Parents and teachers have organized a telephone campaign to register their objections to the Race to the Top program, which has led to more testing and more school closings and more disruptions for students and teachers.
Here is the campaign message:
Contact the White House weekly at 202-456-1111
Message: Give all students the same education your girls are getting! Abandon Race to the Top and stop privatizing public schools.
MONDAY
1. Alabama
2. Alaska
3. Arizona
4. Arkansas
5. California
6. Colorado
7. Connecticut
8. Delaware
9. Florida
10. Georgia
TUESDAY
1. Hawaii
2. Idaho
3. Illinois
4. Indiana
5. Iowa
6. Kansas
7. Kentucky
8. Louisiana
9. Maine
10. Maryland
WEDNESDAY
1. Massachusetts
2. Michigan
3. Minnesota
4. Mississippi
5. Missouri
6. Montana
7. Nebraska
8. Nevada
9. New Hampshire
10. New Jersey
THURSDAY
1. New Mexico
2. New York
3. North Carolina
4. North Dakota
5. Ohio
6. Oklahoma
7. Oregon
8. Pennsylvania
9. Rhode Island
10. South Carolina
FRIDAY
1. South Dakota
2. Tennessee
3. Texas
4. Utah
5. Vermont
6. Virginia
7. Washington
8. West Virginia
9. Wisconsin
10. Wyoming
11. Washington, D.C.
What is “Race to the Top”?
RttT is an initiative from the Obama administration that allows states to extend the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate that ALL children be working at grade level by the 2014. States that accepted RttT agreed (along with many other things) to evaluate teachers using student test scores as part of the evaluation and provide more charter schools as a parent “choice”. Just these two provisions have resulted in high stakes testing impacting America’s children and tax dollars being removed from traditional public schools to fund charter schools. A “not so coincidental” byproduct of just these two actions is a decline in the quality of education in our public schools AND corporations lining up to write tests, new curriculum, and open charter schools. If continued, RttT will ultimately destroy public schools as we now know them and continue to provide a way for the monies designated for public education to go to the accounts of corporations that are joining the education bandwagon. Not all children are accepted at charter schools. Education will become a commodity for a select few children and the rest others will be “trained” to be docile employees (google Common Core Standards for more info). Parents must speak out now! Teachers and administrators must speak out now! America must speak out now! STOP THE RACE TO THE TOP!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I got my form letter reply last week to my letter sent in October. It was the same letter everyone else got. Had little to do with my specific complaints.
They need to engage in deeper reading to understand the text of our letters. Maybe David Coleman can help themin his spare time.
Same here got my letter from Pres. Obama too..defending RTT
As donvila above said, I got my form letter last week to the letter I sent in October. I copied it below. It is enough to gag a maggot and underscores the reason we all need to call.
Thank you for writing. My Administration is working to ensure all America’s young people have educational opportunities worthy of their potential, and I appreciate hearing from you.
There is no stronger foundation for success than a great education. We must provide our children with the world-class schools they need to succeed and our Nation needs to compete in the global economy. Our classrooms should be places of high expectations and success, where all students receive an education that prepares them for higher education and high-demand careers in our fast-changing economy.
My Administration has made historic investments to strengthen our education system, including our Race to the Top program—the most ambitious education reform our country has seen in generations. Race to the Top focuses on what is best for our students by engaging state and local leaders and educators in turning around our lowest performing schools, developing and rewarding effective teachers, adopting meaningful assessments, and tracking the progress of our students.
To comprehensively reshape our educational system and better meet state and local needs, we also need to reform the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)—a law that has helped advance accountability and expose disparities in opportunities and outcomes, but labels too many schools as failing and imposes too many unworkable remedies. Because America’s students could not afford to wait any longer for Congress to act, my Administration launched a new Federal-State partnership to provide States flexibility to advance educational reforms in exchange for a commitment to raise standards, improve accountability, and help teachers become more effective. The first round of States to receive flexibility was announced in February 2012, and while they are required to maintain a focus on underserved students, they can now move away from one-size-fits-all interventions and mandates and instead do what is best for students.
The future of America’s economic strength is determined each day in classrooms across our Nation. To be successful, we must cultivate a learning environment with an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective principal in every school. Supporting a strong teaching workforce and inspiring school leadership is a top priority for my Administration. In these challenging financial times for State and local budgets, we have worked to help schools keep teachers in the classroom, preserve or extend the regular school day and year, and maintain important afterschool activities. My Administration has also put forward a robust plan to strengthen and transform the teaching profession through a series of investments to help States and districts pursue bold reforms at every stage of the profession. This includes attracting top-tier talent and preparing educators for success, creating career ladders with opportunities for advancement and competitive compensation, evaluating and supporting the development of teachers and principals, and getting the best educators into the classrooms of the students who need them most.
Across our country, young people are dreaming of their futures and of the ideas that will chart the course of our unwritten history. A world-class education system will equip our Nation to advance economic growth, encourage new investment and hiring, spark innovation, and ensure the success of the middle class. Preparing our students for higher education and rewarding careers fulfills our promise to our Nation’s young people and strengthens America for generations to come. To learn more about my Administration’s work, please visit http://www.WhiteHouse.gov/Issues/Education.
Thank you for writing.
A form letter? Seems in keeping with RtTT, where “we” all look the same and one-size-fits-all! A sad commentary of our times!
The Race To The Top (RTTT) 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. For instance, in Three Point Shooting the actual baskets made would only be part of the score the other portion might include a promise to develop shooters with better form.
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 explain why they should be the champions. The Reviewers would adjust each of the Scored Criteria based on these presentations and tally the results. The DOE would then announce the individual game winners and champions. One would be surprised if such a scheme was ever accepted by players, coaches or fans.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina.
I am very exctied for April in Washington D.C. ! I have a feeling that there will be many voices defending our public schools, public school teachers, and children this year ~
What’s happening in April in DC?
Arne came to Dallas because it is a finalist for RTT and decided while he was there to hand our horrible superintendent a way to further destroy the district:
http://www.disdblog.com/2012/12/04/making-big-d-number-one/#comment-3644
We are suffering under the latest Broad Toad brought to Dallas.