results. Are our students demonstrating growth in learning? Are our school districts managing their operations well? In many places, solutions are less a matter of additional funding and more a matter of using existing funds to maximum effectiveness.
In introducing his performance-based approach to our state’s public education system, Governor Cuomo is counting on New Yorkers’ historic ingenuity. Comprising only 0.6% of the state education budget, it’s a smart bet—one that leverages New Yorkers’ tax dollars and makes New York’s government work better for our citizens.
As a nation, we have always valued innovation. We believe we have very smart people in every one of our state’s school districts who will rise to the occasion and identify reforms that meet the needs of their individual districts and help further narrow our state’s still yawning achievement gaps. The best practices will be shared and picked up by other districts.
There will be no winners or losers here, but only winning ideas that will point to ways that all New York’s school districts can better serve our children.
Elizabeth Ling oversees strategy and operations for DFER’s New York State advocacy programs. She focuses on building coalitions of various education reform groups, and works with legislators and government officials to help shape public education policies.