“Race to the Top” and outside the box

Creating conditions for innovation and reform is one of the stated aims of the new education initiative launched by the Obama administration.

Race to the Top is one of those innovations and the brain child of a sixteen-year veteran educator, Kim Ursetta. Ursetta brought the idea of a teacher lead not an administrative lead school to her board. She assumed she’d be shot down, but was pleasantly surprised to find the idea was well received.

She immediately started "pulling together a group of teachers to sit down with a blank sheet of paper and ask how you would do a school differently. See statistics.

Three weeks ago, Ursetta's dream became a reality, the first Race to the Top school, Mathematics and Science Leadership Academy opened its doors to 142 kindergartners and first- and second-grade students in Denver's mostly low-income, largely Hispanic Athmar Park neighborhood. As a teacher at traditional schools, Ursetta said she and her colleagues weren't allowed to change the order of their lessons.

Two of the school's 12 teachers take on administrative duties as "lead teachers," performing the traditional role of a principal. The lack of quality school leadership is a big reason that experienced teachers leave their schools, Ursetta said. "Studies show when you take accomplished teachers and allow them to have a leadership role, that's when they see the most success. Scores just soar. That's how we're focused here."

To qualify for Race to the Top, the rules call on states to create "data systems" linking student success with teacher performance.

Race to the Top isn’t without critics. The National Education Association -- the nation's largest teachers union -- fears it opens the door to measuring teacher performance by how students score on tests. "What we're really against is using a single [student] test on a single day" to assess teacher performance, said NEA Executive Director John Wilson. "What we're more accepting of are multiple indicators," and teacher performance "observed in classroom should count as the major part of evaluation."

But Wilson said many teachers are reacting coolly to Race to the Top because they "feel like it's too much like No Child Left Behind and are looking for something different." Teachers wonder if the program will undermine innovation and creativity, Wilson said.

I truly hope the NEA gets behind this new innovative idea and let it take hold. Our schools and more importantly our students need it.