EdVANTAGE Blog

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has released estimates of allocations from the federal Education Jobs Fund for New York State school districts.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation creating the fund today; it was passed by the Senate last week.

New York State’s share of the $10 billion authorized nationwide is $607 million.

The Senator’s estimates are unofficial; the state must adopt an allocation scheme.  There are reports that the State Assembly and Senate could be called back next week to take actions necessary for the state to expend the federal aid.

You can see the Senator’s estimates here.  Again they are unofficial. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, Council Executive Director Bob Reidy and I were guests on Albany public radio’s “Vox Pop” call-in show.

Our scheduled topics were the federal Race to the Top initiative and the Education Department’s recent change in cut scores for the grade 3 through 8 assessments.

Several of the callers were teachers expressing opinions about “teaching to the test” and merit pay plans to link compensation and student performance.

You can listen to the hour-long show here.

Host Alan Chartock told us the program is heard in six states.

Earlier in the week I reported that the Assembly and Senate had both approved Governor Paterson’s proposal to authorize equal, across the board reductions in most areas of state spending, including School Aid, in order to accommodate a feared loss of $1.085 billion in anticipated additional federal help in paying for Medicaid.

Yesterday, however, there was a breakthrough in the U.S. Senate, which approved an amendment continue some of this additional federal aid.  The same legislation also authorizes an “Education Jobs Fund,” to help school systems create or maintain positions in the current school year.

The U.S. House of Representatives is expected to pass corresponding legislation early next week.  The House has previously approved similar initiatives, so passage is deemed certain.

Read the rest of this entry »

Education Week and others are reporting that New York and seventeen other states plus the District of Columbia have been chosen today as second round finalists in the federal Race to the Top competition.

More on this to come…

Today New York and other states seeking a share of federal Race to the Top education reform funding find out whether they have made it to the final round.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan will announce the finalists in a speech at 12:30 1 pm today at the National Press Club in Washington.

You can watch the speech live here and read the announcement here when it is posted — expected to be around 1 pm.

I’ll be surprised if something doesn’t leak out before noon, however.

I expect that New York will be among the finalists.  So does an Education Week blogger.

Earlier this week U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said “I think New York has worked extraordinarily hard” to strengthen its second chance application for federal Race to the Top funding.

He singled out the approval of legislation raising the state’s charter school cap as an example.

Gotham Schools provides a 647 word summary of the state’s 450+ page new application.

The complete application is here.

Despite being given barely more than two days to act on the State Education Department’s request for memorandums of understanding in support of the new application, 91 percent of districts did submit MOUs signed by their superintendents.

Whatever one thinks of the actions taken to improve the state’s chances for funding, they should have that effect.

Read the rest of this entry »

More on the teacher evaluation reform proposal announced by State Education Commissioner David Steiner earlier this week…

Commissioner Steiner gave his explanation of the initiative in a New York Post column on Wednesday.

Gothamschools.org reported on New York City teacher union president Michael Mulgrew’s presentation of the plan to his board, suggesting he had to dispel some skepticism among his members.

Mr. Mulgrew’s union has posted this Q&A piece on the proposal.

Here is a copy of the bill itself.

Later this morning, State Education Commissioner David Steiner and leaders of New York State United Teachers will announce agreement on a package of changes to how teachers are evaluated in the state.

UPDATE (12:10 am, May 11):  Here is the State Education Department’s new release on the agreement.  Here is NYSUT’s release.

The changes are intended to enhance New York’s prospects for winning up to $700 million in federal Race to the Top funds.  At least some will require changes in state law, to be approved by the Assembly, Senate, and Governor in advance of the June 1 federal application deadline for Race to the Top.

The New York Times gives this summary of the proposed changes:

Teachers would be measured on a 100-point scale, with 20 percent points based on how much students improve on the standardized state exams. Another 20 percent would be based on local tests, which would have to be developed by each school system. After two years, 25 percent would be based on the state exams and 15 percent would come from the local tests.

The remainder of the evaluation will come from observations from principals and other teachers, and other measures. If teachers are rated ineffective for two consecutive years, they would face firing through an expedited hearing process that must conclude within 60 days. Currently hearings can drag on for several months.

The Wall Street Journal quotes Commissioner Steiner,

“We’ve never had anything like this before,” Mr. Steiner said. “It’s been nearly impossible to remove teachers for academic effectiveness reasons.” Struggling teachers would be given support, while “excellent” teachers would be rewarded.

We expect to have more on this later today.

Here is a chart that shows how New York’s “Race to the Top” application compares to those of higher scoring states on each of the criteria used to rate the proposal.

When the federal government announced the first round winners in its $4.35 billion systemic education reform initiative, only two states (Delaware and Tennessee) were awarded funding.  New York placed 15th out of 16 finalists.

In the aftermath of failure, hunting scapegoats became a popular preoccupation.  Blame fell on the Legislature for failing to raise the state’s charter school cap, the State Education Department for proposing to use federal aid to purchase expensive office furniture, and teacher unions for resisting the use of student performance data in professional evaluations.

But careful review of how New York’s application compared to higher ranked states yields a more complex picture of the reality the state must address as it assembles an application for round two – due in Washington by June 1. Read the rest of this entry »

The New York Times “City Room” blog had an insightful post yesterday on what went wrong for New York State’s application for funding under the federal Race to the Top initiative. Read the rest of this entry »