Howard County Education Assoc. requests withdrawal from Race to the Top

HCEA requests withdrawal from Race to the Top

Statewide Educator Evaluation System Proposed

Press Release from the Maryland State Department of Education:
June 20, 2011

MARYLAND COUNCIL ISSUES RECOMMENDATIONS FOR A STATEWIDE EDUCATOR EVALUATION SYSTEM
STATE RECEIVES FEDERAL APPROVAL FOR TWO-YEAR PILOT
ANNAPOLIS, MD (June 20, 2011)

The Maryland Council for Educator Effectiveness today gave approval to initial recommendations for a Statewide Educator Evaluation System.

The recommendations define various aspects of teacher and principal evaluation, set in place general standards, provide flexibility to local school systems with State approval, and establish a framework for evaluation.

(...)

The Education Reform Act of 2010, passed by the Maryland General Assembly in April 2010 and signed into law last June, called for the new vision for educator evaluations. The Maryland Council for Educator Effectiveness was established by Governor O’Malley through Executive Order to put those changes into place. The Council – made up of educators, policy experts, and elected officials – was originally set to complete its initial work by the end of 2010, but requested an extension through the end of June 2011.

The Council was established to make recommendations for the development of the Statewide system of evaluation for educators required under the new law. The Council developed recommendations designed to ensure that educators are evaluated using multiple, fair, and transparent methods; that they are given meaningful opportunities to improve; and provided with the means to share best practices.

The Council's initial recommendations include the following:

Evaluation Framework – Separate evaluation systems have been developed for teachers and principals. Both include professional development at their core, and are divided between qualitative and quantitative (student growth) measures.


Definitions for Evaluation – A list of various terms used in the evaluation processes, including mentoring, observation, and student growth measures.


General Standards for Teacher/Principal Evaluation – A four-step process, including established areas of professional practice (such as class preparation, instruction, classroom environment, and professional responsibilities), and both State and local growth measures (such as State Assessments and multiple measures of student academic achievement). Under the plan, teachers and principals would be evaluated as highly effective, effective, or ineffective. All teachers and principals would be provided with professional development in an effort to strengthen their performance.

To read the whole press release, CLICK HERE.

The $12 million MCPS turned down

Below is a newsletter from the Maryland State Department of Education. The first page of the newsletter shows a chart with the amount of funds each participating Maryland public school system will receive in Race to the Top funds. 


Montgomery County is not listed on this chart.


Recall that Superintendent Jerry Weast and the Board of Education refused to sign on to the State's Race to the Top application.  Therefore MCPS will not receive what would have been  their $12 million allotment of these funds. 

Maryland Classroom October 2010

Guest Post on "Race to Nowhere"

Hello!

My son is a bright, hardworking, musical kid. But the pressure he puts on himself to achieve is having some truly negative implications that you may or may not see at school. "Race to Nowhere," the film the Magruder HS PTSA is screening 11/4, tells the stories of many kids who are struggling with similar issues. For some it manifests as physical symptoms, for others it's emotional stress, others are socially isolated. And for one girl the pressure to be excellent was too much - she took her life at 13.

When I took my son to see this film for the first time, his immediate reaction was, "That's exactly my life." This is not what I want for my kid - or for any kid.

As an educator, I see my and other teachers' frustrations echoed in the film. The pressure to get through the curriculum, and meet state and national expectations can cause us to shortchange our students in ways that can have long term implications. I also see the students for whom the pressure is too much, too soon and by the time they reach middle and high school they've checked-out and don't even try to keep up, let alone excel.

I'm hopeful that the film screening and the follow-up discussions will be the start to developing some real solutions to help our kids achieve balance and for us to do the best job possible to help them reach their full potential.

As far as my son goes, he may take a different path to reach balance. He's applying to the Duke Ellington School for the Arts for next year. The academic rigor is nowhere near that at Magruder (especially in PEAC) and he'll get the music that is his passion  - and that may be a very good thing.

Feel free to share this with anyone you think may be interested in seeing the film. Here are the details:

What: Screening of the film, "Race to Nowhere" (www.racetonowhere.com) and facilitated discussion following the film
Who: students, parents, teachers, administrators - anyone concerned about kids
Where: Magruder HS Auditorium
When: Thursday, November 4, 7 PM
To purchase tickets ($10 in advance, $15 at the door, with proceeds going to Magruder's PTSA): http://www.racetonowhere.com/screenings/magruder-high-school

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!

