National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Issues a Statement on the Selection of Round Two Race to the Top Winners

/PRNewswire/ -- The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools today released the following statement from its President and CEO, Peter Groff, on the states selected for funding by the U.S. Department of Education in the second round of the Race to the Top competition:

"We are pleased to see five states that are strongly supportive of public charter schools among those awarded Race to the Top grants today. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools' annual rankings of state charter laws, the District of Columbia has the second strongest law in the country. Georgia has the fourth strongest, followed by Massachusetts, New York and Florida, with the fifth, eighth and eleventh strongest charter laws, respectively. These states are boldly incorporating public charter schools into their overall efforts to improve public education.

However, we are concerned that the selection of three states - Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio - sends the wrong message. They have clearly shown a resistance to embracing the role of public charter schools in education reform. Even the U.S. Department of Education scored theses states among the lowest of those awarded grants. Sadly, these states are still being rewarded for actively limiting public-education options for the families that need them the most. Maryland has the worst charter law in the country, North Carolina has a cap of 100 charters that it reached almost 10 years ago, and Ohio has some of the most arbitrary caps in the country.

Since the Race to the Top grants competition was announced in June 2009, 15 states have lifted their caps on charter schools and one state has enacted a charter law. We applaud the Obama Administration for its role in encouraging these positive changes. Overall, six of the 12 winners in the first and second rounds have removed restrictions on growth: Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee.

As we approach the potential third round of funding, we urge the Administration to recommit to only awarding grants to those states that are truly committed to all facets of education reform."

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (http://www.publiccharters.org/) is the national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. The Alliance works to increase the number of high-performing charter schools available to all families, particularly low-income and minority families who currently do not have access to quality public schools. The Alliance provides assistance to state charter school associations and resource centers, develops and advocates for improved public policies, and serves as the united voice for this large and diverse movement. More than 1.6 million students attend nearly 5,000 charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

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National Alliance for Public Charter Schools Finds Eight Race to the Top Finalists Supportive of Charter Schools

/PRNewswire/ -- The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools today released the following statement from president and CEO, Peter Groff. This statement is in response to the announcement of 19 finalists in the second round of competition for Race to the Top funding under the U.S. Department of Education.

"We are pleased to see strong representation from states supportive of charter schools as finalists in the second round of the Race to the Top competition. Eight of the finalists rank among the top 10 states shown to support the growth of high-quality charter schools in our annual examination of state charter laws. We commend these states for the commitment they've shown to education reform by enacting legislation that supports high-quality charter schools.

They are: Arizona, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York. Two of the other finalists, Florida and Pennsylvania ranked eleventh and twelfth out of forty states with charter laws. We wish them success in their continued pursuit of a high-quality charter school sector within a healthy public education system.

Six states have raised or eliminated caps that hinder the growth of high-quality charter schools in response to Race to the Top. We are pleased to see Hawaii, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York and Rhode Island advanced to the final stage of the competition.

Unfortunately, three finalists fail to meet at least one Race to the Top guideline because they continue to block charter school growth. They are: Kentucky, North Carolina and Ohio. Despite education reform efforts that may exist in these states, they are keeping high-quality charter schools from bringing parents another public school option. Kentucky, in particular, has yet to pass a charter school law.

Maryland, also a finalist, was shown to have the worst charter school law in the country according to our rankings.

The remaining states, New Jersey and South Carolina, have charter laws that could be improved, but do not restrict the growth of high-quality charter schools with caps.

The Obama Administration and the U.S. Department of Education have created an unprecedented opportunity for reform with the Race to the Top. We applaud the Department's efforts to date and urge them to reinforce their commitment to the growth of high-quality charter schools by awarding grants only to those states with a track record of supporting high-quality charter schools."

The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (http://www.publiccharters.org/) is the national nonprofit organization committed to advancing the charter school movement. The Alliance works to increase the number of high-performing charter schools available to all families, particularly low-income and minority families who currently do not have access to quality public schools. The Alliance provides assistance to state charter school associations and resource centers, develops and advocates for improved public policies, and serves as the united voice for this large and diverse movement. More than 1.6 million students attend nearly 5,000 charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia.

