race to the top

Joanne Jacobs writes up some of Andy Smarick’s great work in her Show me the reform blog. Andy sees a lot of toothless reforms in Race to the Top and Joe Williams over at DFER thinks that NYC just blew chunks. They are right on the money, so to speak and it is a case of history repeating itself.

There is a funding cliff coming and it is not going to be pretty. School districts are going to have to make some pretty stiff cuts or raise property taxes in order to cover the shortfall left when the stimulus funding runs out.

Now there is apparently a study on school funding shortfalls that supports this.

For those state decision makers out there – please take a look. The Race to the Top guidelines are clear about the need for effective teachers in the classroom. As states prepare their applications, we invite them to partner with the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE) to help increase your overall point total. ABCTE is a non-profit organization funded in 2001 by the US Department of Education and is already accepted in 9 states as an alternative route to certification.

Democrats for Education Reform have assembled a collection of quotations that do a nice job of demonstrating how the NEA's rhetoric often conflicts not just with reality, but often with their own rhetoric.

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.