Jennifer Boudrye

Weast tells State: Regs Could Have Negative Impact on Teacher Evaluation System

Please note that this letter from Superintendent Jerry Weast to the Maryland State Department of Education does not appear to have been copied to the Board of Education. If you know a Board of Education member you might want to send them a copy as a FYI. 

August 30, 2010 Weast to MSDE

Grasmick: MCPS will not be left out in the cold on Race to the Top $$

At the September 21, 2010, Maryland State Board of Education meeting, State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick announced that, "Frederick and Montgomery Counties will not be left out in the cold." 

Recall that MCPS and FCPS did not sign on to the State's Race to the Top application and therefore will not receive a share of the grant like other Maryland counties. In MCPS' case, that meant giving up $12 million that would have come to the county to implement Maryland's Race to the Top initiatives. 

At the September 21st State Board meeting, Grasmick announced that MCPS and FCPS will have a second chance to get a small portion of the State's Race to the Top Grant funding.  

An MSDE official reported to the State Board: 

"There is not going to be a re-distribution of the dollars, and I know you understand that, but they can become sort of a participating entity..."

'You know there's the $125 million that goes to the state and there's the $125 million that goes to the [Local Education Agencies] LEAs -- the $125 million that goes to the LEA's will stay at the same formula that it's been because that was our application, but they would allow us to amend our application to allow that... $13.3 million -  That are different types of subgrants that we can make out of our portion to different LEA'S..."

"We can include both Montgomery and Frederick counties in that, and we think that's a good idea."

Grasmick said that everyone should be on board to share data and information as we move ahead.

Will MCPS be able to share data and information with the Maryland State Department of Education or will they be barred by confidentiality requirements of their agreement with Pearson Education, Inc.? 

Will MCPS take any portion of the State's Race to the Top funding or will MCPS refuse to implement the State's Race to the Top initiatives and refuse the funding? 

Video: Council & Board at Lunch!

The following topics were covered by the Montgomery County Council and the Board of Education at their catered lunch on Tuesday, September 21, 2010. (Please turn up the volume so that you can hear over the shuffling of papers and consumption of food. This video was made by a member of the public attending this meeting. The Council and Board do not record this event and do not produce transcripts of this meeting.)

1. Opening of Schools at minute 1:00

2. Edison High School Plans 7:50

3. Fiscal Plan for County 30:30

4. State Pension Plans

5. Superintendent Search 1:02:06

6. Race to the Top (MCPS giving up $12 million in funding)  1:03:34


Please let the video load. There seems to be a little hesitation in the first few minutes, but then the video plays correctly. 



Montgomery County Council - Board of Education Lunch September 21, 2010 from WSB on Vimeo.

baltimoresun.com - MCPS won't get Race to the Top funds

Most Baltimore-area schools open amid influx of federal funds - baltimoresun.com

...The U.S. Department of Education announced last week that Maryland would get $250 million in Race to the Top funds. The money, which can be used over a four-year period, is aimed at innovations that the Obama administration has outlined in the past year.

Half of the Race to the Top money will be divided among 22 of the state's 24 school districts. Montgomery and Frederick County, which declined to sign the application for the competition, will not get any. Within the next three months, each of the 22 systems must develop a plan to spend its share in one of four areas: teacher quality, developing curriculum, data systems and improving the lowest performing schools...

Maryland to use Race to the Top $$ to revise Curriculum - But what about MCPS & Pearson Curriculum?

Isn't MCPS developing their own new Pre-K to 5th grade curriculum with Pearson Education, Inc? Will MCPS be developing a Pre-K to 5th grade curriculum at the exact same time that the Maryland State Department of Education is developing a new curriculum? Which curriculum will be used in MCPS classrooms?  

WBAL: Md. Awarded $250M 'Race To The Top' Grant

...The money will be spent over two years, and it must be earmarked for specific programs. In Maryland's case, it will be used to revise its pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade state curriculum and to build a statewide technology system to monitor and promote student achievement. The funds will also be used to create a new model to prepare, develop and retain teachers and principles and to develop new programs to improve the state's low-performing schools...

Race to the Top windfall for D.C., Md. schools | Washington Examiner

Race to the Top windfall for D.C., Md. schools | Washington Examiner

...Maryland was seen as an underdog in the competition, largely because of a charter school law regarded by many advocates as among the weakest in the nation. But the state scored $250 million on the strength of its proposed reforms to teacher training and evaluation, and because the application earned some union backing.

