NIAGARA FALLS — With New York state’s receipt of nearly $700 million in federal education grants, so comes hopeful promises of widespread reform and proactive initiatives, which could potentially change the face of education. Right now, though, educators and policy experts agree there is still work to be done.

New York’s victory in the U.S Department of Education’s Race to the Top competition means the state will have to make good on the ambitious pledges made and new initiatives it set forth in its application. Most notably the state agreed to raise the cap on charter schools, set new guidelines and increase the scrutiny on teacher evaluations, creating a statewide data-tracking system and will attempt to nationalize standards for curriculum and testing, among others.

“There are some promising reforms that have been put forth, but it’s really going to come down to local leaders doing away with the status quo and coming together to implement real changes,” said Jason Brooks, director of research at the Foundation for Education Reform and Accountability. “We’ve seen similar efforts in the past with No Child Left Behind, and the New York Contract for Excellence and unfortunately, (school districts) fill out paperwork, say the right things and the money is theirs.

“We see very little academic improvement.”

While education policy experts like Brooks have skepticism when it comes to the state’s application, New York State United Teacher’s spokesperson Matt Smith has more hope.

“There is no question this is a pivotal moment, not only for us and our members, but schools throughout New York state and the public education system,” Smith told the Gazette on Thursday. “We are encouraged that this presents a real opportunity for some true meaningful reform and what we mean by that is the reform that is both beneficial and fair to students and teachers.”

Although state and federal education officials have released broad talking points regarding Race to the Top, local leaders still have many questions pertaining to the funding, implementation and how these types of reforms will be negotiated in the contracts of local school employees.

Money

Of the $697 million in Race funds granted to the state, 50 percent or $348 million will be allocated to individual school districts based on a formula using the poverty level of a school district. Funds will only be made available to districts who signed a memorandum of agreement in support of the state’s application. The remaining half of the funding will be available to districts in the form of competitive grants.

When asked how the funding will become available, Jonathan Burman a spokesman for the state Education Department said it is still unclear when districts will begin to see money, but he did outline the process.

“Participating districts have 90 days to develop ‘scope of work’ statements and budgets (explaining what they intend to use the money for); once submitted, those scope of work statements and budgets must be approved at both the state and federal levels,” Burman said. Once approved, funding will be distributed through the SED’s grants process. It’s too early to say exactly when the money will begin to flow, but, again, it won’t be until after the districts submit scope of work statements and budgets — and until after those items are approved at both the state and federal levels.”

Teacher Evaluation

One of the biggest components of the Race to the Top includes extensive review and evaluation of teachers based on a combination of factors mostly relating to student achievement or student growth. Teachers will now be rated on a four-scale system. They can be rated as: Highly effective, effective, developing or ineffective. The evaluations would play a significant role in a wide array of employment-related decisions, including professional development, tenure determinations, promotion or even termination.

According to the legislation, which was agreed upon by NYSUT and the State Education Department, a teacher who scores ineffective two years in a row “could be charged with incompetence and considered for termination through an expedited hearing.”

“There are positive aspects of the evaluation system and the evaluation process that the state will be implementing, we feel very good about them because it’s not a punitive program it’s a collaborative process,” Smith said about the opportunity for struggling teachers to obtain necessary professional development and feedback to improve as a teacher. “We do recognize that there may be some teachers we believe, a very small number of teachers, who need to be counseled out of the profession. But as professionals and as a union we, more than anyone want to see the classroom as a place where only the most effective teachers are teaching students.”

Smith stressed the number of teachers who would be “counseled” out of the professional would be extremely small.

Under the evaluation system, in the first year of implementation, 40 percent of a teacher’s evaluation score will be based on student achievement measures, with 20 percent coming from student growth on state assessments and 20 percent coming from other locally selected “measures that are rigorous and comparable across classrooms.” In the subsequent years, a value-added model may be adopted, which will grade a teacher based on the growth of his or her students on state exams over a period of time. In this model 25 percent of the teachers grade would be based on the student growth or increased value and 15 percent on other locally negotiated measures. The remaining 60 percent of the evaluation score would be based on locally negotiated measures including classroom observations by trained evaluators.