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Georgia Racing to the Top

Governor Sonny Perdue yesterday announced that Georgia has submitted its application to the U.S. Department of Education for the second round of federal “Race to the Top” grants. As part of its Phase II application Georgia added three school districts, Dade, Peach and Pulaski, to the 23 districts that applied in the first round.  The three new districts were chosen to align federal School Improvement Grants with Race to the Top.  The state stands to receive up to $400 million over four years to implement its plan if selected.

“Georgia’s performance in the first round of Race to the Top shows that we are in an incredibly strong position to compete and win,” said Governor Sonny Perdue.  “Race to the Top would continue the direction the state has already been moving in education policy.  Through strong partnerships with diverse districts around the state, we will continue to improve student achievement.”

The Race to the Top fund is a $4 billion grant opportunity provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) to support new approaches to improve schools. The fund is available in the form of competitive grants to encourage and reward states that are creating conditions for education innovation and reform, specifically implementing ambitious plans in four education reform areas:

Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy;
Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction;
Recruiting, preparing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
Turning around our lowest-achieving schools.
Georgia’s application was prepared through a partnership between the Governor’s Office, the Office of Student Achievement, the Georgia Department of Education and education stakeholders. Four working groups and a fifth critical feedback team consisting of teachers, principals, superintendents, higher education faculty, non-profit and informal education organizations, state policy makers, and members of the business and philanthropic communities developed the ideas for inclusion in the state’s application.

Recommendations focus on strengthening traditional and alternative preparation programs for teachers and leaders, supporting teachers more effectively in the classroom, evaluating teachers and leaders with consistent and objective criteria that inform instruction, and rewarding great teachers and leaders with performance-based salary increases.

The application also calls for Georgia to adopt and implement common curricular standards and internationally-benchmarked assessments that indicate Georgia’s ability to compete within a globally-connected economy.

26 local school districts have signed on to partner with the state in implementing Georgia’s Race to the Top plan. These districts, which make up 41 percent of public school students in Georgia, include: Atlanta, Ben Hill, Bibb, Burke, Carrolton, Chatham, Cherokee, Clayton, Dade, DeKalb, Dougherty, Gainesville, Gwinnett, Hall, Henry, Jones, Meriwether, Muscogee, Peach, Pulaski, Rabun, Richmond, Rockdale, Spalding, Valdosta and White.  The participating districts include 46 percent of Georgia's students in poverty, 53 percent of Georgia’s African American students, 48 percent of Hispanics and 68 percent of the state's lowest achieving schools.

The state will work closely with these systems to implement the ideas contained in the application. 50 percent of the funds awarded to Georgia will be distributed to the local partners to meaningfully enact the Race to the Top reforms. The state will study the effectiveness of these practices to identify and scale up those that prove to be effective.

The U.S. Department of Education estimates that phase two winners will be announced in late August or early September 2010.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation selected 15 states, including Georgia, to benefit from technical assistance for Race to the Top application development. The states were selected based on how well poised they are to win Race to the Top based on progress in education policy and reform. Georgia partnered with The Parthenon Group, a consulting firm based in Boston, which specializes in part in education reform.

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Obama Administration Must Embrace Real Education Reform, Not Just Rhetoric

/PRNewswire/ -- In response to President Barack Obama's remarks today on his Administration's education reform initiatives and Race to the Top competition, Center for Education Reform president Jeanne Allen released the following statement:

Today, President Obama championed his administration's education reform initiatives in a Wisconsin speech, focusing on states that he claims are leading the charge for education reform.

The Obama Administration has jumped on board the charter school bandwagon and, in doing so, is telling states they must do better and create or fix laws in order to compete for their share of $4.3 billion in federal "Race to the Top" funds.

As admirable as the Obama administration's policy on charters may appear to be, the President and his Education Secretary are, too often, giving states credit for talking about charter schools rather than actually changing laws to improve the likelihood that children will have real school choice.

For example, Education Secretary Arne Duncan's description of reforms in Tennessee, Rhode Island, Indiana, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Illinois has been misleading. While the Secretary has said that 'numerous states have adopted reforms that would have been almost unthinkable a year ago,' this is simply not the case.