Outgoing Montgomery County Superintendent Jerry Weast, who was one of two Maryland superintendents to withhold his support for the funding, said he was "tickled to death" that the state won the money.

"Because now they can stop saying we kept them from being a winner," Weast said.

The county did not sign on to the application due to disagreements over the best way to evaluate teachers, Weast said.

Mike Petrilli, vice president of education think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, cited Maryland's victory as proof that the "lofty rhetoric of the Race to the Top has turned to farce."

"[N]obody in their right mind regards [Maryland] as an incubator of serious education reform," he wrote on his organization's Flypaper blog.

Maryland State Superintendent Nancy Grasmick disagreed, saying the funds will "bolster our data systems, improve instruction, and attract and maintain a stronger educational work force."

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Race-to-the-Top-windfall-for-D_C__-Md_-schools-558527-101430834.html#ixzz0xgAJccBS

Group challenges ‘Race’ finalist lineup

• 2theadvocate
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• By WILL SENTELL
• Advocate Capitol News Bureau
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  Published: Aug 4, 2010 - Page: 12AA charter school advocacy group is questioning how four states made the list of finalists for $3.4 billion in federal prize dollars that are supposed to reward education innovation.

Louisiana, which is one of 19 finalists for “Race To The Top” dollars, is not a target of the criticism.

In fact, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools says Louisiana has the ninth best charter school law in the nation.

But the group, based in Washington, D.C., is questioning the inclusion of Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina and Ohio as possible winners.

“I think the bottom line is that these states are essentially closed for business when it comes to creating new charter schools for families,” said Todd Ziebarth, vice president of state advocacy and support for  the group. “And Kentucky is one of 10 states that does not have a charter school law,” he said.

“In terms of “Race To The Top it seems strange that these states . . . would be on the list of finalists,” he said...

What Weast Wants for California

QUESTIONS:

1. This presentation, in California, is dated June 22, 2010. That same date was a Board of Education Worksession on Educational Facilities. Why was Weast in California instead of Rockville at a scheduled Board of Education worksession?

2. This presentation, in California, is described as Weast speaking on California's Race to the Top application. Did I miss something here? When exactly did Jerry Weast jump with both feet into the "Race to the Top" pool here in Maryland? Now money that isn't worth it for Montgomery County is good enough for California?

3. Two Words: Travel Freeze.

4. Anyone ever heard of Skype?

UPDATE: It appears that Jerry Weast did TWO presentations in California on two different days: one, the subject of the video, was for the "Bay Area Council." The second presentation was for an association of California school admininstrators on "Leading for Equity."

No Race to the Top for MCPS

The Washington Post: Maryland, District join second round of Race to the Top education initiative

...For Maryland, the award could be $250 million. The state proposes to expand a "breakthrough center" to focus on helping low-performing schools. It pledges an overhaul of teacher evaluation, giving more weight to student achievement, and adoption of common academic standards. Maryland Department of Education spokesman William Reinhard said 22 of the state's school systems have endorsed the bid, with Montgomery and Frederick counties the only holdouts...

Balt. Sun: Montgomery County, The class dummy

The Baltimore Sun: The class dummy

Our view: Montgomery County's display of pique over tying teacher evaluations to test scores threatens Maryland's chance to win millions of dollars in federal school aid

...What they expect to accomplish is hard to fathom. Montgomery County may be the state's largest school system, but it's behaving like the schoolyard bully who makes life miserable for everyone else when he can't get his way. Its refusal to sign off on the state's plan for teacher evaluations won't make it exempt from the requirement. That's a state law, and it will have to obey it, like it or not. But because the state's application will be judged in large part on its ability to demonstrate all its major stakeholders are solidly behind reform, the naysayers are throwing a monkey wrench in the works that could make it much less likely Maryland will be granted an award...

"Apparently Mr. Weast believes beggars can be choosers."

The Baltimore Sun, Second Opinion:  Petulance hobbles Race to the Top

Montgomery County schools officials and teachers unions from several of Maryland’s large jurisdictions are mounting a rare display of self-defeating petulance in their refusal to sign on to Maryland’s application for the federal Race to the Top competition...

