Pam Gencarella: A Race to the Top or Running in Circles?

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Pam Gencarella, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

The potential for a clawback.

“Great teaching matters more than class size, more than school funding and more than technology”, according to the Measures of Effective Teaching Project (MET), funded by Bill and Melinda Gates. 

For more than 5 years, RI’s Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, a former teacher herself, has worked tirelessly on reforms that would ensure our children have great teachers in every classroom, every year.  Her reforms even won RI a $75 million Race to the Top award.  But the 2014 legislative session has thwarted those reforms, putting at risk not just the $2.4 million that hasn’t yet been spent, but perhaps even a portion of the $72 million that has already been spent. 

Early last year, the US Department of Education (DOE) said RI was one of three states to make “remarkable progress.” They went further to say that RI “has set a clear path forward on comprehensive education reform that will better support teachers and principals” and it has “overcome challenges and proved what’s possible when everyone works together.” Will those accolades ring hollow when the US DOE finds that special interest public unions have been able to sway the General Assembly to not only delay utilizing standardized testing as part of the requirement for graduation, but to also gut the annual teacher evaluation process?

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In late 2010 the US DOE placed Race to the Top winner, Hawaii, in a “high risk” status because implementation of its grant had been unsatisfactory.  US Secretary of Education Arne Duncan came right out and said they were in danger of losing their resources.  More recently, Hawaii- along with Delaware, North Carolina and Texas- was recognized by Mr. Duncan as leaders in the Race to the Top. Georgia, however, had to forfeit $9 million of its grant money because of unfulfilled teacher evaluation promises.

Who does it hurt the most?

The Education Trust is a national organization that works with other national civil rights organizations to improve the education provided to low-income students and students of color.  Its board members include people from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the LA School District and the Sesame Workshop.  It is this organization’s belief that children perform best when there is high quality, consistent primary instruction, not as a result of special ‘add-on’ programs.  Some of RI’s reform detractors believe that education money from Race to the Top would have been better spent on funding literacy or math coaches, career counselors, personalization programs and other ‘add-on’ programs.  The Education Trust believes it is the quality of the teaching that is most important and ensuring high quality teaching includes annual teacher evaluations.  

Education Trust President, Kati Haycock, wrote an op-ed in the Providence Journal recently.   It is her contention that, while what she describes as ‘high-flying‘ schools that consistently produce positive results may not need annual teacher evaluations, school districts in RI do not have that kind of ‘high-flying‘ education result and therefore really require annual teacher evaluations.  Her concern is that for the past few years, not only has the Education Commissioner already worked with local leaders, teachers unions and teachers to significantly reduce the burden of annual evaluations, she has provided districts with considerable discretion.  And still, the teachers’ union was unrelenting. 

And then there is the standardized testing issue. The General Assembly has known for years that it would be implemented in 2014 as part of the graduation requirements for students across the state.  Speaker Mattiello all along had stated that he was in support of this requirement to provide a meaningful diploma for all RI graduating students, that is, until he didn’t.  At the 11th hour, purportedly after hearing one family story, he did a 180, and poof, the requirement was delayed.  Since when is it good practice to set policy for the entire state based on one family story?  RI has 142,000 students to educate.

Whether you agree with the reform or not, the process to delay the graduation requirement, so late in the game, after so much time and energy was invested in developing, collaborating, and implementing these reforms, is really an outrage.  Obviously, the Commissioner of Education was in favor of these reforms, but other groups backed the Commissioner’s reforms including the Board of Education and the RI Association of School Committees.  However, another interesting group has weighed in on the issue.  RIMA (RI Manufacturers‘ Association) may seem an unlikely group that would be vocal on education issues, but this group recognizes the importance of a strong education, one that provides the best teachers and one that provides a meaningful diploma.  Bill McCourt, Executive Director of RIMA, said he supports the Commissioner’s efforts to raise standards and that allowing students to graduate without proficiency isn’t good for anyone.  When trying to find employable graduates, he said it was “definitely challenging”.  And when he is on the circuit, he refers to the long held practice of annual evaluations in any job he has had or any industry in which he has worked. 

