Connecticut Not a Second-Round RTTT Finalist
Connecticut learned today that it is not among the 19 finalists in the second round of federal Race to the Top (RTTT) grant funding.
The second round finalists announced by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan are Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina.
The U.S. Department of Education’s July 27 announcement comes after education stakeholder groups, CEA, state legislators, and the State Department of Education came together to craft a bold new education reform law. Teachers and education officials had hoped that the reforms contained in the new law would strengthen the state’s application.
“Not all of the states in Race to the Top sought the degree of buy-in and collaboration that Connecticut achieved,” said CEA Executive Director John Yrchik. “In fact, some of the states listed as finalists by the Secretary of Education damaged long-standing relationships and enacted reforms over the strenuous objections of teacher unions.”
Yrchik added that perhaps the most important development in Connecticut’s RTTT process was not the final statute, but the degree of cooperation among diverse stakeholders and the ongoing commitment to education reform among them. “More than anything else, the history of education reform shows that successful reform cannot be imposed or legislated. It must be embraced.”
CMT Results Released Today
Connecticut Mastery Test results were released this morning – complete results can be found here.
Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan said, “This year’s test results show that from 2006 to 2010, there is a positive trend of improved student achievement across all six grades and academic disciplines, which is encouraging. Our students are performing better, but challenges remain.” Read the complete press release from the Connecticut State Department of Education.
The Connecticut Mirror had a piece this morning on how the CMTs have shaped public education across the state over the last twenty-five years. Read it here.
NEA RA Delegates Back Home in Connecticut
2010 NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly. Photo from Flickr by NEA-HQ.
The CEA members who attended this year’s National Education Association Representative Assembly (NEA RA) are glad to be home after a rewarding but busy time in New Orleans.
The Connecticut delegation joined almost 8,500 of their colleagues to set policy for the organization, honor education activists from across the country and around the globe, and shape the conversation about how to best improve schools in the years to come.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel launched the RA with his rousing keynote address, urging the cheering delegates to “speak up, take action, and fight for the students of America! We simply cannot sit it out — there is too much at stake.”
Van Roekel called on delegates to bombard Congress and the administration with the strong message that No Child Left Behind must be changed. They started with a barrage of 9,000 postcard to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Delegates also video-recorded messages to members of Congress at the Legislative Action Center booth, placing a name and a face on the education jobs crisis.
Michael Freeman, a Stonington High School teacher, vice president of his local association, and member of the CEA Board of Directors, was one of the delegates from Connecticut this year. “The general message that I took away from this RA was that we MUST remain vigilant in our efforts to protect teachers and public education,” he said. “This becomes a huge challenge in our current economy – but we must renew our efforts or the proponents of privatization and anti-union/teacher policies will only become more prevalent. We must fight to assure quality public education for each child in our classrooms.”
Delegates heard from several speakers, among them Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, who was named America’s Greatest Education Governor; Sarah Brown Wessling, the 2010 Teacher of the Year; and NEA Friend of Education award winner Diane Ravitch.
Ravitch electrified the Representative Assembly Tuesday with an impassioned call for the defense of public education and the teaching profession. “The current ‘education reform’ movement is pushing bad ideas,” she said. “It wants to end tenure and seniority, to silence teachers’ unions, to privatize large sectors of public education. Don’t let it happen!”
In their few hours of free time some members of the Connecticut delegation were able to enjoy the city of New Orleans. They visited Mardi Gras World, Bourbon Street, and Emeril’s Restaurant, and watched fireworks over the Mississippi River on the 4th of July.
Said Freeman, “Meeting teachers who are new to the RA and becoming a bit closer to many teachers who I know by name – but in the past have not had a chance to know in-depth – is always a big part of any RA. Dinners out with NEA Danbury and West Hartford were relaxing and enjoyable nights of conversation after a very long hard day at the RA. Our meetings last from 6 in the morning until 5 or 6 at night, and I found myself in bed by 9pm or 10 so I had the energy to do it all again the next day. I was a bit jealous of those who had the ability to enjoy New Orleans night life and still operate the next day. All in all – it is the people at an RA that make the experience special.”
NEA-Retired held its annual meeting Monday at the 2010 NEA RA in New Orleans.
