A huge challenge for the Race to the Top (RTT) program came into stark relief yesterday, but it doesn’t seem like anyone has noticed.
Marking the anniversary of his election, President Obama, with Education Secretary Arne Duncan in tow, visited Wisconsin yesterday to tout this $4.35 billion program. In a very long speech, the president emphasized his administration’s intentions to use the RTT to compel states to get rid of their “data firewalls.” He explained the term and why he’s opposed to them:
It basically says that you can’t factor in the performance of students when you’re evaluating teachers. That is not a good message in terms of accountability. So we said, if you’ve got one of those laws, if you want to compete for these grants you got to get rid of that law.
Secretary Duncan made clear in his Air Force One gaggle with reporters that they were delivering this message in Wisconsin because the state legislature is about to vote on a bill that would repeal the state’s firewall. The administration was there to call attention to the general issue and put some added pressure on legislators.
Many reformers are excited that states’ strong desires to get RTT grants are causing them to change their policies in valuable ways—with regard to firewalls, charter schools, and other matters. But I’ve been acting as part wet blanket and part broken record, repeating that there’s a big difference between changing a law and changing on-the-ground practices.
For example, a state may lift a charter cap, but if districts are the only authorizers and they remain hostile to charters, that policy change may not lead to any new schools. Similarly, a state may pass a law allowing performance pay for teachers, but local collective bargaining agreements may prohibit compensation being based on anything other than graduate degrees and years of experience.
In the case of Wisconsin, these concerns came to life. According to a local paper, the legislation that precipitated the president’s visit, while allowing student test scores to be used in teacher evaluations, would still prohibit teachers from being disciplined or fired based on this information.
So if Wisconsin passes this law, many in the administration and education reform community will celebrate, “the firewall is down!” But because of the fine print, the new law will do nothing to help remove poor teachers from the classroom.
This is just another example of why those evaluating RTT applications must callously look past bold, shiny state promises and get deeply into the weeds. Unless the reviewers and the Department of Education’s leadership dig into these types of details, the amount of reform we actually see from the Race to the Top could be tragically disappointing.