1/19/10 - Trust Program Officer Weighs in on the Race to the Top

Another Missed Opportunity for Reform?

by Kavitha Mediratta on January 19, 2010
Published on the Blog of Harvard Education Publishing

Today, states across the country will submit applications to the U.S. Department of Education's Race to the Top fund.

States will detail their plans for raising standards and expanding testing—particularly in reading and math; increasing access to data on student performance and using that data in teacher evaluations; and replacing chronically low performing schools with charter schools.

What they won't do is take seriously the untapped capacity of communities—public school parents and their children—to be part of the process of driving reform.

To be fair, states are following guidance from the U.S. Department of Education, which has emphasized test score data and charter schools as key components of reform. With growing budget gaps, states are desperate for education dollars and dare not deviate from the Department's reform priorities.

Yet a growing number of studies suggests that we'll never see educational opportunity on the scale the Obama administration has prioritized if we don't figure out how to mobilize public education's core constituencies. Public school parents, students and communities need to demand equity, accountability and quality from their schools, districts, and states.

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