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By Greg Hunt
greg.hunt@ecm-inc.com
In his Dec. 21 report to the Braham School Board, Superintendent Gregory Winter spoke on whether it was worth the effort for the district to get involved in the federal “Race to the Top” grant competition.
While funds could come Minnesota’s way, it may be a crap shoot which schools are ultimately rewarded.
During a “webinar” held last week with the state’s education department, Winter felt the state is driving schools toward Q Comp, a type of differentiated pay structure for teachers, through Race to the Top (scroll down to view sidebar, “Views on Race to the Top").
“Now, I don’t think there’s anybody in education—whether its teachers, administrators, you name it—that are against rewarding effective teachers. The problem is, what is the tool which you determine it? What tool do you use to say this teacher is better than the other teacher?” explained Winter during a Dec. 22 follow-up interview. “So the whole thing about Q Comp was that they would develop this system to make teachers better, so you would have Master Teachers, Mentor Teachers and all that kind of stuff.”
He continued, “In the criticism found during a StarTribune investigation—which came out about a year ago into the schools doing Q Comp—they found out that in most of the schools all the teachers were getting the bonuses through the Q Comp money, as opposed to having a differentiation in pay structure based on skill.
“A term I came across was this plan was defined as a ‘state rubric for teacher and principal evaluation,’” Winter said. “Is there a unified way to make this determination? You go to every school district in the state of Minnesota, and most will have different ways for evaluating teachers. So the only way to differentiate the pay structure is to make a determination of what teachers are better or worse than others. Again, how do you do that? So at the onset it was a very good plan put in place, but if everyone gets a bonus, what is the point of it?”
Winter equated Q Comp to the now defunct “Profiles of Learning” the state applied to schools a few years ago. “Did it work? No, not really, but there were some good aspects to it, don’t get me wrong. Just that there were a lot of hoops to jump through,” he said.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and President Obama set aside $4.35 billion in Recovery funds for Race to the Top, and Minnesota is among the states vying for funds, which could result in perhaps $175 million coming to Minnesota.
“Right now in Minnesota, there’s only enough money for 55 percent of schools to go into Q Comp. My question—and the question of many people—is say 75 percent of the school districts hop on this thing to get the money, where’s the Q Comp money going to come from?” said Winter. “And this $175 million Race to the Top money doesn’t go directly to the schools; it gets funneled through a bureaucracy in the state of Minnesota.”
District 314 Board Chairman Steve Eklund said the Race to the Top grant application is 90 pages long. Winter said a Jan. 19, 2010 deadline is looming for the district to throw its name in the hat.
That is not a lot of time to gauge if Education Braham, the teachers union, would even support the district beginning the Q Comp and Race to the Top path, particularly with a holiday break cutting into that stretch.
Views on Race to the Top
According to the “Race to the Top” grant program description from the U.S. Department of Education:
“The Secretary of Education has set aside up to $350 million of Race to
the Top funds for the potential purpose of supporting states in the
development of a next generation of assessments. Through Race to the
Top, we are asking states to advance reforms around four specific areas:
• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed
in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
• Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and
inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where most needed; and
• Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.
Awards in Race to the Top will go to states that are leading the way
with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent,
compelling and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners
will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for states
and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too
are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades
to come.” — www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-assessment
Q Comp prerequisite for Race to the Top
A Minnesota school entering the mix for the Race to the Top grant must
also take part in the state’s “Q Comp” plan, proposed by Gov. Tim
Pawlenty and enacted by the Legislature in July 2005. The voluntary
program allows local districts and exclusive representatives of the
teachers to design and collectively bargain a plan that meets the five
components of the law: Career ladder/Advancement Options, Job-embedded
Professional Development, Teacher Evaluation, Performance Pay and an
Alternative Salary Schedule.
Approved school districts receive up to $260 per student ($169 per
student in state aid and $91 per student in board-approved levy) for
the program. Currently, 44 Minnesota school districts and 31 charter
schools have implemented programs or have been approved to implement Q
Comp for the 2009-10 school year, according to the MN Dept. of
Education Web site. — education.state.mn.us/MDE/Teacher_Support/QComp
Education MN proposes alternative plan
“This federal Race to the Top program is supposed to be all about
improving student learning and closing the achievement gap,” Education
Minnesota President Tom Dooher said in a recent release. “Instead, the
state department of education’s plan emphasizes more bureaucracy, more
top-down state control of Minnesota’s schools, and more testing at the
expense of great teaching.”
While Education Minnesota can support some parts of the state Q Comp
proposal, the union does not agree that more tracking and ranking will
lead to better teaching, Dooher said. “Minnesota already has great
teachers,” he said. “We need to give them the tools to succeed.”
The centerpiece of the union’s alternative plan calls for turning the
state’s lowest-performing schools into educator-led Centers of Teaching
Excellence where the most successful teaching methods can be identified
and shared with educators statewide. Students and teachers would have
the benefit of small classes, the latest materials and technology,
intensive professional development for teachers, and partnerships with
parents and the community within the school building. — www.educationminnesota.org/en/news
One more view on Race to the Top
John Fitzgerald, Education Policy Fellow at the Minnesota 20/20 think tank, offered this opinion:
“The Obama administration’s attempt to dictate education policy is
preferable to the Bush administration’s attempt to do the same. Bush’s
much-derided No Child Left Behind law sets a list of goals that are
ultimately unreachable then punishes schools when they don’t reach
them. Obama’s policy, called Race to the Top, offers states millions in
grant money if they knuckle under to the federal government’s idea of
quality education.
Minnesota, however, knows exactly what constitutes a good education. It
takes quality pre-school education. It takes well-trained teachers in
every classroom teaching to classes of between 16 to 20 students.
Why shouldn’t we leap at the money? The first reason is that the money
comes from the federal stimulus package and runs out after four years.
Therefore, when the money runs out, state or local school districts
will either have to dismantle programs begun under Race to the Top, or
fund them on their own.
Another reason is the state must take schools whose students achieve in
the lowest 5 percent and close the schools, turn them over to an
education management organization, restructure them or turn them into
charter schools. The problem: the verdict is still out on these “fixes”
— some studies say they work, some say they don’t. — “Issue that Matter” at www.mn2020.org
Accolades and news from the winter season
Also at the board meeting, principals Wendie Anderson and Roger Jansen offered appreciation to music teachers Karen Nordenstrom and Brian Johnson for the fantastic winter concerts at the elementary and high schools this month.
Grades 5-6 Principal and Activities Director Judy Adams said Braham received a $656 grant from Isanti County Public Health for the “Power by the Hour” after-school fitness program. She and Tracy Fix also reported on the successful “Stage Stars” theatre class, supported by an $800 East Central Arts grant.
In other action, the board:
• Hired Cassandra Tomczak for the Phy Ed/Health teaching position, which will be vacated Jan. 25, 2010 by retiring Janelle Walker. Tomczak will hold the position until June 4 when it will be reopened for the hiring process.
• In his report from the Minnesota School Board Delegate Assembly, Eklund said a major concern is the Teachers Retirement Association fund load “going down the tubes in a short time.” According to the state’s TRA Web site, “Periods of strong investment returns have temporarily improved funding status. However, since the downturn in investment markets earlier this decade, the funding status of MTRFA has steadily deteriorated.”
Next: Organizational meeting Monday, Jan. 4, 7 p.m.; regular meeting Monday, Jan. 25, 7 p.m.
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