Race to the Top

Lawmakers reach agreements on key education bills

Posted on 12. Mar, 2010 by Mike.

students-olyParents, educators and students have a lot to celebrate this morning. On the final day of the 2010 legislative session, lawmakers reached agreements on key education bills.

Thank you to legislators and especially parents and education advocates who worked so hard on behalf of kids this legislative session.

Basic education funding bill

Lawmakers took the next step in implementing last year’s historic education reform bill (House Bill 2261) by approving the Quality Education Council’s recommendations in House Bill 2776. The legislation:

  • Establishes a new and more transparent school funding formula;
  • Lowers class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and increases funding to cover maintenance and operations costs; and
  • Revises how the state pays for pupil transportation costs.

Thank you to Rep. Pat Sullivan, Rep. Marcie Maxwell and Rep. Skip Priest for your hard work to begin fully funding basic education.

Race to the Top reforms

Washington is in a better position to win a $250 million federal Race to the Top grant thanks to the passage of Senate Bill 6696. The bill will also improve Washington’s public schools by:

  • Adopting the State Board of Education’s guidelines on turning around consistently low-performing schools;
  • Revising teacher evaluations and creating new principal evaluation criteria; and
  • Expanding teacher preparation and recruitment pathways.

Thank you to Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, Sen. Eric Oemig and Sen. Curtis King for your work on this bill.

Early childhood education

Our state’s youngest learners received tremendous support from Olympia in House Bill 2731 and Senate Bill 6759. The bills reaffirm the state’s commitment to ensuring kids start kindergarten ready to succeed. The bills:

  • Expand pre-school programs for three- and four-year olds across the state;
  • Protect funding for early learning by making it a new state entitlement program; and
  • Consider the establishment of a program of early learning in basic education.

Thank you to Rep. Roger Goodman, Sen. Claudia Kauffman and Rep. Ruth Kagi for being champions for kids.

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State House passes Race to the Top legislation

Posted on 05. Mar, 2010 by Kelly.

The State House has passed legislation to help Washington win a federal Race to the Top grant and begin fully funding basic education (E2SSB 6696). The bill now goes to the state Senate for concurrence.

Now, parents and educators need to contact their state senators to urge them to support Senate Bill 6696 as it passed in the House. This plan will begin fully funding basic education as they promised in House Bill 2261 and help Washington win a $250 million Race to the Top grant.

Here’s why it’s urgent you contact your state senator. Currently, the Senate is making:

  • No commitment to begin fully funding basic education as they promised in last year’s House Bill 2261. Yesterday evening, they passed legislation that ignores HB 2261 by rejecting key recommendations of the Quality Education Council.
  • No commitment of state dollars to make real the required education reforms necessary to help Washington win a Race to the Top grant.

Tell your state senator to support Senate Bill 6696 as it passed in the House. This bill adopts Race to the Top reforms and keeps our commitment to begin fully funding basic education.

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Race to the Top, phase 1 finalists announced

Posted on 04. Mar, 2010 by Heather.

From the U.S. Department of Education’s website, the 16 finalists for phase 1 of Race to the Top were announced this morning. Some may surprise, others may not (Education Week reporters made predictions using a  bracket) — Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Ohio were considered early front-runners.

The phase 1 finalists are:

•Colorado
•Delaware
•District of Columbia
•Florida
•Georgia
•Illinois
•Kentucky
•Louisiana
•Massachusetts
•New York
•North Carolina
•Ohio
•Pennsylvania
•Rhode Island
•South Carolina
•Tennessee

The 16 finalists will go before a panel in mid-March, and “winners” will be announced in April. Phase 2 applications are due in June (Washington will apply then).

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Support reforms to put an effective educator in every classroom and school

Posted on 18. Feb, 2010 by Kelly.

You have an opportunity to make a difference for children by supporting strong Race to the Top* legislation that will put an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school in Washington State.

Here’s how you can take action:

1) Speak up at your town hall meeting.

Attend your town hall meeting this Saturday, February 20th and urge your lawmakers to support strong legislation to help Washington win a Race to the Top grant.

