A few days ago, Georgia announced that it was dropping out of PARCC, the Common Core testing consortium funded by the U.S. Department of Education. State officials said the state could not afford the technology or the cost.
The U.S. Department of Education was swift to respond. It wrote Georgia to warn that it is withholding $10 million from the state’s Race to the Top funding. Maybe the timing was a coincidence. Maybe not.
The state says it needs more time to fix its educator evaluation system before it can be implemented, but the Feds insist that Georgia must start evaluating teachers and principals based on test scores without further delay.
Now for a dose of reality. Research does not support any part of Race to the Top. Research shows that tying educator evaluations to test scores produces narrowing the curriculum, gaming the system, teaching to the test, cheating, and score inflation. The most “effective” teachers teach the most affluent students in the most affluent schools. The least “effective” teach the poorest. Research shows that over 100 years of trying, merit pay has Never worked. Teachers are doing the best they know how; they are not holding back and hoping for a bonus or a biscuit.
Race to the Top will someday be remembered in the history books as a Grand Detour, when ideologues gained control of federal policy and used an economic crisis to dangle money in front of the states so they would agree to implement failed policies.
All of this will change, but not until there is wiser leadership in Washington, wise enough to banish Race to the Top and recover a common sense approach to education reform based on what children and schools need, not what misguided politicians demand.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Race to the Top will someday be remembered in the history books as a Grand Detour, when ideologues gained control of federal policy and used an economic crisis to dangle money in front of the states so they would agree to implement failed policies.”
I love that!
I hope more states do what Georgia is doing.
Not all money is good. Beware anyone warning you about not taking their money. Beware anyone warning you period. That sounds like manipulation to me.
Grand Detour …
rhymes with Delusion of Grandeur …
good good good. Song lyrics.
let me get that down. thank you.
Georgia On My Hind ???
one of the more gorgeous recordings ever.
It’s about time!
Georgia messed with USDoE GOLDEN carrot and now they come out in force to threaten GA. I hope Georgia holds tight! As they say…always follow the $$$!
Not all money is good and not all terminology is good. Since the words “school reform” have been abused to the point that they no longer carry any meaning, let’s just abandon future usage.
“Common sense approach” covers all bases. It is the foundation of democracy and will automatically exclude the faux corporate “educator” types who demonstrate no common-sense-in-action at all.
Spin, baby, spin. That’s these United States. Can’t even get the news anymore without the spin from the…AHEM…news reporters. They BE NOT reporters, but extensions of the marketing dept. for the news channel and more of FOX’s brand. YOU KNOW…MARKET the NEWS! Egads.
Governor Perry of Texas has refused Common Core funding. About the ONLY thing I agree with him on.
Texas Dept. of Ed refused to join the other states in accepting the CCSS. It never got so far as funding, and I wouldn’t give Rick Perry any credit.
There are no valid and reliable student test data from consortia tests that teacher evaluations can be based on. Let Duncan keep his RT3 money — it was to fully implement CC and the LDS anyway!
What is the LDS? I am a Mormon, which is more formally known as LDS, but I doubt this is the same thing.
Didn’t Duncan just give states a temporary reprieve on mandating test-based eval?
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2013/06/arne_duncan_allows_waiver_stat.html
Duncan IS NO REPRIEVE. He is a constant for the CORPORATIONS and his, Obama’s, Gates’ plans. Put Rahm in there as well. He another go-fer for big money. These guys are totally corrupt folks. How can we even begin to give them the benefit of the doubt. The evidence is right before our very own eyes, and we deny them? Nope, cannot. Gotta look at the evidence. Ooops…forgot even the highest court in this country doesn’t look at the evidence. They make spins about the evidence.
As a more eniightened leader, are we channeling Hilary?
Should we trust any Democrat now??
Can’t trust either party. Both are CORRUPT to the CORE. BOTH are owned by big money who own big corporations. Big corporations give money to politicians to fund campaigna in order to purchase laws. It’s this simple.
One more thing. and when a politician leaves office he/she has the best healthcare, retirement, and dental care for the rest of their lives. PLUS, these yahoos get to take ALL campaign contributions with them as personal income when they leave office. These laws were voted in by Congress FOR Congress…it’s that simple.
