Shortsight is as shortsighted does

I have been trying to keep up on the stimulus dollars to see if it is really going to prevent teacher layoffs etc. First my amazing ABCTE team got word last week from Utah that there is a hiring freeze on teachers right now. After a four year pilot using our math program, we were recently approved in Utah for all ABCTE certifications because they were constantly facing teacher shortages and knew they had looming teacher retirements. One district that normally hires 300 teachers will hire less than 50 next year. Most districts are eliminating educational programs and using those teachers to backfill any new hires needed. The final blow in Utah is that the state board approved a reduction to the school year by 5 days for 2009 – 2010.

Looking bad for stimulus dollars providing a positive impact for schools – Utah is actually slipping.

Then in my own backyard in Virginia (and my daughter’s school system), the Washington Post reports that Loudoun County Supervisors, upon hearing that Loudoun schools would get $11.8 million in stimulus, promptly cut $7.3 million from the school budgets. Not painful since it keeps them whole and no teachers will lose their jobs, but it certainly doesn’t create any reforms. And since Loudoun is still growing, it still creates problems.

The main issue is that state and district budgets are worse than initially thought. So the hole is much deeper and the stimulus is going to only fill it so far. Right now that is causing some panic and to twist a phrase – shortsighted is as shortsighted does. States and districts are looking to just get by next year so the dollars are not really driving any reforms.

The problem is that all this panic will dry up our teacher pipelines are really at the same time staffing is getting exceptionally lean. In two years districts will find themselves scrambling to find the talent they need. Those districts that think long term and really look to tap into the talent out there now and get that talent into teaching programs will be those that really do right by their students.

More to come……

The unprecendented leading to the dramatic

I was invited to attend the ARRA briefing over at the US DOE today. For us, the briefing actually provided a little more information than previous top line discussions. In times of great change, effective organizations over-communicate. With ARRA, the US DOE is definitely making sure that they do that and it is appreciated by many. This extra communication is certainly keeping people from finding things not to like about the recovery money (see – I didn’t call it stimulus so their communication plan is working).

There are two great things about these briefings that are very noticeable. The first is that Secretary Duncan is so careful to always start with the positives. Whatever he is talking about, he always starts with the positive and continues to prefer the carrot to the stick. In this case, states forgoing the carrot (in this case the carrot takes the form of billions of dollars) will feel like they actually got the stick since they will lose billions. The second is John Schnur – if someone in the audience brings up something they don’t like, rather than debate, he asks for input on how to handle it better. It is so refreshing to have people admit that they don’t have all the answers and really seem to want everyone involved in making the program better. It is really disarming to the questioner which makes it quite enjoyable to watch since most questions are really just a ploy to get your organization noticed (disclosure: I have done this in the past).

However, they have got to find some new words. I wish that I would have written down how many times “unprecedented” and “dramatic” were used. No one would argue that the amount of money is unprecedented and that for that much cash we do need to see dramatic results – but it became a little funny towards the end as it seemed to be used in every third sentence.

The big take away for ABCTE is the Race to the Top funds (should we call this RTTT or R3T). There are $5 billion to fund this race. Approximately $4.35 billion will be given to the states that, through their ARRA spending, really demonstrated that they are working towards true reform with increased student success. The remaining $635 million will be distributed through the Office of Innovation and Improvement(OII) through existing programs and some new programs. It is clear that Jim Shelton, formerly of Gates, is now fully in charge of OII and ready to go since he stepped up and did a lot of the talking on RTTT. We should see some RFPs flowing here over the few months. I believe that they want to have the RFP process completed by end of the fiscal year and the money distributed in spring and summer of 2010. Very ambitious.

The Secretary also continued his theme of wanting to see more local courage and less adult dysfunction. He is correct. If that actually happens maybe the unprecedented will actually lead to the dramatic.

Part 5: What is happening to teaching jobs

For Part 5, the final in our series on teaching jobs, I was hoping to have more information about the billions going to protect teaching jobs but I guess that is going to have to wait for a few months once we see what really happens.

