Race to the Top: A Five-Year Marathon Slog With No End in Sight
Let me start by revealing my bias about the name itself. I don't think any aspect of genuinely improving public education in America is enhanced by state-vs.-state competition. Initiatives that serve the greater public good should never be about which states "win" federal money by guessing at/purchasing the "right" profile development, promising the exact policy tweaks that judges were looking for. Further, I hate the idea of states and school districts competing--via student test data comparisons--for a spotlight as "best" at anything in education. As experiences in Atlanta and Washington, D.C. demonstrate, Campbell's Law is alive and well and rendering "objective" data problematic every day.
I don't think we can battle--sprint, compete, struggle or fight--our way to the top. We haven't even clearly defined what "Top" looks like. A more thoughtful and educated citizenry? More equity of opportunity? If "the top" is defined as better test scores, or more students compelled to pursue four-year college degrees they can't afford toward jobs that don't exist--well, the smarter move is sitting this race out.
There's plenty to write about how the Race to the Top is playing out: the Common Core State Standards debacle, the millions spent to develop "better" teacher evaluations which once again show that most teachers are doing a pretty job, the policies that have brought us more charter school corruption. But from a teacher perspective, the most striking aspect has been the aggressive federal intrusion into state policy and even the classroom.
Things that once were entirely the purview of the teacher--or the teacher, her colleagues, and Race to the Top: A Five-Year Marathon Slog With No End in Sight - Teacher in a Strange Land - Education Week Teacher: