Duncan, Obama demand education reforms before disbursing stimulus funds

June 8, 11:47 PMEducation ExaminerDonna Gundle-Krieg

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School reforms should be monitored and judged by results that can be backed up by research, according to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who recently spoke at the Conference of the Institute of Education Sciences.

This issue of how to monitor school reform is crucial and politically charged. However, the bottom line is that in order to receive money under the $48.6 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, states must report their progress.

How can individual school reform possibly be monitored?

Duncan believes that having warehouses of data on student achievement is the best way to judge a school’s progress, and one of his top priorities is to support states' efforts to build these data banks.

"Education reform is not about sweeping mandates or grand gestures," Duncan told the group of researchers. "It's about systematically examining and learning, building on what we've done right, and scrapping what hasn't worked for kids."

The Department of Education will evaluate states’ success in meeting the four assurances below when considering states’ applications for competitive grants under the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund.

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, states must make assurances that they are making progress in four key areas of school reform:

1) Adopting rigorous standards that prepare students for success in college and the workforce;

2) Recruiting and retaining effective teachers, especially in classrooms where they're needed most;

3) Turning around low-performing schools; and

4) Building data systems to track student achievement and teacher effectiveness.

Duncan urged researchers to work on improving accountability models based on the growth of student test scores. He would also like to develop fair models of compensating teachers and other school staff based on the achievement of their students.

Ultimately, he added, the data should be used to ensure that students are on track to graduation and success in college.

"Hopefully some day we can track kids from pre-school to high-school and from high school to college and college to career," Duncan said. "Hopefully we can track good kids to good teachers and good teachers to good colleges of education."

For more information, see:

Department of Education Website: U.S. Secretary of Education Calls on State Officials and Researchers to Deliver Honest Answers about Reforms

Stimulus Money for Education Comes with Warning

Obama’s Education Reforms Shows He Does Listen to Both Sides