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Since the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) authorized a series of education grant programs, the Obama administration's Department of Education has been busy sending out proposed requirements for these grant programs for public comment in the past several months.
TCTA has commented on all of them, including the latest, the $650 million Investing in Innovation (or "i3") fund. Unfortunately, these grant proposals share a number of highly objectionable themes.
TCTA has repeatedly pointed out that the following criteria included in each of the grant proposals are not only NOT supported by the consensus of the research, but exceed the statutory authority granted to the Department under ARRA:
- that teacher effectiveness must be measured based on evaluations that include student performance on state standardized tests as a significant factor,
- that schools must take action to remove "ineffective" teachers on this basis, and
- that student performance data must include estimates of individual teacher impact on student achievement or student growth.
Although the Department has yet to publish final rules on any of the grant proposals advanced so far, it is opening some of the programs (Race to the Top, for example) for applications from states. Texas is expected to apply for some, if not all, of the grant programs.
TCTA will keep our members informed about these programs as developments occur.
Updated: 11/10/09
