Praise for New York’s RTTT award

There’s lots of it. Remember that the necessary legislative enabling — notably raising the cap on charter schools — came after a long political fight.

From New York State United Teachers:

“Today’s announcement is clear recognition that teachers unions and other key stakeholders came together in New York to enhance learning opportunities for all students,” NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi said. “Teachers and their union used their ‘seat at the table’ to help achieve real reforms that will help ensure a quality teacher at the front of every classroom. NYSUT’s leadership on evaluations and professional development are two critical elements in our longstanding commitment to ending the achievement gap and promoting principles for excellence from pre-kindergarten through higher education.”

Iannuzzi said New York’s agreement to change the way teachers are evaluated undoubtedly played a major role in New York winning a Race to the Top grant.

“Working with the State Education Department, we advanced the principle that teacher evaluations must be fair and objective, and that while student test scores can play a role in evaluations, they should never be the sole factor. Clearly, the process set up by Secretary Duncan and the U.S. Department of Education recognized the wisdom of that approach, and the importance of having an evaluation system that advances effective teaching by requiring evaluations to focus on growth for all teachers,” Iannuzzi said.

Iannuzzi noted that NYSUT, through grants funded by its national affiliates, the American Federation of Teachers and National Education Association, had been working long before Race to the Top on strategies to improve the teacher evaluation process and ensure that only the most effective teachers are in front of the state’s classrooms.

From Senate Democratic Conference Leader John Sampson:

“Today’s Race to the Top victory is a win for New York’s school children. It proves what the State Legislature can accomplish through cooperation, collaboration, and compromise. The $700 million New York stands to receive will provide the resources for a world class education for our children and help train the workforce New York needs to compete in the global economic marketplace.

“We’re proud that Legislation passed by the Senate Democratic Majority to raise the charter cap, reform charter school operations, improve teacher and principal evaluations, and invest in comprehensive tracking of educational outcomes, helped New York score the points we needed to win $700 million in federal funding. Schools will use these resources to close the achievement gap, improve the graduation rate, and give every student the opportunity to be college and career ready.

“I offer my heartfelt congratulations to Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch and Commissioner of Education David Steiner. Without their leadership, this success would not have been possible.

“I also want to recognize the contributions and leadership of Governor Paterson, Speaker Silver, Mayor Bloomberg, Chancellor Klein, Senate Education Chair Suzi Oppenheimer, Assembly Education Chair Cathy Nolan, as well as our partners in the education community, including NYSUT, UFT, and the charter school community for working together for the benefit of New York’s children.

“I would like to extend a special thank you to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan for his visionary leadership and commitment to creating an environment in which improving educational outcomes has become the focus of a national conversation.”

From Democrats for Education Reform, a pro-charter school group:

“With up to $700 million in Race to the Top funds, New York has an opportunity to drive further education reform, and the state’s victory should mark the beginning, not the end, of its efforts to bolster its public school system. New York’s public school students are the big winners today, and while many individuals deserve credit for state’s victory, perhaps none played a more critical role than the State Senate Democrats and their leader Senator John Sampson. Governor Paterson, Attorney General Cuomo, Chancellor Tisch, and Commissioner Steiner also deserve praise for their leadership on this issue.”

From Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Cuomo:

“This critical federal aid will help ensure a better future for students all across New York State. Not only will the Race to the Top funding pay for critical upgrades and programs that will improve the quality of education for New York students right now, the reforms passed to ensure New York received this federal funding, particularly raising the charter school cap, will benefit students for generations to come. Receiving this money, however, must be the first step, not the last if New York is going to win the real “race to the top” for our students. New York must be the leader in education reform by increasing the number of charter schools, maintaining rigorous standards, recruiting and retaining the best teachers and principals, and turning around failing schools.”

I want to thank the Governor, the State Senate and the Assembly for passing the reforms needed to qualify for the funding and the Congressional delegation for pushing so hard to ensure New York received it.”

From Sen. Craig Johnson, D-Long Island:

“New York was rightfully recognized as a leader in education innovation. This funding will help further strengthen our educational system and provide much-needed money for our public schools at a time when we need it the most. In January, I stood against a bill that would have hampered education reform efforts and resulted in this state losing out on Race to the Top. I thank those who joined me, children, parents and taxpayers to stop that measure and create the real reform legislation that set the stage for today’s announcement.”

From the New York State School Boards Association:

Congratulations to the State Education Department, Board of Regents and state lawmakers for helping New York secure $700 million in federal Race to the Top funding to foster innovative changes in our public education system.

