Due to the size of the fund, and the realities of the economy, Race to the Top has generated much interest among states and the education community. CEC joined 2000 other groups and individuals in commenting on its proposed regulations and some of the issues CEC highlighted clearly influenced the final guidelines.
As the final application clarifies, to compete for these grants states must demonstrate they have: (1) a history of raising student performance, (2) a plan to use reforms approved by the Department, and (3) scale up achievement gains. The application maintains its focus on college and career ready standards and assessments. Notably, it now includes a focus on the concepts of universal design for learning (UDL), which CEC and many other organizations pushed for. In addition, it broadened the definition of evaluating teacher and principal performance to include the use of “multiple measures”, another point CEC strongly advocated for.
As the final application clarifies, to compete for these grants states must demonstrate they have: (1) a history of raising student performance, (2) a plan to use reforms approved by the Department, and (3) scale up achievement gains. The application maintains its focus on college and career ready standards and assessments. Notably, it now includes a focus on the concepts of universal design for learning (UDL), which CEC and many other organizations pushed for. In addition, it broadened the definition of evaluating teacher and principal performance to include the use of “multiple measures”, another point CEC strongly advocated for.
The Department is holding two technical assistance workshops for states planning on applying for these grants, the first on December 3 in Denver and the second on December 10 in Washington, D.C. The Department is recommending any potential applicant attend one of these and will make transcripts from these meetings available on its website.
I think all teachers involved in the inclusion model process, general ed and special ed, should receive a stipend. This, number 1, might encourage more general ed teachers to willing participate in the process and not sabotage it and run it, and 2, special eduation inclusions are handed several more disadvantaged "students" when working with novice untrained general ed teachers. I have experience as both a general ed teacher and a special education (SLD) teacher and can tell you that a classroom teacher's role is chaotic without throwing in another wrench and as the ex-ed teacher going into this environment, one must be extremely flexible, patient, and tolerant of the many teacher personalities encountered in this roll everyday.
Posted by: sally | 01/01/2010 at 03:19 PM