Race to the Top

I decided to spend my Friday afternoon reading through some Race to the Top applications. I focused on states where ABCTE is accepted as a TRUE alternative route to teacher certification and read through Pennsylvania, Florida and Oklahoma.

First - this was a TON OF WORK for these states and the people that put these together must have spent some very long hours getting it done.

Second - these states proudly mention ABCTE is a route to certification and they meet the point requirements of Race to the Top! Yay us!!

Third - not much potential for grant money for teacher recruitment and certification. The bulk of the requested dollars are going into building data tracking systems to tie teachers to student achievement. Also spending on building teacher evaluation systems and professional development.

I may have to reduce some of my cynicism. These states will be pushing a major reform in how teachers and teacher preparation programs are evaluated. This would be a pretty big shift.

Now a beer is required after reading those applications where I will toast those who toiled on the hundreds of pages of education applications.