John Thompson: GAO and Elaine Weiss Converge on Harsh Appraisal of Race to the Top
Guest post by John Thompson.
Elaine Weiss' "Mismatches in Race to the Top Limit Education Improvement" and the General Accounting Office's (GAO's) "Race to the Top: States Implementing Teacher and Principal Evaluation Systems Despite Challenges" make a fine set of bookends for the considerable evidence documenting the problems with the RttT. In the sections that deal with the experimental evaluation systems that were imposed on teachers and principals, an objective and careful reader would be hard pressed to tell from the evidence presented whether it was Weiss or the GAO who was explaining the RttT's mistakes. After all, their basic methodology, of reviewing the written record and interviewing state, local, and federal officials, was the same. Weiss simply supplemented those resources with the work of a far greater number of scholars and journalists.
For instance, it was the GAO, not Weiss, who presented this indictment of the RttT's intrusion into teacher evaluation,
For instance, it was the GAO, not Weiss, who presented this indictment of the RttT's intrusion into teacher evaluation,
Officials in 11 (of 12) states said teacher concerns about the scale of change, such as the use of student academic growth data and consequences attached to evaluations, challenged state