Paula, ask her where she stands. I don’t hold out too much hope. Here she is, sitting at Broad’s table at his inauguration celebration for Obama.
chemtchr, this is part of politics. Does anyone refuse to sit at the table of the billionaire host of an inauguration party?
At least in all the pictures, Hillary is not touching Broad as are Rhee and Duncan!
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER.
Hill is part of Bill, and they are both the modern parents of the neoliberal movement in the Democratic party.
Their marriage is little more than a business arrangement, and Bill has made far more than 75 million dollars in personal wealth from speaking fees alone since he left office.
Hill and Bill could not be more disconnected from the average person’s plight here. And Hill sat on the board of Walmart years ago.
They are both political animals and stick to opportunism with more adhesion than Anthony Weiner does to a cell phone camera.
We need someone else, but NOT Hillary Clinton.
Too bad, because she had the potential. She will not feel our pain.
RttT money is blood money anyway.
RttT = PAIN money + BLOOD money = Corruption
Have a look at the comments following the article.
Depressing.
Good for Georgia! Tell those Yankee carpetbaggers where to put their federal money. At least the southern states have the “guts” to say “no.” Has anyone ever heard of states’ rights? Don’t take that dirty money. I will never vote Democrat for the rest of my life- never. I won’t be complicit in any of this anymore. Teachers need to vote the Democrats out- now.
Yes, and the Republican’s, too. Nobody should stay in office who has had any hand in this.
John, while it is true that the corporate deformers have bought their way into the Democratic Party they still own most of the Republicans.
What has become extremely important is the Primaries. You must make sure that your party is represented by the best candidate not necessarily the one with the biggest campaign chest!
Teachers are not motivated by money or they wouldn’t be teachers. And the problem with waiting for the next regime is that they, too, will be politicians. At some point, educators need to take the reins of the Department of Education, and then INSTRUCT politicians on what needs they have. Until that time, it is all nonsense – and has been for over 100 years.
I hope that Georgia sticks to its guns. I said on an earlier post when it was first announced that Georgia was withdrawing from PARCC that I thought that as the number of states that stood their ground increased, the more that other states woud be likely to follow. I hope other states are not silenced by Arne’s threats. As for which party to trust, contact each candidate running for office and find out his/her position in regards to education. Sadly, sometimes it ends up being a choice of the lesser of two evils.
John – it has already been shown that this is not a Democrat, or even a Republican, thing – it’s a combination of politicians who believe different things, yet they ALL show their ignorance with educational issues. This all started with George W’s NCLB and has continued downhill with Race to the Top under Obama. Both sides are at fault.
Vote 3rd party. There are more choices than the DEMs and REPs, which they would like to lead you to believe.
Duncan and his minions disdain state autonomy when the “autonomy” is anything other than acquiescence to federal demands. Note how his office recently described California’s governor, superintendent of education and teachers for their principled stand on RttT/ NCLB: “Washington officials say [California]’s position is delusional. Now that so many other states have met the administration’s demands, they say, the Education Department can’t start carving out exceptions for California.” – (L.A. Times, 7/15/13) And while CA appears to be holding out, 10 of our urban districts – C.O.R.E. – are trying to go their own way by applying for a special waiver. And get this: – not one of those 10 districts has bothered to involve their teachers’ unions in the waiver’s development. This joint letter from CTA and eight locals is the most invigorating union message I’ve seen on the topic of the CORE waiver: “… any effort to foster ‘whole system reform’ and promote the development of ‘professional capital’ in renewing, rebuilding and transforming the public education system in California must involve and, as you note, is the responsibility of the ‘entire school community’. This must include educators and their representatives, as well as other stakeholders, in meaningful decision-making roles throughout that process, including its design, development and ultimate execution – not as an afterthought.” DoE is supposed to announce in the next couple of weeks whether the renegade CORE group gets its waiver.
Arne gets angry at Georgia because Georgia has incompetent leadership in the GA DoE. You see, when you apply for a grant, you are making a commitment, and if you fail to honor that commitment, then you lose the grant, or a portion thereof.
