Arne Duncan got an earful from reporters today. They asked about scoring and why some states emerged as finalists when they did little to improve various parts of their reform portfolio. Take New York for example, which failed to lift the cap that stands in the way of its considerably successful charter environment from growing.

“We said from day one,” said Duncan, “that there were many, many factors” that would go into the scoring. Many different things would be considered, he said.  “Charters were never going to be the determining factor from the very beginning.”

And there you go. Despite early and strong support for the idea that charter schools could turn around failing schools and promises that R2TT would help incentivize more states to lift caps and grow, charter laws were relatively inconsequential to the decisions of reviewers to pre-qualify 15 states plus the District of Columbia for new federal funds.

Why else would only three of the sixteen have charter laws among the top ten in the country? Indeed, Kentucky has none and seven others have laws that are barely passing.

So maybe the applicants were scored based on how rigorous their evaluations of teachers will be. Right? Wrong. Rhode Island’s application starts factoring in the impact a teacher has on student growth three years from now, and whose to say how they are going to measure that impact? Tennessee starts in 2011, but its law only requires 35% of a teacher’s evaluation to factor in student growth.

What’s going on here? California lifted its ban on the use of test data to evaluate teachers but the Golden State didn’t make it. DC and Florida, along with Colorado and Louisiana, might just be the only reformist states that made the final list. And now that it’s clear that a strong charter law or performance pay system doesn’t seem to matter for the competition, state policymakers can breath a sigh of relief that they don’t have to do any heavy lifting to get or stay in the game, just hire a smart team of consultants to create convincing charts and use flowery language. Read a little of Illinois’ application. It seems to be written entirely in the future tense.

So, do you fans of increased federal involvement in education still think it can make a difference to improving education for our children?

“Buried within a 263-page application for $409 million in federal grant money, Ohio education officials detail how they want to spend $600,000 for two cultural anthropologists, $400,000 for a video, $320,000 for a communications plan and another $160,000 for ‘creative messaging,’ according to this morning’s Dayton, Ohio news.  This set State Senator Jon Husted, a former education chair and current candidate for Secretary of State off the deep end. He called it an example of why people lose faith in government, and was “embarrassed” by some of the things the state is seeking to fund.

That’s not the worst of it. These abuses of money are obvious, but what about the policies that sound like they are addressing the Administration’s mandate to reform education but are actually carefully crafted to dodge the issue?

Take Tennessee, a state rumored to be a finalist today, whose Governor was lauded for signing into law a bill that requires at least 35% of teacher evaluations be pegged to student growth.  Their ‘Race to the Top’ application appears to imply that a greater amount of student growth counts towards teacher evaluation than is actually the case. The application says, “objective student achievement data will comprise 50% of the evaluation”, but does not make clear that student growth is still only 35% of that process, not 50%. The rest of how they will determine teacher performance is left up to multiple measures, classroom observation and other assessment tools to be decided. Cagey, no?

How about the competition’s push for charter schools? Delaware’s movement toward charter schools was halted by a series of self-imposed moratoriums (not mentioned in their application), they approved zero charters for this current school year and their approval of three new charter schools to open in 2010-2011 is hardly bold. And yet their application states “Delaware is among the most welcoming states for charter schools.”

Reviewers, however, are not permitted to use their knowledge of a state’s policies and environment to judge the applications.  It’s what’s on paper that requires their focus, not what they know (or can easily find out).

These are just a few of the examples that have many wondering how we can give credit to an otherwise well -intentioned program, one that may actually end up rewarding states for creative writing over good policy. Today we will know more when EdSec Duncan announces the finalists. Whether it will mean the race is won, or just starting again, remains to be seen.

Oh gosh. I’m “outdated”.

I think that means I’m old. (Or was it a statement about my clothes??)

Wait a minute. Was it an anti-woman comment?? How many times does a man get called outdated? Maybe I need to call the National Organization for Women. I’ve never felt discriminated against before, but wow, maybe this is what the feminist fuss is all about!

Let me explain. I’ve been focused on the education field for more than 25 years. Exclusively. In other words, for 25 years I’ve woken up every day (and also many a time never went to bed until the light was out) and did nothing but read, study, write and manage education reform outcomes. That is, besides raising my kids. I know. Boring, right? It’s true. Just ask my kids, who say I have to move my chin from my computer to look in their eyes when they talk! (I thank God for kids like that, who have helped me keep a bigger focus on them!)

The organization I founded has been around 16 of those 25 years. And one of the group’s main accomplishments has been not just the advocacy, but the creation of a majority of the nation’s charter school laws. From that exercise we’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. From that exercise we’ve interviewed, studied, and communicated with literally tens of thousand of people engaged in the process who have shown us first hand how policy effects people and process, how policy works (and how it doesn’t). And from all these activities, we’ve created and sustained a darn good ranking system of the nation’s charter laws that has informed and galvanized thousands more in pursuit of great charter laws - laws that put control and accountability back into the hands of people who are most closely affected by our schools. That’s why, more than just charters, CER focuses on engaging and enlightening parents, policymakers and the media to appreciate and advance all education reforms.

More “Outdated?”

Today’s headline:

Federal cash spurs Michigan lawmakers on education reforms
- The Detroit News

The headline we’d like to see:

A more hopeful future for Michigan’s kids spurs lawmakers on education reforms
Lawmakers pull heads out of sand and make long overdue changes for schools

Imaginary money quote:

“Ignoring the problem just didn’t make it go away like we hoped it would.”

All I want for Christmas is the OSP, the OSP for all like me.

Gee if I could only have the OSP, then I could wish you Merry Christmas.

It seems so long since I couldn’t read or do the math my old school said I couldn’t.

Now my teachers help me read and teach me math and writing, even English.

All I want for Christmas is my scholarship. A chance to be a brand new me.

It’s not fair that we can’t get a scholarship when Congress pays for kids to go to prison.

Why is it fine for the President to send his daughters to the nation’s finest?

Mom wants me to have the same, so I can be the first to finish college.

All I want for Christmas is the OSP, the OSP for all like me.

Gee if I could have this for the kids like me, I could wish you Merry Christmas!

For more information on protecting the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP), visit Save Opportunity.