Of course the gutting of education reform is hardly just a financial issue, it is a moral issue.  Some in the suburban areas may have the means to provide those ‘add-on programs’ that, although not ideal, certainly would bolster the chances for a better educational outcome.  However, it is the inner city student with less means for outside help, who falls victim to a system that does not support the best teachers in every classroom, every year.

RI Assembly acts in a vacuum unto itself.

Why does RI’s General Assembly feel the need to delve into the detail of regulations on education reform?  It would seem that would be the sole purview of an Education Commissioner and a Board of Education.  Chairwoman Mancuso believes the General Assembly overstepped their authority by making education policy.  Purportedly, the Speaker “assured her that he has no intention on intruding in the board’s domain in the future”.  So why did he intervene with these two issues?  Speculation might be that it was the will of the public unions and, of course, their influence over the General Assembly.  But from a representative of the people who claimed that jobs and the economy were Job 1, and with education being an integral part of any economy, it is unclear as to why he would want to interfere with the prospect of significantly improving RI’s educational outcomes.  

Other states have long recognized the need to significantly reform education.  Massachusetts, while participating in the recent Race to the Top program in an effort to continue to improve education, actually passed comprehensive education reform (the Education Reform Act of 1993) 20 years ago.  According to its co-author, former Senate President Tom Birmingham, the transformation in the Massachusetts education system was successful because this law demanded high standards and accountability from all education stakeholders.  He clearly states that their success correlated with the adoption and application of the MCAS testing.  Passing the MCAS is a requirement of graduation.  More recent reforms require a formative teacher evaluation every 2 years for proficient and exemplary teachers.  While this may work in a state school system that implemented significant reforms 20 years ago and in a state that now stands at the head of the pack for educational outcomes, RI does not hold that envious distinction.  Shouldn’t our teachers be held to a higher standard, at least until our students have produced the same educational outcomes? 

Florida has ramped up their teacher evaluations and are required to provide them annually based on a law passed in support of Race to the Top.  According to a National Council on Teacher Quality report, more than half of the states require, without exception, annual evaluations of all teachers, including our neighbor, Connecticut. Why is it that RI elected leaders, most of whom are not immersed in the education conversation daily like Commissioner Gist is, have decided that 5 years of work with unions, teachers, principals and school committees takes a back seat to the whims of the General Assembly?

In case you are wondering where the gubernatorial candidates stand, Raimondo, Taveras and Pell all support the moratorium on standardized testing as part of a graduation requirement, and they support reducing the frequency of teacher evaluations.  Taveras is against standardized testing as part of a graduation requirement altogether.  Both Block and Fung oppose reducing the frequency of teacher evaluations and the moratorium on standardized testing.  According to Block, 28 states evaluate teachers annually and he believes the recent legislation to reduce that frequency is a step in the wrong direction.  And where does our current governor stand on the education reform issues?  When it came time to sign or veto both the legislation to delay the standardized testing requirement and the legislation to reduce the frequency of teacher evaluations, he punted.  He neither vetoed them (which would have looked ridiculous since he would be vetoing his own Commissioner’s reform) nor did he sign them in support of his Commissioner.  He let both pieces of legislation slip into law without taking a stand. 

So, while the General Assembly voted to place a $125 million bond on the ballot asking you if you want to construct an engineering building at URI, where only 60% of the 13,000 student body hails from RI, and only a percentage of those RI students enter engineering programs, that same General Assembly refuses to make a best-in-class education system a priority for the 142,000 students enrolled in its primary and secondary education system across the state.  Of course, there is always the possibility that, like the Sakonnet toll, this legislation could be reversed.  But that’s only if enough people stand together in support of ensuring our students have an effective teacher in every classroom, and that the RI high school diploma means something so that our graduates are employable.  The other alternative would be standing together and sending a message to our elected leaders in November.  

 

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