Georgia promised to implement a merit pay program in specified time period, and they couldn’t implement it. They have a poorly run infrastructure and if you overpromised in your grant application, then you lose the $ associated with that part of the grant app. Simple as that, Georgia was warned about this a while ago, Diane. You can check your facts on that point.
Before you jump to wild, unsupported conclusions, you might want to look at what’s really going on here. You don’t get awarded money in any industry and not have to live up to your obligations. Sounds like you’d rather our schools receive money with ZERO accountability.
Every DOE that entered the RttT has shown itself to be incompetent. It turns out they were selling Arne something that isn’t theirs to sell.
Fish rots from the head down and Arne is poison.
Keep your federal chump change and leave us alone.
Dump Duncan now!
I guess some of the edufrauds are worried about their eduscheme revenue loss.
How much for the training, books, computers, software, and tests? I would guess Georgia would be looking at a spending 5 to 10 billion dollars. Looks like they made a financial sound decision to me. Can’t say I see a return on investment on that one. In fact, if the core actually makes students dumber, Georgia could have been looking at a net loss of 20 or 30 billion dollars in future earnings of its people.
Georgia is certainly no model for the rest of the country, but this episode is another chink in the armor of RTTT and “school reform.” Diane’s comment about different leadership in Washington is absolutely true, but how do we get that? Given the current state of the Democratic Party leadership on school policy, unless there is a massive movement from below, in conjunction with other “subversives” (labor, the poor, minorities, anti-imperialists, etc.) we will see no change. Sorry, but Hilary would be no better than Barack. The “Liberal Establishment” is the problem, just like in the 1960s.
They aren’t liberals, they are NEOliberals, which is the furthest thing from being liberal. The neolibs and their billionaire/Wall Street backers, control both political parties and this country.
It’s time to take it back before EVERYTHING is gone.
Wait…so States don’t really have control in this State-led effort???
As they say in Jersey, Fugettaboutit!
Very good point….how is it that a state led initiative must answer to Arne?
A %^&!^#*&* is the only name befitting for this guy
R elegates the public to a bad education
N ever has taught a class in a public school
E radicates the public trust in order to privatize
D oes nothing beneficial for children
U nbelieveably non-intellectual
N ot at all connected to real teachers, educators, and administrators
C apable of destroying public education and changing the face of democracy
A sks no opinions of teachers, researchers, and cognitive scientists
N ullifies all intellectual capacity with by emphasizing Common Core and its high stakes
Barack Obama will be remembered only for one thing, and that is he was instrumental in the destruction of the public education system in this country.
The man is a total failure.
And he is intentional about it . . . .
I think he’ll also be remembered as the first black president of the US. Perhaps also “Obamacare.”
Obama is not “black” in the usual sense. He’s not even fundamentally “American” by culture. He exploited his pigmentation to get elected, but he’s Chicago Marxist through and through. We haven’t yet had in this country our first black president. Obama’s whitey in a fully body mask. Possibly the greatest fraud in American history. RTTT and Obamacare: those are his legacies. His daughters are authentic, however, thanks to Michelle. Such sweet, dignified, good looking kids.
I personally am color blind. . . . bad policies are bad policies. . . .
Obama is a sellout and his deceit is independent of his melanin levels. . . .
He is no progressive and no liberal.
We get the politicians we deserve. Or at least, we get the politicians who reflect the possibilities of the day. The time for mainstream progressive politics has not yet arrived.
Oh my goodness, good FLERP! “mainstream progressive politics.” Surely you mean “mainstream conservative politics.” Progressive politics dominated and still dominates Detroit. 20 more years of “progressivism” such as we’ve had, and ALL the big cities of American will resemble Detroit, possible the whole country, considering the debt load the Federal Government is carrying. And there won’t be an bailouts for Mars that year.
Fair point. I was thinking on the national level. Declining urban cities have their own peculiar dynamic.
Well, how about the only president to order the “hit” on a sixteen year old American citizen without any court oversight/writ/charges brought against him. Cold blooded “mafia” style hit! Order the underlings to get it done!