Their diligence to make the necessary changes to the state’s Race to the Top application and increase support among school boards and local teachers unions was admirable, and today’s announcement is a testament to their hard work.

The proposals in New York’s application have been a long time in the making. The use of value-added data to help evaluate teachers and play a factor in determining tenure, for example, could have a meaningful impact on student achievement if implemented properly.

We must warn, however, that this award will not solve all of New York’s education woes. It will not replace the $1.4 billion cut in school aid that forced some school districts to lay off teachers, close schools and cut programs for the coming school year.

These federal funds have a specific purpose – turning around low-performing schools, putting in place a statewide data system to track student performance, increasing financial accountability and transparency for charter schools, improving state testing and curriculum, and reforming the teacher evaluation process.

Let’s hope that the spirit of cooperation among school districts, unions and the state continues as we develop the methods to implement the programs promised in the application.

  1. Fiscal Sanity says:

    These idiots still don’t get it. This one shot of federal spending financed by Chinese bought US Treasury Bills is not a solution.

  2. Dave says:

    So teachers are what..Its totally irrelevant unless teachers that are not the very best and are not producing tangible RESULTS can be removed.. You can “evaluate” the flat tire on your car all you want.. If you cant change the tire..what good is your “evaluation” and the car.. END TENURE!!!!!

  3. Dee Alpert says:

    Too bad the State Ed. Dept. submitted a falsified RttT application (both rounds) claiming it had consulted with parents, as stakeholders, before preparing its application. The application refers to a buried appendix which does not list one single parents’ group.

    Also unfortunate that USDOE is giving State Ed. $700 million based on an application which crows about State Ed.’s wonderful progress in improving the scores of all NCLB subgroups while decreasing the score gaps between the subgroups and white middle class kids. As recent scandals have disclosed, and will continue to disclose, State Ed.’s testing system was as phony as a $3 dollar bill: the score increases and score gap decreases were mere figments of State Ed. officials’ test scams.

    When the hard numbers which State Ed. can’t manipulate come in several years from now – NAEP scores; SAT scores and the like – we’ll see that nothing has changed and nothing has improved.

    Frankly, giving State Ed. money in light of these facts, and in light of consistent federal audits showing that it does not legitimately monitor, audit or supervise how federal funds are spent by NY school districts, is just throwing good money after bad.

  4. Martin says:

    End Tenure and you End Education.

    Nobody will spend 5 years and spend over a hundred thousand dollars to get paid a low end wage of $34,000…struggle to make payments on their student loans, car, rent, food, clothing and oh yea because Dave is so cheap also buy supplies for their classrooms only to get dumped because Tenure doesn’t exist and the President of the School board wants their kids who only came to school 20% of the time to get an A or else..

    Teachers didn’t have Tenure in the 60′s and the Education system turned into a total political mess, hence the reason we have it now.

    But at any rate, under this new system if a teacher is evaulated “poor” or “developing” 2 years in a row they can be brought up on charges and fired in a 60 day time period. Only thing that Tenure provides is Due Process which is exactly what all workers should have.

    But I know that Dave is thankful that NYSUT our statewide Teachers’ union made these major concessions that they in no way had to make to help the state get this money to improve our state classrooms for our KIDS.

    What did the so called “greedy” union get outta this? Nothing, except better classrooms. Thank you NYSUT.

  5. New York State United Teachers~ You lie!

    New York State United Teachers~ You fought this every step of the way.

    New York State United Teachers~ Your the problem, not the solution.

  6. Martin says:

    Fact: New York State United Teachers Proposed the changes to teacher evaluations.

    Fact: New York State United Teachers FOUGHT for charter school reform, and refused to go along with RTTT until the state goverment reformed the way charter schools were run (non-for-profit only, budget and results open to the public). The result of that right is NYS made the reforms to charter schools that helped our application.

    Fact: New York State United Teachers and the UFT attended the Race To The Top Presentation and were part of the Presentation that got NYS the award.

    Fact: Without the New York State United Teachers’ NYS would NOT have any of this money…period.

    Fact: Carl listen’s to too much Rush…to much Glen Beck and the absolute refusal to give any credit to any union for making things better gives him 0 credibility.

  7. Andrew says:

    Martin then why does almost every state that has more lax tenure laws do better than us?? How can a state like PA with more relxed tenure laws graduate 33% more kids a year than NYS??

