ASCD Comments on Race to the Top Criteria

In an open letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week, ASCD submitted comments on the proposed Race to the Top priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria and offered several key recommendations.

Among them are several opportunities to use priorities and selection criteria to drive accountability for education that supports the whole child. For example, selection criteria calling for data systems that support instruction could go beyond reporting student performance data and include annual state assessments of the health, safety, and education of children and families.

And while ASCD is a big fan of the overall ambition of Race to the Top, we've also got a couple concerns about the requirements in the current proposal. In particular, ASCD asks the Education Department to rethink requiring states to adopt common core standards sight unseen and disagrees with prioritizing alternative certification programs over improving current teacher preparation programs and supports.

Our full comments on Race to the Top are available online and summarized as below.

What do you think of the Race to the Top priorities? What selection criteria pose the biggest challenge in your state?

ASCD asks that

• the school-level conditions for reform and innovation (Proposed Priority 5) be elevated from an invitational priority to a competitive preference priority;
  
• the Department rethink its proposal to make adoption of the Common Core Standards a requirement for Race to the Top funds;
  
• the Department maintain provisions aimed at fostering cooperation between states and LEAs to encourage the use of data in school- and district-based decision making, but consider access and alignment of data systems beyond student performance indicators;
  
• states be required to ensure that the services they provide for children are coordinated and delivered in a way that supports the whole child;
  
• states be required to provide an annual state report card on the health, safety, and education of children and families;
  
• states be required to put in place policies aimed at improving teacher preparation programs, licensure or educator qualifications, and high-quality professional development activities, as opposed to elevating the status of alternative certification programs, and that these requirements be made a component of the state reform criteria; and
  
• states be required to disclose information regarding the number of charter school closures as evidence of the charter authorizers’ and the state’s commitment to the establishment of high-quality charter schools.