Thursday, September 13, 2012

Shanker Blog » The Impact Of Race To The Top Is An Open Question (But At Least It's Being Asked)

Shanker Blog » The Impact Of Race To The Top Is An Open Question (But At Least It's Being Asked):


The Impact Of Race To The Top Is An Open Question (But At Least It’s Being Asked)

You don’t have to look very far to find very strong opinions about Race to the Top (RTTT), the U.S. Department of Education’s (USED) stimulus-funded state-level grant program (which has recently been joined by a district-level spinoff). There are those who think it is a smashing success, while others assert that it is a dismal failure. The truth, of course, is that these claims, particularly the extreme views on either side, are little more than speculation.*
To win the grants, states were strongly encouraged to make several different types of changes, such as adoption of new standards, the lifting/raising of charter school caps, the installation of new data systems and the implementation of brand new teacher evaluations. This means that any real evaluation of the program’s impact