I've gotten a lot of push-back for calling the Race to the Top results ?disastrous? for the Administration, and for arguing that Secretary Duncan should have overruled his peer reviewers and awarded grants to Louisiana and Colorado. Some believe my comments were over-the-top, others didn't understand why I was so eager to throw Maryland and Hawaii out of the winner's circle. Heck, even Checker played good cop to my bad cop, earning accolades from Whitney Tilson and others.
This is all fair and good, but I stand by my original analysis. Louisiana and Colorado deserved to win the money, and the inexplicable outcome mars a Race to the Top initiative that otherwise led to some important changes in many states. Anyone who thinks that Tuesday's announcement isn't going to hurt the cause of competitive grants is simply out to lunch. (Which is probably too bad, as they are the only kind of grants likely to lead to reform.)
But if you're still not convinced, read this excellent post by my good friend Rick Hess. He carefully explains why Maryland, Hawaii, and Ohio were much weaker applicants than Louisiana and Colorado, and demonstrates how the specter of ?stakeholder support? came to doom the outcome in the end. To wit:
The list of winners must've spurred a run on antacid at the Department of Ed. After all, several are clearly in the back of the pack on things Duncan has spent the past year touting. When it comes to state data systems, the Data Quality Campaign has ranked states based on the completeness of their data systems. Hawaii finished tied for 17th, Maryland tied for 35th, and New York tied for 48th. The National Alliance for Public Charter Schools has rated Ohio 26th, Hawaii 34th, and Maryland 40th among the states when it comes to the clarity and strength of their charter laws. Hawaii's third-place finish must be especially galling, given that Duncan has himself been critical of Hawaii's teacher furlough policy, which dropped 17 school days from the calendar. Oh, and by the way, when it comes to teacher policy, the National Council on Teacher Quality has graded the states, with Ohio and New York each earning a D+, Maryland a D, and Hawaii a D- (NCTQ is a tough grader, but still?).
And
When announcing round one winners Tennessee and Delaware, Duncan went to great pains to note that the two states had 100% or near-100% sign-offs from their local teacher unions. Not surprisingly, the judges listened. The result? Winners North Carolina, Ohio, and Hawaii had 100% of their union locals sign off on the proposal. Losing states like Colorado and New Jersey suffered because they couldn't get enough union locals to submit vacuous pledges of support. Colorado had just half of its union locals on board, and New Jersey just 1%. Duncan signaled, the judges complied, and abiding by their scores meant rewarding the go-along-to-get-along states. Whoops again.
Still sounds disastrous to me.
-Mike Petrilli