Right as usual you are, Duane.
But FLERP has a point in that we get waht we deserve because – and I’m assuming this is her/his point – tbhat once elected, we really don’t put pressure on all relevant politicians to keep their promises or to do the right thing.
We support campaigns one way, and then Obama and disgusting people like him turn around and govern another way. It’s nothing new, but we Americans need to shed the passivity and apathy way before a crisis occurs and start calling and houdning our politicians. In this day and age of surveillance, loss of civil rights, and great shifts in wealth and power, we need this “shedding” more than ever.
Otherwise, politicians will just do more of the same.
As far as FLERP’s “cities having peculiar dynamics”, I don’t see how important that point is because human need is human need, and it is independent of geography in terms of its potential to crop up on a daily basis.
If we choose to compartmentalize (I’m not saying FLERP is) the ills of society with lables like “urban, suburban, rural”, etc., we miss the whole point of the universality of Maslow’s hierarchy, no?
(Hey, what happened to my comment about California’s C.O.R.E. work around? I’ll try again. Hope it’s not double posting.)
Duncan and his minions have disdain for any groups, no matter how respectable, that offer opposition. they see political or professional autonomy as pure betrayal. Check out how Duncan’s Ed Dept. described the governor, superintendent of education and the teachers of California in this LAT piece. The minion “officials” in the quote are referencing California’s refusal to go along with RttT. “…Washington officials say the state’s position is delusional. Now that so many other states have met the administration’s demands, they say, the Education Department can’t start carving out exceptions for California.” – (L.A. Times, 7/15/13) But note that CA’s independent streak is not uniform. Ten large urban districts in the state have banded together in C.O.R.E. to request a non-state waiver. And – get this – the 10 districts didn’t think it was necessary or valuable to involve their teachers and those teachers’ unions in development of that waiver request. This joint letter from the California Teachers Association and eight locals is the most invigorating union message I’ve seen on the topic of the CORE waiver. “…any effort to foster ‘whole system reform’ and promote the development of ‘professional capital’ in renewing, rebuilding and transforming the public education system in California must involve and, as you note, is the responsibility of the ‘entire school community’. This must include educators and their representatives, as well as other stakeholders, in meaningful decision-making roles throughout that process, including its design, development and ultimate execution – not as an afterthought.” Keep your eye out in the next two weeks. By then, the renegade CORE group will be told if its its waiver has been approved.
I couldn’t agree more. Let us acknowledge, Diane, that you said on this very blog that you planned to vote for Obama over Romney because you didn’t see much choice between the candidates on education. I personally look for zero enlightened leadership, even on education, ever, from any Democrat, in any state or federally.
Harlan, I was in your neck of the woods a couple weeks ago. Stopped by St. Claire Shores. The St. Claire Inn looks like it’s ready to fall in the river. The roof is going, and the carpet hasn’t been replaced in at least 30 years. Hard times.
Indeed, hard times. However, there are many of us who love Detroit and its people and hope the bankruptcy can be carried through without treating the pensioners as unsecured creditors. The State constitution actually protects public worker pensions. The city itself, has, of course, been corrupt for decades, but with a clean slate there is a chance for honest people to reassert leadership and try to continue to augment its attractions. Some of the neighborhoods are pretty scary, but the downtown has a lot of support and affection. One million or more fled to the suburbs, and new auto companies coming from overseas chose to build in the south because of the UAW stranglehold on the city. Well, the UAW killed the golden goose, or at least made it fly south, and today Michigan is a right to work state. It’s going take a long time to even just get Detroit stable. But it will never be the same old vibrant city it used to be. Pity though. I loved working downtown, but my college just closed up on me, and I had to find a new job, and it happened to be in the suburbs. I could have transferred to Lawrence Tech, I suppose, but 5 miles to work vs. 75 made a difference to me.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
Maybe Arne got the blustering “withhold” money bullshit from Governor Markell. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Either way, when it comes to schools and students they are both sycophantic frauds.
Who to vote for in 2016? Do a write in for my cat Tanglefoots. Leo cat can be the VP, Stormy cat can be the Secretary of State and Fuzzy cat can be the Secretary of Education. I should have though of that last November…they couldn’t have done any worse than what we have now or what Romney might have done.