“The new evaluation measure — that was agreed upon with New York state in effort for us to become more competitive and the federal government is awarding us for taking those steps,” Brooks said.

The teacher evaluation system is something U.S. Department of Education Press Secretary Justin Hamilton told the Gazette is important to the reforms associated with Race to the Top.

“With our current system of evaluation we are lying to children,” Hamilton said. “We are telling them that they are doing well when they are not. A lot of teachers are doing a wonderful job, but when we have a situation when there are teachers who are struggling, we have to have effective ways to help them improve and improve the kids that they are educating.”

Associated with the new teacher evaluation procedures, the legislation calls for the possibility for merit pay. According to a release from NYSED, school districts that sign on to the state’s Race to the Top plan can use their share of the $700 million to reward effective educators and to target professional development to those whose skills need improvement. This move doesn’t sit well with Burman.

“NYSUT opposes merit pay plans that reward individual teachers, especially ones that are based on student performance,” Smith said. “What we support is performance pay plans that are bargained collectively at the local level ... The best schools are the ones who work together.”

A lot of the decisions regarding merit pay and teacher evaluations will be worked out behind closed doors in negotiations between many of the local districts and their respective labor unions. It is believed the state education department will begin getting information to schools with in 90 days in an effort to get all districts on the same page, the Race to the Top reforms will be implemented as of July 2011.

Charter Schools

Charter Schools, once the bane of teacher’s union representatives and school districts because of their ability to receive public funding without having to heed to many of the rules and regulations associated with other public schools, was the catalyst to the state improving their application and receiving the funding.

A new law on the books raising the amount of charter schools from 200 to 460 in New York was signed by the state Legislature in May 2010, but included some significant changes with will ultimately even the playing field between charters and public schools.

Charter schools will now be required to authorize audits by the state comptroller, require regular and publicized meetings of governing boards, require that charter school annual reports and report cards be made publicly available, meet enrollment and retention targets for disabled students, all of which wasn’t previously required.

“NYSUT is not against charter schools, we’ve always believed that they’ve had a place in the state’s educational landscape and as a matter of fact we represent teachers in more than 20 charter schools across the state,” Smith said. “Despite the reforms that were passed, our concerns as it pertains to the new legislation was that the issue of oversaturation was never addressed by lawmakers. In may urban areas such as Buffalo and Albany, enrollments are approaching 10 percent of the student population of the regular district.”

Smith said NYSUT is working to address the issue of oversaturation with the state Legislature.

According to the state’s application, the education department “will support and expand highly effective charter school models and create statewide conditions for innovation and reform.”

Hamilton, of the U.S. Department of Education, told the Gazette charter schools are a key component to education reform.

“We are not for all charter schools, we are for good charter schools,” Hamilton said. “Charters at their best are incredibly innovative places that can provide tremendous opportunity for students in need. They are just one tool in the toolbox of education.”

Student Data System

A new data tracking system will be fully paid for with Race to the Top funds and have the ability to track a student from preschool through college, Burman, of the state education department, said. The system will be used by teachers and districts at the local level to drive instruction.

“Through an aggressive and accelerating plan of data collection, the department has been able to expand its longitudinal data system dramatically and now collects all 12 data elements required in the America COMPETES Act,” said Burman, referring to the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science Act of 2007, which was a federal measure instituted to improve America’s competitiveness through research and development. “ The system is now able to track students from pre-kindergarten to high school and college. The state envisions a fully developed pre-kindergarten through 16 longitudinal data system to be a key resource on which other educational reforms will be built.”

With the state in the process of finalizing its implementation plan in regards to Race to the Top, Brooks said one thing is clear the path to reform will be paved by the local districts and only those who buy into the changes will reap the benefits.

“I think it really comes down to the local level and how the individual school district’s embrace what is coming,” the Foundation for Education Reform’s Brooks said. “Success  will require local leaders and superintendents, teachers unions and school boards to do away with the past practices and adopt real reforms. And in many cases for many district’s this will be difficult, but we must remember dramatic reforms will lead to dramatic improvements in many school districts.”