CEA delegates recently joined their colleagues from around the country in New Orleans for the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly (NEA RA). The NEA RA is the highest decision-making body within the over 3.2 million-member NEA. With over 9,000 delegates, the RA is also the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.
A different city is chosen to host the NEA RA every year, and this year delegates will be in New Orleans until July 6. NEA RA delegates debate the vital issues that impact U.S. public education and set Association policy and activities for the year ahead.
Earlier this year, CEA members elected their peers to represent their concerns as delegates to the NEA RA. Delegates represent state and local affiliates, student members, retired members, and other segments of the NEA membership.
To stay up-to-date on the most recent news from the NEA RA check out the RA Tod@y Blog 2010 or RA Today articles.
House Passes Education Jobs Bill
Last night the U.S. House of Representatives passed $10 billion in funding for education jobs with a vote of 239-182. Thank you to all of you who called and emailed your Representatives!
The Senate will take up educator jobs funding after the July 4 recess. If the bill passes it will save an estimated 138,000 educator jobs.
The action by the House comes at a critical time. School budgets across the country have already been cut to the bone, forcing high numbers of teacher layoffs. Here in Connecticut many towns and districts are struggling and have had to close schools, cancel programs, and lay of educators. This bill would provide important support for Connecticut’s students and schools.
As summer officially arrives and schools have closed, many questions about what the future holds remain unanswered. Funding from the federal government to support educators’ jobs remains uncertain but the latest word is that the House Rules Committee is discussing the process for a vote today on education jobs funding. Please call or email your member of Congress and ask all your friends and colleagues to do the same. Call 866-608-6355 or send an e-mail using this link. It will only take a couple of minutes of your time.
The possibility of reauthorization of ESEA before the end of this session consequently seems increasingly remote, particularly with the addition of the Gulf disaster into the mix, which should make the issue of dealing with an energy bill more compelling.
Although the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions has held a series of hearings on reauthorization, most pundits indicate there is no bill, and just below the surface lie many conflicting opinions. Recently Secretary Duncan and Melody Barnes, domestic policy advisor to President Obama, met with key House and Senate leaders from both parties to discuss the progress on reauthorization. According to Alison Klein at EdWeek no specific commitments to a timeline were made.
In spite of the stalemate in Congress on reauthorization, the administration has made significant progress on implementing its agenda primarily through the vehicle of desperately needed stimulus money. States were required to pledge progress on certain areas of reform in order to get the money last year and these demands were made more specific by the requirements to compete for Race to the Top money. Secretary Duncan said “jump” and many state legislatures said “how high?” Connecticut legislative leaders, to their credit, worked to build a consensus by bringing stakeholder groups to the table. This was not the case in many states and laws were changed in support of controversial reforms such as merit pay and teacher evaluations heavily weighted on test scores — ostensibly to enhance their state’s competitiveness in the RTTT competition.
There is growing dissent over many of the administration’s proposals as being either overly prescriptive in approach, or unsupported by research, or both.
Remember the Rhode Island disaster. The highly controversial firing of the entire staff at Central Falls High School, which was praised by both President Obama and Secretary Duncan, was reversed through a mediation process in May. All the teachers were rehired. Ultimately the collective bargaining process worked as was described in a joint statement issued by the district and the union.
“Both the school district and the union agree that, while this has been a difficult process for everyone involved, the negotiations resulted in a newfound appreciation for shared responsibility, and a solid commitment to bring lasting solutions that will improve teaching and learning at Central Falls High School.”
In the spirit of “things could always be worse”, read this lament of one Florida teacher talking about his “Worst Year in the Classroom.” The letter was written to Diane Ravitch and the teacher allowed the Washington Post to publish it on their education blog, The Answer Sheet.
Teachers would be well advised to ensure that their batteries are fully charged over the summer and return ready to face a huge backlog of unresolved issues. Better yet, stay tuned throughout the summer.
More Evidence Against Merit Pay
Merit pay has been the subject of much skepticism for good reason. Just last week Mathematica, a nonpartisan research firm, released its second report on the TAP program (the Teacher Advancement Program implemented in Chicago while Arne Duncan was CEO).
TAP was introduced in the 1990s by the Milken Foundation and is a career ladder and pay for performance program. It’s a fairly modest program which has had some success over the years, but apparently not in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) – at least not yet. Here’s what the researchers concluded:
After the second year of CPS rolling out TAP, we found no evidence that the program raised student test scores. Student achievement growth as measured by average math and reading scores on the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) did not differ significantly between TAP and comparable non-TAP schools.
