RTTT some more?

It is with some curiosity that I read the news reports of how California is once again engaging in the Race to the Top (RTTT) grants. As you recall, California on the 1st round did not even come up to the middle in the competition (27th out of 40 applicants). Further, when all was said and done, the feds actually funded two small states (i.e., Delaware and Tennessee) – and left the vast majority of the funds UNallocated. Meanwhile, states had rushed to make policy and legislative change without benefit of grant approval. Now we live with the results of those changes (e.g., Persistently Low-Achieving School lists, etc.) and wonder about the merit of all of this.

This past week there were a number of articles/blogs that point out that the feds “really want us to apply” (why not worked pretty well last time) and we in California have a “new” strategy with RTTT. The newest strategy (grants are due June 1st) is that 6 school districts will apply with particular responses to the RTTT requirements. The 6 districts are Los Angeles, Long Beach, Fresno, San Francisco, Sanger and Clovis.  The second round of RTTT application pushes further the notion and requirement of California adopting Common Core (national) standards over the existing California standards. It will be interesting to see the results. As for me, I am reminded of the country axiom, “Fool me once – it’s your fault. Fool me twice – and it’s mine.”

We all can certainly improve, and therefore we do not resist reform. In fact, that is why we are pursuing parallel federal funding with the i3 grants that focus on creating evidence-based projects for improvement and reform. These particular projects require a good body of evidence about their efficacy in schools and districts. In either case, it will be interesting in 6 months to see how all of this will work itself out in this unusual alliance between Washington, D.C. and the rest of us.