Pass out 50 copies of this editorial by Renton School District’s superintendent that explains why our schools need a system to ensure every classroom and school is led by an effective educator.

2) Are You(r kids) Represented?

We want to know what you would tell your lawmakers about education at these town hall meetings. Share your thoughts and we’ll post some on our Are You(r kids) Represented? webpage. Your story could inspire others to speak up. Click here to share your story here.

3) Send a message to your lawmakers.

If you can’t attend your town hall meeting, or if one is not scheduled, please urge your lawmakers to support strong legislation to help Washington win a Race to the Top grant that will ensure every classroom and school is led by an effective educator.

Click here to send your lawmakers a message.

Thanks for taking action!

*Lawmakers in Olympia are working to pass Senate Bill 6696, which will improve Washington’s ability to win a federal Race to the Top (R2T) grant of up to $250 million. LEV believes lawmakers should pass a stronger version of the bill that incorporates the goals outlined in this editorial by Renton School District’s superintendent to help our state win a R2T grant.

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Race to the Top bills–are they enough?

Posted on 04. Feb, 2010 by Mike.

With key legislative deadlines this week, advocates are closely monitoring the status of several proposals to help Washington win a Race to the Top grant.

Publicola interviewed several education stakeholders, including LEV’s Chris Korsmo, about Washington’s Race to the Top efforts. They asked if the proposals (House Bills 3038, 3035, and 3059 and Senate Bill 6696) to allow the state to intervene in low-performing schools and change the way we evaluate, train and recruit educators, will be enough to qualify for a Race to the Top grant.

In regards to intervention authority, Chris said “the [proposals] for turning around the lowest-performing schools are particularly strong.” The bill (HB 3038), is based off the extensive work of the State Board of Education to develop guidelines for supporting and improving consistently under-performing schools.

Click here to read the full story.

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Not Just Tea Leaves

Posted on 28. Jan, 2010 by Chris.

For those out there who think Race to the Top is just a one-off, one-year, unfunded mandate, I invite scrutiny of the following excerpt of last night’s State of the Union Address:

“This year, we have broken through the stalemate on the right and left by launching a national competition to improve our schools….When we renew the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we will work with Congress to expand these reforms to all fifty states.”

You can watch and read the whole thing here.

Reform is here to stay - not just any reform, but the changes put forward through Race to the Top competition. Rather than stand pat on the status quo and decry difficult change, we need to get busy. If we don’t make the changes necessary to improve student achievement and close the achievement gap - changes we should make anyway - we may find ourselves on the losing end of this race.

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LEV testifies on Race to the Top bill

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Mike.

Yesterday, LEV co-founder Lisa Macfarlane testified on the Race to the Top bill (Senate Bill 6696).  Below are the talking points for the testimony she gave at the Senate Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee.

LEV’s Jan. 25, 2010 testimony on SB 6696

Lisa Macfarlane, with the League of Education Voters and Excellent Schools Now Coalition, a group that includes 27 organizations dedicated to meaningful education reform that increases student achievement, closes achievement gaps and prepares students to be college and career ready.

We applaud this legislation.  It takes a number of steps in the right direction.  We have provided you with an analysis of the strengths of this bill and where the places where it needs to be strengthened.  I’d like to quickly highlight four areas where we’d like to see changes:

1.  It is critically important for OSPI to develop one set of statewide measures of student growth and insist that school districts use it.

2.  Student growth data needs to comprise at least 50% of teacher and principal evaluations.

3.  It’s a good thing that the legislation directs OSPI to develop four-tiered evaluation models for teachers and principals.  We think it’s important to add language that school districts should be required to use one of the 4 tiered models developed by OSPI or get specific approval to use an alternative one.

4.  Lastly, we think it’s critical to provide extra pay for teachers who work in high poverty, high minority, or low-achieving schools, or hard to staff subject areas, –who demonstrate effectiveness in raising performance and closing achievement gaps.