We also found that TAP did not have a detectable impact on rates of teacher retention in the school or district during the second year it was rolled out in the district. We did not find statistically significant differences between TAP and non-TAP retention rates for teachers overall or for subgroups defined by teaching assignment and years of service in CPS. The findings of no significant impacts on student achievement or teacher retention are robust to the use of different samples and estimation methods. We did not have reliable data on the quality of teachers retained or the career paths of teachers who left TAP and non-TAP schools, but will examine these aspects of teacher mobility in future reports.
Teachers Learn Skills to Help Secure New Positions
CEA UniServ Representative Michele O'Neill speaks to teachers at a Résumé, Cover Letter and Interviewing Hints Workshop.
CEA held a Résumé, Cover Letter, and Interviewing Hints Workshop Tuesday for teachers who are new to the job market or are facing a layoff. CEA UniServ Representative Michele Ridolfi O’Neill and Torrington Schools Human Resources Director Bill Joslyn gave presentations which included information on making a good first impression, how to make a résumé stand out, and strategies for answering interview questions.
Teachers from around the state attended and got a lot out of the tips and advice shared. Attendees had many questions with which O’Neill and Joslyn were able to assist them.
Melissa Nadeau, an English teacher at Gilbert School in Winsted, was saying goodbye to her students when she got the news that she will have a position in the fall. She’s thrilled to be able to stay with the school community she loves, but she still decided to attend Tuesday’s workshop because she doesn’t yet know what next year will bring. Nadeau was especially looking forward to learning more about cover letter writing.
O’Neill was glad that the workshop was well received and said that CEA may be able to hold another if there is sufficient interest from members. If you or a colleague would be interested in attending please leave a note in the comments and we will email you if another workshop is scheduled.
NEA Sponsoring Competition for Jobs Bill Supporters
Have you emailed Congress yet? Emailing your U.S. Representatives and Senators only takes a couple of minutes, has a big impact, and you could win an iPod nano!
NEA is sponsoring a competition among the states to see who can send the most e-mails to Congress in support of jobs funding in the Emergency Supplemental Bill. From now through Wednesday, June 23, encourage your friends and colleagues to send an email to Congress using this link.
On the twenty-third, NEA will select the three states that had the highest percentage participation, based on total membership. Three participants from the top state, two from the second, and one from the third will be randomly selected from the list of email senders to win an 8GB iPod nano.
- To find out more about the contest, go here.
- Only entries submitted through this link will be accepted.
- This is a contest among the states, the winning states will be chosen using a percentage formula so smaller states have just as good of a chance to win as larger states: (total number of emails submitted)/(total state affiliate membership).
Currently Congress is working on another piece of legislation that they will address before taking up the education jobs bill. That is why it’s so important to pressure lawmakers in the next few days to get off the fence on this important funding.
More than a thousand CEA members have called or sent their Congressional representatives an email to urge that the national teacher jobs bill be kept alive. Have you joined them? It’s vital that more teachers take action to extend the advocacy. Keeping the calls and emails going to Capitol Hill provides more reasons to illustrate why the Keep Our Educators Working Act is critical.
If you have yet to contact your U.S. Representative, please take a moment to do so now. Call or email and ask your Representative to support the Keep Our Educators Working Act. This legislation could have a significant, positive impact for schools, students, and teachers in Connecticut.
On Monday, Connecticut Commissioner of Education, Mark McQuillan, sent letters to Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation to ask for their support of the Keep Our Educators Working Act. The legislation would offer a further $23 billion to schools across the country to help prevent layoffs. Read the Commissioner’s news release and letter.
Stimulus money for Connecticut’s schools will be drying up next year, and without additional federal funds, schools will likely face significant numbers of layoffs.
“Without action by Congress to continue its support of our schools, we face dire consequences at the local level,” wrote McQuillan. “While the total allocation to education under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was a small fraction of the federal TARP funding that went to Wall Street, funds awarded to local school districts had a tremendous stabilizing effect on our local communities that kept local property taxes stable, teachers teaching and our classrooms functioning. School superintendents and local boards of education throughout Connecticut have been very concerned about Fiscal Year 2011-12 when the ARRA funding comes to an end.”
