Based on today's round one Race to the Top (RttT) rejection, Ohio still has work to do to before submitting its round two application (due June 1) and demonstrating to the US Department of Education that the state is serious about education reform. Despite the disappointment many may feel, now is not the time for turning back. Ohio's current ???????B-??????? application can be elevated to an A, and here are five ideas for getting there:
1. Invite critics into the conversation. Despite the rhetoric of collaboration Ohio's RttT application was largely the work of top officials at the Ohio Department of Education, friends of Governor Strickland, and the Ohio Federation of Teachers and the Ohio Education Association. In its redraft Ohio should show bipartisan commitment to school reform by passing and signing into law the reforms in Senate Bill 180. [quote]
2. Remove the fat from the proposal. Ohio's application sought $1.8 million for programs like video compilations and cultural anthropologists. According to the state's application the state promised it "will deliver Cultural Competency professional development to 2,000 educators annually. This professional development will enhance and shape educators' ability to operate efficiently within the cultural and gender context of students affected by poverty, gendered expectations, race, and class." These ideas have nothing to do with improving student achievement and have rightly spurred criticism from Ohio lawmakers as well as outside observers, and should be purged from Ohio's second round application.
3. Focus on real measures of teacher performance. Ohio's current emphasis on credentials and coursework to attain both traditional and alternative licensure collides with Race to the Tops emphasis on ???????teacher effectiveness.??????? Moreover, Ohio made it optional for districts to pursue compensation reform based on measures of teacher effectiveness. The RttT guidelines went so far as to define what ???????highly effective??????? means ???????? being able to move students 1.5 years ahead in academic growth. Ohio has to move from definitions of teacher effectiveness as correlated to things like advanced degrees and certification, to actual measures of teacher effectiveness, and should make such measures mandatory, not optional. ????
4. Remove the teacher unions veto power over reforms. Local collective bargaining agreements make it difficult, if not impossible, for Ohio to implement statewide a plan for the ???????equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals.??????? Under most Ohio collective bargaining agreements more senior teachers get to select the school they work while new teachers take the school assignments they get. Further, under current state law ???????last hired first fired??????? rules the day when it comes to dismissing teachers during times of district cutbacks. Ohio needs to move away from protecting seniority at all costs towards policies that protect the best teachers available.????
5. Take school turnarounds seriously. Turning around the state's most troubled schools ???????? the Ohio Department of Education identified 69 schools that have been deemed ???????the state's persistently lowest-performing??????? ???????? requires closing some and forcing serious changes in others. The state should commit itself to dismissing teachers and school leaders who can't deliver, while developing new talent pipelines ???????? like Teach For America, the New Teacher Project's Teaching Fellows program, and New Leaders for New Schools ???????? for identifying and placing talent committed to the hardest job in public education ???????? turning around broken schools. This effort should be supported by efforts to create real incentives for attracting and rewarding the best teachers and principals for working in the toughest schools.
In the wake of its first round loss, Ohio now has the opportunity to show its commitment to bettering its schools, and state leaders should step up to the challenge and make serious changes to its application. The state's children will be the ultimate beneficiaries if we do.
