Colorado Unions Split on Tenure Bill
Oh, snap!
There's a bit of a disagreement between Colorado teachers' unions over the tenure bill making its way through the state legislature. Why? Because the state National Education Association affiliate won't support the bill but the state American Federation of Teachers, which is admittedly much smaller, has endorsed it.
The AFT has decided to throw its weight behind the bill because of new amendments, expected to pass, that would: insert a due-process procedure for teachers that revert to probationary status after poor evaluations; maintain seniority as a tiebreaker when laying off "effective" teachers; include teacher input in placement
Was Race to the Top Authorized?
There's a bit of a disagreement between Colorado teachers' unions over the tenure bill making its way through the state legislature. Why? Because the state National Education Association affiliate won't support the bill but the state American Federation of Teachers, which is admittedly much smaller, has endorsed it.
The AFT has decided to throw its weight behind the bill because of new amendments, expected to pass, that would: insert a due-process procedure for teachers that revert to probationary status after poor evaluations; maintain seniority as a tiebreaker when laying off "effective" teachers; include teacher input in placement
Was Race to the Top Authorized?
Grover J. "Russ" Whitehurst, the former director of the Institute of Education Sciences, argues in this Education Week commentary that the Obama administration's signature education policy program, the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, was not authorized by Congress.
As a reporter who covered the development of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act very closely, I found his commentary thoughtful but, ultimately, I disagree with his conclusion that the program wasn't authorized.
In making his argument, Whitehurst takes a look at the actual language in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill says, in a nutshell, that the fund will be used to reward states that make progress on the four "assurances" spelled out in the law. Those include teacher quality and distribution, turning around low-performing schools, standards and assessments, and state data systems.
Whitehurst notes that there isn't anything about charter schools or even common standards in the ARRA. And he's absolutely right on that score.
But that doesn't mean the program wasn't authorized. In fact, as Whitehurst himself says, Congress gave
As a reporter who covered the development of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act very closely, I found his commentary thoughtful but, ultimately, I disagree with his conclusion that the program wasn't authorized.
In making his argument, Whitehurst takes a look at the actual language in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The bill says, in a nutshell, that the fund will be used to reward states that make progress on the four "assurances" spelled out in the law. Those include teacher quality and distribution, turning around low-performing schools, standards and assessments, and state data systems.
Whitehurst notes that there isn't anything about charter schools or even common standards in the ARRA. And he's absolutely right on that score.
But that doesn't mean the program wasn't authorized. In fact, as Whitehurst himself says, Congress gave