But in the mean time, there is a great interview with the Secretary of Education speaking frankly with the Ed Week Editorial staff. They ask great questions and they get real answers. From the teaching side of things Secretary Duncan "gets it" as evidenced by the following ideas he puts forth:

1. He understands that some states are saying they are going to move the stimulus money to paying off debt and he basically said that they will be sacrificing the opportunity for the big bucks if they do. The states that drive innovation will get A LOT more money. It is in the states best interest to use the money right
2. He wants to fundamentally change the staus quo. He knows this an historic, once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a gob of money (my word not his)
3. Data systems must be put in place to track students back to teachers and track teachers back to their teacher preparation program so that we can use the data to improve education
4. Talent matters tremendously
5. Need best teachers to take on the toughest assignments through incentives
6. Need to understand economic realities and pay math and science teachers more
7. For the small numbers of states that get it right, they will get the huge dollars available to take their reforms to scale – it will go to the states that do the hard work, demonstrate local courage and challenge the status quo. Let me just say that I love that line
8. We need new teams of adults if students are failing. I love this – not just blaming teachers but all the adults from the DOE on down that are involved in education. And he does support rewarding great teachers and moving poor teachers out of the classroom
9. Big believer in alternative certification. Here he reiterates what we have been saying in this series on teaching jobs - there is lots of great talent who just happened to not graduate with an ed degree and we need them in the classroom. Because of the huge numbers of baby boomers retiring from teaching, what we do in the next 4-6 years will determine what happens in the next 30 years. We need to do more now to make sure we have the talent far into the future

For all that are following the teacher employment – this is the money quote. Even if there is a blip in teacher hiring now, because the pipeline into teaching has dried up and because outflows are dramatically increasing, we will be in trouble if we don’t do something now. Secretary Duncan wants more paths to teaching, wants to build more competition in teacher preparation and then hold all the routes accountable for results.

Since he mentioned the 2010 budget details will come out in April, I imagine we will see money put behind these thoughts. And that is good news for what will happen to teaching jobs.

Series on What is Happening to Teaching
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

DOE ARRA with SFSF

The countries that out-teach us today will out-compete us tomorrow.
—President Barack Obama, Feb. 24, 2009

I received my DOE ARRA package of SFSF guidelines. For those new to the stimulus game, that is the Department of Education guidelines for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 as it applies to the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund. It makes for fascinating reading if only because it is very hard to see how Governor’s are going to suddenly, in two weeks, commit to the following:

“to advance essential education reforms to benefit students from early learning through post-secondary education, including: college- and career- ready standards and high-quality, valid and reliable assessments for all students; development and use of pre-K through post-secondary and career data systems; increasing teacher effectiveness and ensuring an equitable distribution of qualified teachers; and turning around the lowest-performing schools.”

It seems like a stretch to me. But governors can get 67% of their share of $48.6 billion of SFSF by applying to DOE and demonstrating a commitment to the above. The 33% will be distributed once the governors submit their plan to demonstrate the commitment above and those funds will be delivered starting July 1, 2009.

I imagine the teaching portion of those plans will look very similar to the plans the states had to submit to the DOE for reaching 100% highly qualified teachers. If you have ever read those plans, they basically repackaged exactly what the state was currently doing and said that those programs were now suddenly going to solve the problem.

My guess is that because the time frame is so short we will see exactly the same thing for these funds. The status quo will be reworded to show that it is now a reform that will create better results for students but in the end wont change a thing.

I could be wrong – but I seriously doubt it.

But just in case, I will make sure we contact the governors of ABCTE states to see if we can help them recruit more teachers for high needs schools.

Props to the Administration

I must admit that I am very impressed with two big statements from the Obama administration this week. It is very refreshing to see such honesty and transparency in public policy especially in the critical area of education.

The first came from Vice President Biden in Delaware while addressing the teacher's union highlighting the need to get results from the stimulus dollars for education:

"I genuinely need your help to make this work because, folks, look at it this way. We've been given all the ammunition. If we shoot and miss, if we squander the opportunity, tell me how long you think it's going to take for another American president to go and ask for more dollars to correct the education system," Biden said to the Delaware State Education Association members at the Atlantic Sands Hotel & Conference Center in Rehoboth Beach.

The second came for Secretary Duncan in an interview with the Washington Post where he reiterates that money is not the answer – especially if you base it on DC School performance:

"D.C. has had more money than God for a long time, but the outcomes are still disastrous," Duncan said

Secretary Duncan advocates for reforms on a grand scale and encourages schools to use the tools that have worked in charter schools. In a tip of the hat to KIPP, he advocates for longer school days for students that are behind and I totally agree. He also eschews politics for performance when he chastises Congress for eliminating the DC Voucher program. He does not want to send these kids back to DC Public Schools when they have a chance to go to great private schools.

Putting students before politics is a huge step forward and making it clear that there has to be accountability for results with the huge influx of money deserves praise and respect.