The only constant in the calculus of K-12 public education, it turns out, is … money. Who would have thought of that? But since that’s what it is, I am relieved that the Obama administration is using money as a leverage to connect student performance to teacher effectiveness in the nation’s public schools.
There has been little, if any, progress in correcting America’s dysfunctional public schools in spite of the billions of dollars spent by the federal government and wealthy philanthropists over the last few decades. George Bush’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) was too malleable to be a meaningful criterion for progress. Teachers union has traditionally protected incompetent teachers despite their devastating effects on students. It also continues to put a limit on the number of district charter schools, a successful model in which student performances and teacher evaluations are treated as two sides of the same coin.
The Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” program changes the equation. And it comes not a moment too soon.
By dangling the carrot of money – federal grant of $4.35 billion for school reform and innovation throughout the country - Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has forced the issue. Either States abide by the Race to the Top guidelines to be eligible for grant, or they don’t, in which case there will be no money. Take it or leave it. In other words, no more business as usual.
As Secretary Duncan explained in a Washington Post opinion piece (7/24/09):
"Under Race to the Top guidelines, states seeking funds will be pressed to implement four core interconnected reforms.
- To reverse the pervasive dumbing-down of academic standards and assessments by states, Race to the Top winners need to work toward adopting common, internationally benchmarked K-12 standards that prepare students for success in college and careers.
- To close the data gap -- which now handcuffs districts from tracking growth in student learning and improving classroom instruction -- states will need to monitor advances in student achievement and identify effective instructional practices.
- To boost the quality of teachers and principals, especially in high-poverty schools and hard-to-staff subjects, states and districts should be able to identify effective teachers and principals -- and have strategies for rewarding and retaining more top-notch teachers and improving or replacing ones who aren't up to the job.
- Finally, to turn around the lowest-performing schools, states and districts must be ready to institute far-reaching reforms, from replacing staff and leadership to changing the school culture."
While several states have already signed on to the program, two notable holdouts are New York and California. The reason is the insistence of the teachers unions in these states to preserve the firewall between student performance and teacher effectiveness.
But the message from Washington is clear: This firewall must be taken down, or you can forget about asking for school reform money. Arne Duncan must ensure that states are not able to find loopholes in the program to undermine its effectiveness, as was the case with NCLB. His words instill hope: "For states, school districts, nonprofits, unions and businesses, Race to the Top is the equivalent of education reform's moon shot -- and the Obama administration is determined not to miss this opportunity. We will scrutinize state applications for a coordinated commitment to reform -- and award grants on a competitive basis in two rounds, allowing first-round losers to make necessary changes and reapply."
As an educator and a concerned citizen, I hope that recalcitrant teachers unions throughout the country will welcome Race to the Top as the best K-12 reform package to come from Washington in living memory. The holy grail of public education in America has been to measure whether kids are actually learning anything in our schools to help them become productive members of society. Race to the Top offers the best hope yet to make this measurement available for public scrutiny. Schools will then be forced to promote a culture of excellence, taking corrective actions where necessary, to make our K-12 public education system among the best in the world again.
Showing posts with label Arne Duncan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Arne Duncan. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Cutting the Gordian Knot of America's Public Education System
In a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (12/1/08), Lou Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM and chairman of the Teaching Commission from 2003-2006, summarized his ideas for rescuing the nation’s failing public school system. They are forceful and provocative and merit attention from Obama and his education secretary.
Gerstner disarms his critics by putting America’s school reformation movement in context. “Despite decade after decade of reform efforts, our public K-12 schools have not improved.” That surely includes the efforts of the Teaching Commission that he led for 4 years. “Why,” he asks, “after millions of pages, in thousands of reports, from hundreds of commissions and task forces, financed by billions of dollars, have we failed to achieve any significant progress?”
As Gerstner notes, the problem isn't "what to do," nor is it a failure of commitment. Instead, he believes that “the problem lies with the structure and corporate governance of our public schools. We have over 15,000 school districts in America; each of them, in its own way, is involved in standards, curriculum, teacher selection, classroom rules and so on. This unbelievably unwieldy structure is incapable of executing a program of fundamental change. While we have islands of excellence as a result of great reform programs, we continually fail to scale up systemic change.”
To transform the school system, he identifies four key elements: 1) Set high academic standards for all of our kids, supported by a rigorous curriculum. 2) Greatly improve the quality of teaching in our classrooms, supported by substantially higher compensation for our best teachers. 3) Measure student and teacher performance on a systematic basis, supported by tests and assessments. 4) Increase "time on task" for all students; this means more time in school each day, and a longer school year.