All this work that the Race to the Top competition is driving across the country has a national context.  Our country used to lead the world in college success.  We have lost that lead and our US dept of Education has a very explicit goal of restoring that college success leadership by 2020.

And in our Washington, we have a math and science achievement crisis, and achievement gaps that are GROWING

  • Gap in NAEP 8th grade math scores between low-income and non-low income Washington students is growing. It is now 28 points, which is almost 3 years. This gap is the 12th largest in the nation in 2009.
  • Also on NAEP 8th grade math, Washington is 1 of 9 states where the White-African American gap is growing, and 1 of 7 states where the White-Hispanic gap is growing.

These sobering realities are a call to action and a reminder that we ALL need to own the performance of our schools and students.

The anchor in school improvement work is student growth data which is why we are insistent that it be a state responsibility to develop these measures.  All of this focus on evaluation is about improving instruction, which is all about supporting teachers in their professional growth.

When we do that– and we realize that funding education is not an expense, it’s an investment — we will close our achievement and opportunity gaps.

Race to the Top and its 4 priority areas are not trial balloons for flavors of the month.  This focus on college and career ready standards,

great teachers and leaders, using data to improve instruction, turning around lowest performing schools is right on the money and it’s clearly the priority of the US department of education.

We need to “assure” that we are making progress on these four priorities to get the rest of our fiscal stabilization money.

We expect Race for the Top to be the new frame for the re-authorization of Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

Future Title One School Improvement Grant money requires that districts use one of the four turn-around models specified in the legislation before you.

If we make these legislative changes, and then put together a bold, coherent Race to the Top application, we could win significant new federal money.

Regardless, it’s the work that we need to be doing if we want to accelerate school reform and boost our state’s economic recovery.  We are not going to have a strong, vibrant economy if we don’t do a better job of preparing our children for college and careers.

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Broad coalition testifies on Race to the Top bill

Posted on 26. Jan, 2010 by Mike.

Yesterday, parents and civic leaders from education, business, and community-based organizations testified in Olympia on Senate Bill 6696. They urged members of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee to strengthen and pass the bill, which is needed to improve Washington’s ability to win a Race to the Top grant.

Below are photos of members from Black Elected Officials of Washington State testifying in support of SB 6696.

moore-gossett-holland

Federal Way School Board Member Tony Moore, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, and Seattle Port Commissioner Rob Holland testify in support of SB 6696.

King County Councilmember Larry Gossett

King County Councilmember Larry Gossett

group

Rosalund Jenkins, Executive Director of the Commission on African American Affairs, Seattle Port Commissioner Rob Holland, Sen. Claudia Kauffman, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, Federal Way School Board Member Tony Moore, and Dan Seydel from Tabor 100.

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R2T: 40 states + DC apply

Posted on 20. Jan, 2010 by Heather.

Bee-tee-dubs, if you hadn’t already heard, the deadline for round 1 Race to the Top applications was yesterday. In the end, 40 states and the District of Columbia applied (Washington State is vying for round 2).

Find the list of applicants here, along with press conference footage and other items from the White House. Also see news coverage in Education Week.

It doesn’t look like the U.S. Department of Education has posted state applications yet. Applications for other ARRA grant programs (e.g. State Fiscal Stabilization Fund) were posted…

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Two polls help drive education debate

Posted on 19. Jan, 2010 by Mike.

Two surveys of Washington teachers and voters are helping to drive the education debate this legislative session.

A poll by the Excellent Schools Now Coalition (ESN) and one by Partnership for Learning (PFL) are in hot demand from advocates, educators, policymakers and the media.  ESN, which includes LEV, conducted a survey of 500 teachers about their opinion of criteria outlined in Race to the Top, such as standards and assessments, data systems, and evaluating educators.  PFL conducted a similar poll, but surveyed Washington voters instead.  The polls were released to the public at the ESN Race to the Top Luncheon on January 14, 2010.

The polls find that Washington State public school teachers and residents overwhelmingly support the Obama Administration’s Race to the Top reforms.

The media quickly honed in on the significance of the findings.

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