Finally, the time came. I braced myself in my chair, and got ready to jet out of there like the Enola Gay once I dropped my "little boy" - RTTT bomb. I closed my eyes, pulled the trigger, and... nothing. It was a dud. A complete DUD! Truman (or maybe Obama) is going to be so angry.He said RTTT "bores" him. He assured me the program will not affect schools like his. This principal works at a high performing school. The students at his school score well on the STAR tests. The teachers at his school don't teach to any tests and he doesn't see RTTT policy changing any of that. He also said that because his school - and most of his district - performs fairly well when it comes to state standards he's not counting on any Race To The Top funding to ever trickle down to his school. But that doesn't mean his school couldn't use the money.
This was an interesting realization for me. This whole time I thought Race To The Top was going to radically reform education. I thought resistance was futile. I thought there would be no survivors. It would be a Brave New World! Vive la revolucion! I have a dream! I thought everything was going to change. Oh my naivete! Here's the truth - a lot of schools have a majority of students who are doing well. Other schools have a majority of students who are failing. Sadly, that's a reality that money won't fix. But please, let's not let that leave this blog because next year, I need to get PAID!
Unfortunately RTTT doesn't address the major issues going on in schools today, it is not enough to just "throw money" at the problem, we need to seriously look at what schools are teaching and come up with a better way of gauging achievement other than "The Test." RTTT is just another incarnation of policies that have been failing our education system.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the low preforming schools are the victims in all this. It is great that the schools that are doing well can continue on their same path, but it is unfortunate that the schools that have low test scores will have to potentially jump through these hoops. I do not think throwing more standards at the problem will fix it.
ReplyDeleteRobert,
ReplyDeleteI think that it is amazing that you actually got to go into the school district and speak to the principal! That is an awesome opportunity and it seems like you gained a lot of insight. In reading your blog, I think that you need to clarify and explain what RTTT is. Some of your users might not have prior knowledge of this. To be honest, I actually had to look it up and a read about Race to the Top. Other than that, I love how you had all those hyper links throughout your page. It allows your users to gain more education.
Isn't this indicative of a huge problem with our education system? There are so many issues that our well-performing, wealthy schools do not have to face. This means the under-performing schools have to fight their battles alone. I don't mean to accuse the principal you spoke with of anything, but maybe if there was something at stake for his school,he would be teaming up with colleagues up and down the state and lending more support to them?
ReplyDeleteThis is one response to RTTT. I believe some research will be conducted to study how different schools respond to the same initiative. You alluded to a difference in reaction to RTTT between well perfoming schools vs. poor performing schools. It will be interesting to see to what degree this observation is true. R-J
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