(Italics are mine to indicate the enormous political challenge these requirements will pose for the Obama administration, even if only a subset is considered).
Who can quarrel with these suggestions? In one form or another, they have been proposed several times over the years, only to die on the vine, as Gerstner himself concedes.
So what can Barack Obama and Arne Duncan do to ensure that it's different this time? As Gerstner sees it, the particular solution he proposes is challenging but doable: a) Abolish all local school districts, saving only 70 from the 20 largest cities in 50 states. b) Establish a set of national standards for a core curriculum comprising, for a start, reading, math, science and social studies. c) Establish a National Skills Day to test every third, sixth, ninth and 12th-grader against the national standards and publish the result. d) Establish national standards for teacher certification and require regular re-evaluations of teacher skills. Teacher skills are to be judged against one criterion only: advances in student learning. Those who succeed must be able to earn well in excess of $100,000 per year while underperforming teachers must be purged. e) Extend the school day and the school year to effectively add 20 more days of schooling for all K-12 students.
Can such a solution, or variations thereof, be implemented? Local school districts will undoubtedly put up bitter fights. There will certainly be the inevitable, debilitating clash between Teachers’ Union and the “progressives.”
But the students themselves are hungry for change and parents and concerned citizens are supportive of overhauling the nation’s public school system. They have given Obama the mandate to do so. The 44th president must make it a priority of his administration to cut the Gordian Knot of America’s public education system and transform it into a source of creativity. America's future depends on it.
In a recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (12/1/08), Lou Gerstner, the former CEO of IBM and chairman of the Teaching Commission from 2003-2006, summarized his ideas for rescuing the nation’s failing public school system. They are forceful and provocative and merit attention from Obama and his education secretary.
Gerstner disarms his critics by putting America’s school reformation movement in context. “Despite decade after decade of reform efforts, our public K-12 schools have not improved.” That surely includes the efforts of the Teaching Commission that he led for 4 years. “Why,” he asks, “after millions of pages, in thousands of reports, from hundreds of commissions and task forces, financed by billions of dollars, have we failed to achieve any significant progress?”
As Gerstner notes, the problem isn't "what to do," nor is it a failure of commitment. Instead, he believes that “the problem lies with the structure and corporate governance of our public schools. We have over 15,000 school districts in America; each of them, in its own way, is involved in standards, curriculum, teacher selection, classroom rules and so on. This unbelievably unwieldy structure is incapable of executing a program of fundamental change. While we have islands of excellence as a result of great reform programs, we continually fail to scale up systemic change.”
To transform the school system, he identifies four key elements: 1) Set high academic standards for all of our kids, supported by a rigorous curriculum. 2) Greatly improve the quality of teaching in our classrooms, supported by substantially higher compensation for our best teachers. 3) Measure student and teacher performance on a systematic basis, supported by tests and assessments. 4) Increase "time on task" for all students; this means more time in school each day, and a longer school year.
(Italics are mine to indicate the enormous political challenge these requirements will pose for the Obama administration, even if only a subset is considered).
Who can quarrel with these suggestions? In one form or another, they have been proposed several times over the years, only to die on the vine, as Gerstner himself concedes.
So what can Barack Obama and Arne Duncan do to ensure that it's different this time? As Gerstner sees it, the particular solution he proposes is challenging but doable: a) Abolish all local school districts, saving only 70 from the 20 largest cities in 50 states. b) Establish a set of national standards for a core curriculum comprising, for a start, reading, math, science and social studies. c) Establish a National Skills Day to test every third, sixth, ninth and 12th-grader against the national standards and publish the result. d) Establish national standards for teacher certification and require regular re-evaluations of teacher skills. Teacher skills are to be judged against one criterion only: advances in student learning. Those who succeed must be able to earn well in excess of $100,000 per year while underperforming teachers must be purged. e) Extend the school day and the school year to effectively add 20 more days of schooling for all K-12 students.
Can such a solution, or variations thereof, be implemented? Local school districts will undoubtedly put up bitter fights. There will certainly be the inevitable, debilitating clash between Teachers’ Union and the “progressives.”
But the students themselves are hungry for change and parents and concerned citizens are supportive of overhauling the nation’s public school system. They have given Obama the mandate to do so. The 44th president must make it a priority of his administration to cut the Gordian Knot of America’s public education system and transform it into a source of creativity. America's future depends on it.
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