Oh, puleeeze. Get serious. Romney was bland, but at least competent. Ted Cruz is my hope for 2016.
It is a little bit confusing here in Georgia. Already, several of the school systems (notably some of the more affluent GOP-leaning counties in the metro Atlanta area like Forsyth, Cobb, and Fulton — not the City of Atlanta Schools within Fulton County) have already opted out of any of this “bribery” money relative to the Teacher Keys Effectiveness System (evaluation system tied to students’ scores) and the money from the U. S. Department of Education that would accompany the adoption of such an evaluation system. I talked to my brother today, who is a member of a school board here in Georgia. His system has opted out of the TKES evaluation program (mainly because of the massive and unrealistic amount of time and energy that it was going to require) but he says that now the Georgia Department of Education was saying that they could phase it in 10% at a time. Now we get this threat from Arne Duncan, who really doesn’t know his butt from deep centerfield when it comes to public education, implying that the entire State of Georgia needs to immediately adopt an evaluation program that is essentially merit pay/value-added evaluations of teachers and administrators. I was planning to write about this today (July 31 really) but chose to study the issue a little more before laying it out as a chapter in our book. I have written many articles on the flawed premise of merit pay and Bill Gates’s push for it. Now we also have Gates looking like he was doing a two-step shuffle (or should I say a Brazilian samba dance?) on this issue in the article that he wrote back in April in The Washington Post. The RTTT program may prove to make NCLB look like Ned-in-the-First-Reader by the time it finishes wreaking complete havoc within our public schools. The top-of-the-page headlines in the July 31 issue of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reads, “Ga. schools may lose $10M.” I took the paper, along with Diane’s “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” to lunch with me today. The more that the federal government gets involved in public schools, the more chaos is created. If you get a chance to take a look at the book that we are displaying online as we are writing it, go to http://www.themacemanifesto.com. It’s a politically incorrect, irreverent, and scatological examination of what’s wrong with American public education. Thanks, John Trotter.
Good work.
I have to agree with this.
The federal government has NO business in public schools if it is going to behave in the manner it has been since NCLB. Big government works when it is in the interest of the populist masses, not for the special interest groups and the 2%. . . .
The Department of Education should be dissolved completely.
I love how common core is “state led”, but you’re not allowed to change more than 15% (and don’t ask me how that is determined) and if you don’t follow through with the testing, then you lose funding, but hey it’s STATE LED, so first they lie and then they grab you by the balls if you don’t acquiesce to their lie. Sick bastards, eh?
LInda, the Feds are getting the states to do their bidding so that they can say, “We are not interefering in states’ rights . . . ”
The National Governor’s Association is right up there with ALEC in terms of removing education as a public trust.
I enjoy your comments always.
GA Officials Say Common Core Tests Cost More Than All State Tests Combined
By Kelly Petty | 07/29/2013 | Education, States |
ivn.com
Phone number: Governor Patrick
Massachusetts State House
Phone: 617.725.4005
888.870.7770 (in state)
I called the governor’s office and told them it was arrogant for Commissioner to beat up on Georgia; the better response is to say “we know how you can do it, we can show you” you don’t need to buy that corporate stuff. We have a political clift/cliff between Commissioner and Secretary of Education that is always a conflict in MASS…. but I don’ want either one of them to use power to beat up on other states in the issues of conformity.
Interesting… the post states that Research does not support RTTT. Yet we are mandated to use research based methods in our teaching, What happened to what is good for the goose is good for the gander? By the way, how is California holding up since Arne lashed out at that state?
@ Harlan: If your “Good work” was aimed at us at MACE, then thanks! We try!
It’s the same old con game. It’s about power bought with money. In my opinion, all forms of grants and subsidies should be eliminated as they dull the initiative and creativity of local solutions to local problems. A great overseer is not what we need. We need to find people who understand how to motivate and inspire people to get the most out of themselves. Omnipotence is their goal not the best interests of the people who have their own goals.
Does that imply you would prefer to rely exclusively on local property taxes to fund schools?