California teachers not making it to ‘Top’
Updated: Monday, April 5, 2010Illustration by Robert Vargas
California is trailing behind in the Race to the Top.
President Barack Obama’s plan for nationalizing public education standards calls for states to compete against each other for more than $4 billion of federal funding, according to the U.S. Department of Education Web site. Currently, 16 states have met the criteria and will receive a portion of the money. California is not one of them.
While the plan is aimed at improving education, some people, like Dr. Al Schademan, a professor in the education department, say theRace to the Top plan may cause harm. The basis for funding is predominantly centered on test scores, which puts teachers in the dangerous position of either raising students’ test scores or being out of a job.
One of the biggest components of the Race to the Top is making sure only quality teachers are up in front of the classrooms, Schademan said. One concern professors have is that since students’ test scores are linked to the teacher, the quality of the teacher can be traced to the college that trained them.
Following graduates and their students’ test scores will probably become the next step in insuring that California employs quality teachers, he said. Chico State has a relatively high graduation rate for the credential program.
The university started as a normal school to train teachers, so students in the credential program come from a school with a long-standing reputation of credibility, Schademan said.
In October 2009, Chico State was awarded $7.3 million in federal Teacher Quality Partnership grants, which were given to 28 universities nationwide to improve teacher preparation in instructing students at high-need schools,