After submitting its proposal in January for Race To The Top funding, the state of Oregon soon learned its proposal fell short of its goal. Quite a bit short. Oregon was not one of the 16 finalists. In fact, its proposal ranked 7th worst in the nation of states which submitted proposals because two essential pieces were missing, participation from local teacher’s unions and actual reform.
President Obama and Secretary of Education Duncan made it clear they were looking for cohesiveness and collaboration in state proposals. Proposals by Delaware and Tennessee, the only two states to win in the first round, elicited broad support and collaboration by teachers and teacher unions. Compare 93% of teacher unions in Tennessee signing on to their state proposal, to fewer than 39% of Oregon’s teacher unions. (edweek.org)
Why didn’t they sign on? The Portland Teachers Union (as well as Eugene and Beaverton) didn’t sign on to Oregon’s proposal because turning around the lowest 5% of schools can only be done one of four ways according to federal law: cutting half the staff and administrators, closing the school and re-opening as a charter school, closing the school permanently, or link teacher evaluations directly to student results.
The Portland Teachers Union disagrees with these as the only possible ways to improve failing schools. The planning team assigned by Governor Kulongoski to design the content of the proposal included many credible organizations. It failed, however, to include teacher unions, student organizations or PTA groups. I find myself asking the question: Who has the best interests of our children’s education closest to their hearts, Nike (on the planning team) or the student’s parents and teachers?
In addition to inadequate support, Oregon’s proposal does not address innovative reform, rather it focuses on current best practices and how to improve and enhance them. Not to say that this wouldn’t be the best way forward for Oregon but it certainly isn’t what Secretary Duncan and his secret team of judges were looking for. The proposal flaunts a heavy load of data to sift through and brags about all the current programs, assessments, curriculum and tests that it already uses. It throws around acronyms for these programs without delving into the underlying purposes of the programs, thereby eliminating any option to pursue other programs that might better suit Oregon student needs now or in the future. It discusses in theory all the wonderful improvements it will make to instruction, teachers, graduation rates, etc., without including a detailed and concrete plan of action, though admittedly no state was given adequate time to plan details. The proposal projects that receiving funding will increase student improvement by only 2%-6%. That doesn’t seem like a lot.
In summary, rather than innovative reform, Governor Kulongoski’s exclusive team proposes more of the same. For phase 2, everyone must be on board at every stage of the game or Oregon should not pursue the funding at all.
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