Race to Top judges give state low score
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has left plenty of money on the table for the second round of Race to the Top, with the selection of only Delaware and Tennessee as first-round winners. But California will have to elbow its way past a slew of states promoting more far-reaching reforms to get a penny of the untouched $3.5 billion. Without a major rewrite of its proposal and vigorous support from skeptical teachers unions, California’s chances at the moment look slim.
California ranked 27th out of the 40 states in the first round rankings released on Monday. Based a 500-point scale, California rated a measly score of 337 – way behind Delaware’s top 455 and Tennessee’s 444. Just to move up to the top 15 states and edge out New York, which also will be competing for upwards of a $500 million share, would require an additional 73 points – and a leap of expectations. It would require stronger commitments to evaluate teachers more effectively and use data systems more powerfully – two of the Obama administration’s priorities.
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California ranked 27th out of the 40 states in the first round rankings released on Monday. Based a 500-point scale, California rated a measly score of 337 – way behind Delaware’s top 455 and Tennessee’s 444. Just to move up to the top 15 states and edge out New York, which also will be competing for upwards of a $500 million share, would require an additional 73 points – and a leap of expectations. It would require stronger commitments to evaluate teachers more effectively and use data systems more powerfully – two of the Obama administration’s priorities.
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Parent, charter activist nominated to State Board of Education
Tags: Alan Arkatov, Ben Austin, David Lopez, Jeannie Oropeza, Ted MitchellPosted in Charters, State Board of Education
Gov. Schwarzenegger isn’t backing down from nominating reform advocates and charter school supporters to the State Board of Education.
On Monday, Schwarzenegger announced three nominations to the 11-member board. Two – Ben Austin and Alan Arkatov – are charter advocates. Arkatov is a board member of the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, which runs 16 highly-respected charter schools in Los Angeles, although that’s just one of his roles. Well-connected in Los Angeles Unified, he was president of eEducation Group earlier in the decade and founder and chairman of OnlineLearning.net before that.
As executive director of the Los Angeles Parents Union and Parents Revolution, Austin was a force behind the “parent trigger” that the Legislature adopted in its Race to the Top legislation in January. It empowers a majority of parents at low-performing schools to petition their local school board for a change in their school’s leadership and governance, including conversion to a charter school. Austin was a consultant at Green Dot Public Schools, a charter organization in Los Angeles, before that.
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On Monday, Schwarzenegger announced three nominations to the 11-member board. Two – Ben Austin and Alan Arkatov – are charter advocates. Arkatov is a board member of the Alliance for College Ready Public Schools, which runs 16 highly-respected charter schools in Los Angeles, although that’s just one of his roles. Well-connected in Los Angeles Unified, he was president of eEducation Group earlier in the decade and founder and chairman of OnlineLearning.net before that.
As executive director of the Los Angeles Parents Union and Parents Revolution, Austin was a force behind the “parent trigger” that the Legislature adopted in its Race to the Top legislation in January. It empowers a majority of parents at low-performing schools to petition their local school board for a change in their school’s leadership and governance, including conversion to a charter school. Austin was a consultant at Green Dot Public Schools, a charter organization in Los Angeles, before that.
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