Left In Lowell

Mass Wins in Second Round of Race to the Top

5 Responses to “Mass Wins in Second Round of Race to the Top”

1. Maggie Says:
   August 25th, 2010 at 1:37 pm

   This is great news. I would like to see the money used to rehire teachers that were laid off , especially the music, art and media specialists ( librarians) first. Next School supplies, new textbooks where needed and facility repairs where needed. No Lowell teacher should get a raise until all of this is accomplished. Other unions have gone without for a while and only just got a 3 % . The teachers kept getting raises all along and gave up nothing. If they care so much about the kids , then they should do th right thing and go one year without. ( I can hear Paul Georges protesting from here)

2. K-R-S Says:
   August 25th, 2010 at 2:35 pm

   along with re-instituting the science curriculum in the grammar schools

3. Jack Mitchell Says:
   August 25th, 2010 at 3:21 pm

   We need to fund art in schools.

   My daughter started in the Lyceum, but preferrred the Fine Arts Academy. She graduated in June and will be attending MassArt. The curriculum, but more importantly the teachers, prepared Nilya well. MassArt has around a 50% acceptance rate.

   Plus, there is our city motto.

4. Victoria Says:
   August 25th, 2010 at 4:20 pm

   The Race to the Top funds are for education reform, not for filling budget gaps. There were certain conditions (such as adopting the federal standards) that were required to get the funds. For example, Massachusetts has two years to develop and implement new teacher performance tools that tie teacher performance to student performance. This money is supposed to be used to address systematically the problems with unions. Here is an except from a speech given by Arne Duncan (Obama’s secretary of education) to the NEA,

   “We created tenure rules to make sure that a struggling teacher gets a fair opportunity to improve, and that’s a good goal. But when an ineffective teacher gets a chance to improve and doesn’t—and when the tenure system keeps that teacher in the classroom anyway—then the system is protecting jobs rather than children. That’s not a good thing. We need to work together to change that…And I’m telling you as well that, when inflexible seniority and rigid tenure rules that we designed put adults ahead of children, then we are not only putting kids at risk, we’re also putting the entire education system at risk. We’re inviting the attack of parents and the public, and that is not good for any of us. I believe that teacher unions are at a crossroads. These policies were created over the past century to protect the rights of teachers, but they have produced an industrial factory model of education that treats all teachers like interchangeable widgets. A recent report from the New Teacher Project found that almost all teachers are rated the same. Who in their right mind really believes that? We need to work together to change this.”

   This ed reform has 4 mandated components: 1)high standards and assessments; 2)data systems that measure student success and inform teachers about how well (or poorly) they are teaching their students; 3)rewarding good teachers and forcing ineffective teachers to become more effective; 4)turning around underperforming schools.

   If this works, it will be amazing.

5. waittilnextyr Says:
   August 25th, 2010 at 9:10 pm

   Good clarification, Victoria. The other suggestions may be something that could be addressed with the educational component of the ARRA funds that are to be released shortly, but care should be taken to not rebuild structural deficits when the ARRA funds expire.

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