Like the members of 'N Sync, Perry enjoys no strings attached to funding. "Our states and our communities must reserve the right to decide how we educate our children and not surrender that control to a federal bureaucracy," he said, sounding like he was hunkered down at the Alamo. Last year, to prove this point, Perry and Sarah Palin were the only governors to refuse to participate in efforts to move toward national curriculum standards.
What are the feds asking of grant recipients? The Race to the Top website says that states should:
- Adopt standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
- Build data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
- Recruit, develop, reward, and retain effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
- Turn around our lowest-achieving schools.
I guess we're already doing that in Texas, Gov. Perry? The new superintendent of HISD is quoted as saying, “If our standards are that much better, why don't we get in there and convince everyone else in the nation to rise to our level?” The School Board was set to vote last night on "the consideration of value-added data in personnel decisions" (i.e., TAKS scores tied to teacher evaluations). Many Texas teachers groups seemed to be against Race to the Top for fear of this kind of evaluation. However, it seems to be the wave of the future -- like it or not.
Education Week just released their Quality Counts study on education in America. In 19th place, Texas received a C+ as its overall grade. Within that grade, the study awards grades in the areas of Chance-for-Success; Standards, Assessment, and Accountability; K-12 Achievement; Transitions and Alignment; The Teaching Profession; and School Finance. Texas received a D+ in that last category. Perhaps we should be quoting another 'N Sync song from 2000, "It Makes Me Ill."
1 comment:
Spotted your blog and your link to IDA's top ten. A comment if I may. Their contention that Methai was trained with 'cruel circus techniques' involving an ankus is a bald faced lie. I was there when the holiday photos were done. Methai was not threatened or coerced to participate. The motivator for her to partcipate was enjoyment - enjoyment of the interaction with and attention from her keepers and the public and the bucket full of apple pieces in the hands of the keeper standing in front of her.
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