    Keep drinking the cool-aid and enjoy the NYSUT, aka tax payer, pay check!

  8. Question Mark says:

    “Nobody will spend 5 years and spend over a hundred thousand dollars to get paid a low end wage of $34,000…struggle to make payments on their student loans, car, rent, food, clothing…”. Oh, you mean like the rest of the world. I did all of those things too, but nobody gives me tenure. What gives?

  9. Martin says:

    Only 5% of the U.S population goes on to get Masters degrees, which aren’t required for just about any other field. All Tenure means is that you get due process, which means that the school is required to prove that you aren’t doing your job. If you aren’t doing your job then it isn’t too hard to do if you have an administrator who does their job. And yes Question Mark you should have the same protections, I completely agree. No worker should be fired without just cause.

    As for Tenure, Andrew you are wrong. PA doesn’t have lax tenure laws, the deep south does. Funny how the Unionized/Tenured Northeast has much higher scores than the south…wonder why that is…

  10. Andrew says:

    Martin NYS tenure is 3 years… almost every other state that has it is 5 years… but dont’ worry keep sticking up for the bad teachers in all our schools!

    Also, your wife choose that job, tell her to get a summer job for her 2+ months off in the summer!

    And ironically the deep south has only 1 or 2% lower graduation rates but spend about half what we do?? In fact Utah spends 1/3rd what NYS does, but has a 5% HIGHER graduation rate… Again keep taking your NYSUT paycheck from your rt 7 office.


    Meanwhile 200+ kids just recieved a substandard education and are now behind a year!

    NYSUT, where we only care about the teachers and not the children!

  11. Martin says:

    Andrew, you honestly are clueless. Graduation rates mean nothing. I’m going to form my own school, I’ll set the standards and basically everyone who enrolls gets to graduate. Look how much better my kids are doing…that is the deep south so you would punish NY schools for having higher standards? Looks like you need to go back to school.

    Pretty dumb huh? Thats what we have now since No Child Left Behind did its damage. New York State has always had higher standards. Hell I’m a NYS grad. and I had to take the regents. I went to college in PA, none of my friends down there ever had to take a state test and pass in order to pass a class. We didn’t have it bad here in this state, but its the next generation of kids getting the shaft with 1.4 billion in cuts to education, give the teachers 40 kids in a classroom and no budget to buy anything and then people like you who blame them as the problem. Andrew, personally I think people like you are the problem with education in this state. There is nothing more important than education, period. We need our best and brightest to get into the profession to teach our kids and in order to do that they need to be paid a decent wage.

    And for your information my wife works 4 jobs. She does 2 during the summer, her regular teaching job and is an adjunct at a local college. Still having issues getting by. Of course thats what happens when 70% of the wealth in this country is controlled by 1% of its population…but its interesting that you decide to go after her tiny share of the remaining 30% rather than those super rich. I’m sure you are all up in arms about making sure those Bush tax cuts don’t run out, cause that would be the real problem…not the fact that we can’t afford books for my wife’s classroom.

  12. 1/2 of Albanys public high school kids dont graduate.

    The Public school system in some areas is broken and our kids need charter schools to transition to something better.

    Now thank God they will get them, no thanks to NYSTU.

  13. Martin, With the taxes I pay your wife should have lap tops for every student and a company limo.

    Where is the money?
    Teacher and layers and layers of admin pay!

  14. Phil says:

    Martin, are you a NYSUT organizer?

  15. Martin says:

    Carl, on one hand you want charter schools…which was actually a NYSUT idea way back in the 70′s. They were suppose to be Teacher run centers to experiment with new teaching ideas and then those techniques that worked well were suppose to be brought into the public system.

    You want more charter schools, that means more money and cost. Double the services, double the administration, double the buildings…it simply costs alot more money. Fine by me.

    Carl union pensions exist, but they aren’t for teachers. They are private and for people who work for the union. The public pension system benefits unionized and non-union workers.

    Also, FYI. NYSUT represents charters as well as public schools. And no Phil, I’m not a NYSUT organizer…I give em credit though for having to deal with people like Carl which I have 0 patience for.

    Speaking of Carl, what exactly do you do? Not that I would ever assign blame to the hard working men and woman of your field. I’m sure they would disown you, but since you are so outspoken about going after people like my wife for working hard…Myself, prob. about 600,000 union members and the 2.4 million AFL-CIO members in this state would like to know where to not spend our money :) So by all means, tell us where to go with our business since you apparently hate us all so much.

RSS feed for comments on this post.