No state cited in this popular mythology has revoked limits on the number of charters allowed to open this year. Several, in fact, merely fulfilled budgetary promises of charter funding after having first wiped them off the books.

In reality, most of the nation's 40 charter laws will need dramatic legislative changes to develop robust charter laws that actually allow for the growth of the types of schools both President Obama and Secretary Duncan routinely credit with raising academic achievement and turning around students' lives.

We want to see states get bold and adopt strong charter laws - which everyone knows how to do, but often aren't courageous enough to buck the status quo, the unions, and even continued ignorance of what precisely a charter school is. But that isn't happening.

For President Obama and his Education Secretary to claim victory before "Race" participants have even reached the starting gate is disappointing.

It is time that President Obama and Secretary Duncan stop championing half measures and start demanding real results and bold changes in state laws.

The Center for Education Reform drives the creation of better educational opportunities for all children. CER changes laws, minds and cultures to allow good schools to flourish.

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Georgia's "Race to the Top" by State Superintendent Kathy Cox

Georgia is in a "Race to the Top" and, in many respects, we're leading the way.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced recently that $5 billion in grants are being made available to states that – in his words – adopt "college and career-ready internationally benchmarked standards" and "state of the art data collection systems, assessments and curricula to meet these higher standards."

To me, it sounds like Secretary Duncan was reading straight from our Strategic Plan. For six years, Georgia has been focused on implementing a world-class curriculum, raising expectations and using quality data to make decisions. We have received high marks for the policies and standards we’ve put in place from groups across the nation.

But the journey to “the top” is not always smooth and raising standards is not easy. The truth is that the material that Georgia students are learning today is more rigorous than it has ever been and, consequently, the assessments they are taking are more difficult.

Over the past few years, we’ve seen the pass rates on our state tests – like the CRCT and End of Course Tests – drop in the first year we’ve implemented our new curriculum and given the new state exams. This is to be expected: Whenever you raise the bar, there’s going to be a temporary drop in the number of people that can reach that bar. That’s true in any situation.

The good news is that in the second and third year of the new curriculum we have seen test scores increase in all subjects and all grades.

However, in all the focus on tests, pass rates and percentages, it’s easy to forget the big picture: The mission of our public school system is to prepare students to be successful in life. In the 21st century we must make sure our students have higher order thinking and analytical skills, the ability to communicate clearly and a deeper understanding of mathematics and science.

We could certainly keep our standards low and get high test scores that make everyone feel good, but how does that help our students? Ultimately, we would be setting them up for failure later as they go on in their education and in life.

Instead, we are following a national, bipartisan call for higher standards and higher expectations for all students, regardless of whether they plan to attend college, go right into the workplace or both.

So, what does this rigor look like?

Most of this year’s 9th graders took the new Mathematics I or Accelerated Mathematics I classes, which include parts of Algebra, Geometry and Statistics. These new courses are certainly more challenging than the old Algebra I class, as is the new Mathematics I End of Course Test (EOCT).

This is a “field test” year for the Math I EOCT, so the results won’t count, but I’m sure any 9th grader will tell you the test was very challenging (and I’m sure I’ll get a full report from my 9th grader!)

In the coming weeks we will release some of the questions from the Math I EOCT to give the public an idea of what we are asking students to learn. When you see the questions, I think you’ll agree that we are asking our students to learn more rigorous mathematics.

Georgia is not going down this road alone. There are 35 states across the USA that are raising standards and asking all students – regardless of their plans after high school – to take a rigorous core of classes in mathematics, science, English language arts and social studies.

But in Georgia, we are ahead of the game and are combining those core academics with improved Career, Technical and Agricultural Education programs, increased public school choice options and innovative approaches that allow school-level educators to decide what is best for their students.

So, as the results of our state tests roll in over the next several weeks and months, please keep this in mind: If our students are going to win the race to the top, we must be dedicated to giving them the tools and information they need to run that race.

It won’t always be easy but, in the end, it will be worth it.

Kathy Cox, a parent and a veteran classroom teacher, is Georgia’s Superintendent of Schools.

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