duncan

If you have never seen Sherman Dorn’s blog, then you are missing a great perspective on education. I wish that I could write as well as he does and create such well though out ideas. But I guess that is why he is a college professor.

A lot of comments going in for the Race to the Top Funds - great combined letter of support from many great reform organizations including ABCTE:

RTTT Comments
-click on PDF

I have been asked many times in the last few weeks if we are ‘going for’ Race to the Top (RTTT) funds as if I could just jog down to the US DOE and grab a few bags of cash. But people are right to ask about having ABCTE in the mix because the guidelines specifically say that states must have alternative teacher certification programs that are not based in higher education.

Now comes this NCTQ report that specifically recommends that Colorado adopt ABCTE to better their chances of getting access to these funds.

Wow – some harsh words for TFA from the NEA. It is amazing that after close to 20 years, they are still going after them. Right now the NEA is doing what any union is supposed to do – raise the specter of job losses and fight for member jobs. They have targeted TFA and it is getting ugly.

There is support in the RTTBOC (Race to the Bags o’ Cash) otherwise known as Race to the Top for Alternative Teacher Certification. We are formulating our support during the comment period suggesting some tweaks as are many of the other groups focused on improving teachers.

One of the big issues with the ARRA funds and the Race to the Top challenge is the supposed short term nature of this incredible boost in funding. This is a one time opportunity with billions of dollars to be used to give our education system a push in the right direction.

The concern from all sides is what will happen when the funds are gone.

On the right, they are deathly afraid that the spending will continue and the results will be mediocre at best. On the left, they are deathly afraid that the opportunity will be squandered with little or nothing to show for it.

Over at Flypaper, Mike Petrilli is keeping the Obama Reform-O-Meter which he has pointing to a fairly neutral education agenda for the President and Secretary Duncan. He needs to point the arrow more to the left this week.

We got notice that the Office of Innovation and Improvement (OII) is beginning to release some of the $635 million they have to dole out under ARRA. They want to give out $143 million to 35 lucky groups to improve teacher quality. From the email:

I have been trying to keep up on the stimulus dollars to see if it is really going to prevent teacher layoffs etc. First, my amazing ABCTE team got word last week from Utah that there is a hiring freeze on teachers right now. After a four year pilot using our math program, we were recently approved in Utah for all ABCTE certifications because they were constantly facing teacher shortages and knew they had looming teacher retirements. One district that normally hires 300 teachers will hire less than 50 next year.

I must admit that I am very impressed with two big statements from the Obama administration this week. It is refreshing to see such honesty and transparency in public policy especially in the critical area of education.

The first came from Vice President Biden in Delaware while addressing the teacher's union highlighting the need to get results from the stimulus dollars for education: