TUESDAY, MARCH 30, 2010

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POLITICS THE NATION

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Del., Tenn. win education awards

District is last of 16 finalists in competition stressing innovation

by Nick Anderson and Bill Turque

Delaware and Tennessee won

the first shares of President Oba- ma’s $4 billion fund for education innovation and reform while the District of Columbia came in last among 16 finalists, federal offi- cials announced Monday. Education Secretary Arne Dun- can picked the winners after judges in the Race to the Top com- petition gave tiny Delaware the highest ranking, with Tennessee close behind. Delaware won as much as $107 million and Tennes- see could get $502 million. The grants are the latest major move by the Obama administra- tion to place its stamp on educa- tion reform, an issue that has edged nearer to the top of his do- mestic agenda with the passage this month of landmark health- care legislation. Obama has also proposed an overhaul of the fed- eral No Child Left Behind Law, the signature education initiative of his predecessor, George W. Bush. In a conference call with re-

porters, Duncan acknowledged that the small winner’s circle was designed as an incentive for other states to continue revamping their education policies. It also deflects suggestions that the ad- ministration would seek to spread the money around as quickly and widely as possible to help Obama win favor in key political states. Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois, among the other finalist states, came up short. Although Dela- ware is the home state of Vice President Biden, the administra- tion has little at stake there politi- cally.

Duncan praised Delaware and

Tennessee as committed to reach- ing all of their school districts with programs designed to turn around struggling schools and in- stall meaningful teacher evalua-

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DAVID BUNDY/MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, shown at a recent visit to a high school in Montgomery, Ala., said few winners were selected so other states would be inspired to continue revamping their education policies.

tion systems linked to student achievement. “They have demonstrated the

courage, capacity and commit- ment to turn their ideas into prac- tices,” Duncan said. Georgia placed third in the con- test, followed by Florida. More than $3 billion remains in the fund, and they could win money in the next round later this year. Duncan said he expects a signifi- cantly larger number of winning states in the second round, pos- sibly 10 to 15.

Virginia, one of 41 first-round applicants, did not make the final 16. Maryland skipped the first round but is planning to compete in the second round. Duncan said no one factor was decisive for Tennessee and Dela- ware, but it was apparent that buy-in from teachers’ unions and other key stakeholders was im- portant. Florida and Louisiana, which had been favored to win but fell short, did not have broad union support. The national competition gen-

erated its own version of “March Madness” among competing

states. Lured by the prospect of tens, and even hundreds, of mil- lions of dollars at a time of acute fiscal stress, some statehouses have moved to ease limits on au- tonomous public charter schools, revamp teacher pay and evalua- tion, expand the collection of stu- dent achievement data and take other steps in line with Obama’s agenda.

Some states favor a tuneup,

rather than a shake-up, for schools, a strategy that appears to weigh against them in the compe- tition. Virginia proposed a mod- est expansion of charter schools and experiments with perform- ance pay but was told to reapply. Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) has proposed tighter rules for teachers to gain tenure, but it re- mains unclear how much that would help the state’s chances. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) re- fused to apply, calling Race to the Top an unwarranted federal in- trusion. In the District, the public school system and public charter schools banded together to build on initiatives launched by Chan-

cellor Michelle A. Rhee. D.C.’s ap- plication said a grant award would be “a political win,” signal- ing endorsement of the work Rhee has done in rolling out a rig- orous new teacher evaluation sys- tem that will make it easier to re- move ineffective teachers. But on the 500-point scale used to assess applications, the District lost support because of lack of union support, poor data collec- tion and questions about the sus- tainability of its test-score gains. Washington Teachers’ Union

President George Parker declined to sign because he opposed the new IMPACT teacher evaluation system, which requires reading and math teachers in grades 4 through 8 to have half their evalu- ations weighted toward annual growth in standardized test scores. Teachers with weak over- all evaluations face dismissal. An Education Department re-

view panel said the union’s refusal to sign on “creates a concern” and “may create barriers and chal- lenges to getting teachers to make the essential instructional chang- es” to reach its goals. Negotiations

between Rhee and the union on a new contract have dragged on for more than two years, although both sides say they are close to a tentative agreement. The District lost points because its education data system is much less robust than those in Tennes- see and Delaware. The District’s fledgling effort, known as the Statewide Longitudinal Educa- tion Data Warehouse (SLED), has been plagued by problems, in- cluding the dismissal last year of its main contractor. The District’s application re- ceived 402.2 points out of a pos- sible 500. In a statement Monday, Rhee did not address specific issues with the application and said it was “a great honor” to be chosen as a finalist. “Just advancing this far was an important validation that DC is on the right track with education reform,” she said. “We’re confident about our future prospects and we’re eager to reen- gage all of our partners as we pre- pare for Phase 2.” Delaware, with fewer students

statewide than Montgomery County, received 454.6 points out

BILL O’LEARY/THE WASHINGTON POST

Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee saw an “important validation.”

of 500. It has a new state law that bars educators from receiving “ef- fective” ratings unless their stu- dents demonstrate satisfactory levels of growth. It also offers bo- nuses of as much as $10,000 a year for teachers and principals willing to transfer to high-needs schools. Schools in “turnaround” because of poor performance must show improvement within two years. The state plans to send “data coaches” into schools to help teachers track student perform- ance and target lessons where needed. The state is to begin new tests in the coming school year that will generate achievement data to help evaluate teachers and principals. Tennessee, which received 442.2 points and was backed by 93 percent of its teachers unions, was one of the first states to begin using value-added assessment. The data, which have been collect- ed since 1992, will be used, by law, as a significant part of teacher evaluations beginning in the 2011- 12 school year.

andersonn@washpost.comturqueb@washpost.com

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