A reader sent this comment in response to an earlier post about Mr. Rogers, the kind and gentle man who had his own television show for children for many years:
I have to believe if Mr. Rogers were in charge of education, Race To The Top would work like this:
“There was a story going around about the Special Olympics. For the hundred-yard dash, there were nine contestants, all of them so-called physically or mentally disabled. All nine of them assembled at the starting line and, at the sound of the gun, they took off. But one little boy didn’t get very far. He stumbled and fell and hurt his knee and began to cry. The other eight children heard the boy crying. They slowed down, turned around, and ran back to him–every one of them ran back to him. The little boy got up, and he and the rest of the runners linked their arms together and joyfully walked to the finish line. They all finished the race at the same time. and when they did, everyone in the stadium stood up and clapped and whistled and cheered for a long, long time. And you know why? Because deep down we know that what matters in this life is more than winning for ourselves. What really matters is helping others win, too, even if it means slowing down and changing our course now and then.”
― Fred Rogers
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
We’d sure be better off than the awful policy DC and Dover offer us now!
Fred Rogers, obviously a believer in the soft bigotry of low expectations.
Yes, and in addition to The Race To The Top (RTTT’s) other problems, the 500 point scoring system as developed by the Department of Education (DOE) is unbelievably bad and unfair. One has to hope that the only way it was accepted by the President, Secretary of Education, Governors and State Education Officials was because they never took the time to really look at the scoring system, or worse yet they were willing to accept any means that promoted the desired ends.
To help understand this system lets imagine a National College Basketball Competition scored in a similar manner. One College team would be chosen by each State as its representative. Because of preparation effort and expense some States would not participate. The first step would be to publish some Selection Criteria Values. Based on the RTTT model the DOE would solicit suggestions and values might include the following criteria and max points: Blocks and Screens 150 points, Three Point Shooting 80 points, Fast Breaks 60 points, Plays 50 points, and Coaching 160 points for a Total of 500 points.
The teams would play out their normal season and collect statistics on the Selection Criteria for each game. Each State would then submit these actual game statistics along with various promises. Following the RTTT model maybe 140 points would be based on actual game statistics the remaining points would be based on promises of future action by the States. Notice the actual win/loss statistics would only be a portion of the final score. The promises would include efforts to improve various aspects of the above Selection Criteria. Since promises cannot be objectively evaluated five Reviewers would be hired and trained to assign points to the promises.
The scores of each participating State would be tallied and the DOE would select a group of finalist. The Governors, Coaches and staff of these finalists would be invited to D.C. to make presentations. The Reviewers would adjust each of the Scored Criteria based on these presentations and tally the results. The DOE would then announce the winner. I would be surprised if this scheme improved attendance at basketball games.
Beautiful! Thank you.
Today they would fire the coach of the kid who tripped and then turn over the event to a private, race organization company.
This is how neighbors get along…as it was said of the Ten Commandments, “Love thy neighbor…the rest is commentary.”