...Montgomery County may turn up its nose at the new standards, believing that its system is better than anything the state could possibly come up with, but what it’s objecting to really amounts to ceding control over 30 percent of the evaluation. And the price of venting its pique is steep -- $12 million for a system that, at the same state school board meeting in which Superintendent Jerry D. Weast voiced his objections, asked for and received a waiver from a $51 million state fine levied because the county did not meet its annual education funding requirements. Apparently Mr. Weast believes beggars can be choosers. But Maryland’s poorer districts – notably Baltimore City and Prince George’s County, which stand to gain the most from Race to the Top – can’t afford to indulge the tantrums of the state’s richest.

"It bounces off our brain why Montgomery County doesn't want to sign."

Unions won't sign Md.'s Race to the Top application - baltimoresun.com

Despite opposition from teachers unions and Maryland's largest school system, the state school board is poised to vote Wednesday to approve an application for as much as $250 million in federal funds...

...Montgomery's Weast told the board Tuesday that the county will not sign the application because it does not want to give up its own teacher evaluation system. In an interview, he said that the county believes its evaluation system is better than others and that the state has not fully thought through the process for many of the reforms.

"Bold is not a strategy," he said.

But Grasmick and state board members are clearly perplexed by the Montgomery decision, particularly because the county will have little choice in implementing many of the reforms that are now law and the cash-strapped county stands to gain $12 million in federal money.

In an interview, Grasmick said, "The law is the law. This is what I don't understand. …They will have to do it anyway."

Board members pressed Weast at the meeting Tuesday to explain the decision, particularly because he was there to ask them not to fine the county $51 million for failing to fully fund education as required under Maryland law. The board granted the county a waiver.

School board president James H. DeGraffenreidt Jr. said, "It bounces off our brain why Montgomery County doesn't want to sign."

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MCPS bartering on Race to the Top application

Baltimore Sun - Inside Ed: Montgomery says maybe to Race to the Top

...Montgomery County hasn't yet agreed to sign the Race to the Top application and is one of only two districts that is holding support back from the state's efforts to win as much as $250 million in federal funds later this year...

...The board wants the state to say that its evaluation system is currently in compliance with the Education Reform Act recently passed by the General Assembly and any other regulations passed in the future by the state board...

Teacher evaluations based on student performance - baltimoresun.com

Teacher evaluations based on student performance - baltimoresun.com

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Another view on MCPS's teacher evaluation system, Race To The Top application, and more:

The deeper issue is whether we should create an educational system that evaluates and rewards teachers and principals based on performance in an institution where such market-based principles have traditionally been absent. Montgomery County Public Schools and the county's teachers union have implicitly made clear that they are opposed to these fundamental changes by stating they are currently unwilling to change their current Professional Growth System. However, as a Montgomery County teacher and member of MCEA, I believe the inclusion of these principles into Professional Growth Systems across the state will be a victory for the teaching profession and a victory for all our students who stand to benefit the most from these reforms.

To continue reading this article, click HERE.

Maryland's Race to the Top reforms "resistance is futile"

The Dagger:  School Board Scratchpad: Worth Racing To The Top In Harford?

A last minute addition to the agenda was a vote on whether the Harford school board would sign a memorandum of understanding to support Maryland’s application for the latest in federal largess, formally known as the Race to the Top (RTTT)...

...As added insurance, Maryland Schools Superintendent Nancy Grasmick has apparently said she will implement the reforms, some of which were recently codified into law, even if the state doesn’t get a dime from the feds. Translation: resistance is futile...

Balt. Sun: Weast says Race to the Top $ not worth it

On March 9, 2010, Superintendent Jerry Weast announced at a MCPS Board of Education meeting that he was recommending that MCPS submit their OWN Race to the Top application. Weast was making it known that he was not supporting the State's application, even without seeing the State's submission.


Now, Superintendent Weast attempts to re-write history by writing in the Baltimore Sun that MCPS shouldn't have been chided for not "blindly" signing on to the State's application.


But Weast had already made it known over a month ago that he was not supporting the State's application. His intent to break from the State was clear long before the State's application was made public.


Here's Superintendent Weast's attempt to spin his position for The Baltimore Sun readers:

The Baltimore Sun: Montgomery rightfully wary of ‘Race to the Top’

County supports state’s goals but must safeguard the gains it has made

By Jerry D. Weast

April 19, 2010

...When the application was released, the Montgomery school system was immediately chided in a Baltimore Sun editorial for not being willing to blindly sign on to the state's plan before having a chance to review it....

...We are also not interested in simply racing after money: The state estimates MCPS would receive about $12 million if Maryland is awarded a Race to the Top grant. That's .5 percent of our budget, hardly worth unraveling years of successful reforms...