Tisch’s Reform Agenda Jeopardized By Race To The Top Money
Effort to improve assessments come as Regents chancellor scales back some tests
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 15:37:00
At a recent forum on education policy in the Bloomberg era, Board of Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch wasted no words lambasting the state’s “flawed” testing and vowing a huge paradigm shift in how the exams are administered to students across the state.
But not everyone in the audience was wowed by all the talk of paradigm-shifting.
“What happens is they start it, give it three to four years and decide whether it does or doesn’t work, and then move on to the next one,” Meryle Weinstein, assistant director of the Institute of Education and Social Policy at NYU said. “But the schools and principals are left hanging. … They need more than three to four years to institutionalize [reforms].”
A lot has happened since Tisch took over the helm at the Board of Regents. The state’s cap on the number of charter schools has been doubled, teacher evaluations have been overhauled to give more weight to test scores and student performance, and the state as a whole has been embroiled in the Obama administration’s game-changing Race to the Top grant competition.
Through it all, Tisch—a former first-grade teacher and a member of one of the city’s wealthiest families—says she has done her best to manage the egos and powerful interests that frequently treat state education policy as a full-contact sport. She has earned praise from educators and advocates for helping to transform the State Education Department, mainly through the hiring of David Steiner as commissioner, into a more aggressive agency. She has also been criticized for hewing too close to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s charter-school-friendly, union-antagonizing agenda.
“She’s supportive of them, I think that’s her role,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian and Bloomberg foe. “She’s certainly not a critic.”
Tisch now has her sights set on improving state assessments, establishing a statewide curriculum and busting the monopoly of teacher colleges on training. But the state’s seemingly never-ending budget woes threaten to derail the entire process.
At a recent Regents meeting, Tisch noted that without additional money from the state, the State Education Department would have to roll back some of its tests. The board already has voted to eliminate fifth- and eighth-grade social studies exams, as well as component retesting for high school math and English exams.
“She fights very hard for resources that’s needed,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the national teachers union, who has not always seen eye-to-eye with Tisch’s efforts to change state policy to appease the Obama administration. “She’s trying to change the state Board of Regents to be more responsive to school districts. At the same time, I think it’s a very difficult job that she inherited, and a very difficult financial situation.”
Tisch’s efforts to improve state assessments will likely put her on a collision course with Joel Klein’s mission to raise graduation rates by several points every year. The city’s Department of Education has said it approves of the state’s desire to raise standards, even as they are likely to herald a drop in graduation rates.
“That’s not easy to do, because a lot of people are going to be unhappy about it,” said Sy Fliegel, president of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association. “If you keep raising the passing grade, you can bet next year there’s going to be a drop.”
After the state’s embarrassing showing in the first round of Race to the Top, many in the education world are feeling much more confident about the chances in round two. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said 10 to 15 states could win in the second round. The finalist will be announced in late July, and the winners in September.
But with many states competing just as hard as New York, and the federal government blasting the state’s first application for superfluous request like new desk chairs, Tisch said much of her reform agenda still hangs in the balance. Without the estimated $700 million from the grant competition, she doubts the state can afford to implement the rest of her reforms.
“The truth of the matter is, there is very little free money in the system right now,” Tisch said. “It would be unrealistic for us to say that we’re going to be able to find money in the system to do this work.”
In the coming months, Tisch said she wants to take up her pet issue—alternative certification, which would allow organizations like Teach for America to train and certify teachers, rather than restricting such programs to teacher colleges and universities. In 2005, she wrote her doctoral thesis on the subject (she went back to school later in life to add to her credentials).
The plan is another key component of the Race to the Top reforms, she said, and not intended to replace the quality education that goes on at teacher colleges across the state.
“We are not doing this to undercut these colleges, rather to enhance the profession as a whole,” she said.
In public, Tisch often defers most of the attention to Steiner, playing the role of his biggest booster before audiences of educators and business leaders alike. But privately, those who have worked with her say she is fiercely defensive about making sure the Board of Regents gets credit for what is accomplished. Tisch says that in the past the Regents have been forgotten, ignored or, as it was during the Pataki administration, targeted for elimination.
There was a feeling among some board members of lacking in direction during previous years. “Dying on the vine” as one described it, while another said it was “the same old tired game.” But with Tisch on board, many have reported feeling a new vivacity.
For Tisch, resurrecting the Regents was one of the reasons she feels she was appointed chancellor in the first place.
“That’s my role as a leader,” Tisch said. “They could have gone to someone else.”
But not everyone in the audience was wowed by all the talk of paradigm-shifting.
“What happens is they start it, give it three to four years and decide whether it does or doesn’t work, and then move on to the next one,” Meryle Weinstein, assistant director of the Institute of Education and Social Policy at NYU said. “But the schools and principals are left hanging. … They need more than three to four years to institutionalize [reforms].”
A lot has happened since Tisch took over the helm at the Board of Regents. The state’s cap on the number of charter schools has been doubled, teacher evaluations have been overhauled to give more weight to test scores and student performance, and the state as a whole has been embroiled in the Obama administration’s game-changing Race to the Top grant competition.
Through it all, Tisch—a former first-grade teacher and a member of one of the city’s wealthiest families—says she has done her best to manage the egos and powerful interests that frequently treat state education policy as a full-contact sport. She has earned praise from educators and advocates for helping to transform the State Education Department, mainly through the hiring of David Steiner as commissioner, into a more aggressive agency. She has also been criticized for hewing too close to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s charter-school-friendly, union-antagonizing agenda.
“She’s supportive of them, I think that’s her role,” said Diane Ravitch, an education historian and Bloomberg foe. “She’s certainly not a critic.”
Tisch now has her sights set on improving state assessments, establishing a statewide curriculum and busting the monopoly of teacher colleges on training. But the state’s seemingly never-ending budget woes threaten to derail the entire process.
At a recent Regents meeting, Tisch noted that without additional money from the state, the State Education Department would have to roll back some of its tests. The board already has voted to eliminate fifth- and eighth-grade social studies exams, as well as component retesting for high school math and English exams.
“She fights very hard for resources that’s needed,” said Randi Weingarten, president of the national teachers union, who has not always seen eye-to-eye with Tisch’s efforts to change state policy to appease the Obama administration. “She’s trying to change the state Board of Regents to be more responsive to school districts. At the same time, I think it’s a very difficult job that she inherited, and a very difficult financial situation.”
Tisch’s efforts to improve state assessments will likely put her on a collision course with Joel Klein’s mission to raise graduation rates by several points every year. The city’s Department of Education has said it approves of the state’s desire to raise standards, even as they are likely to herald a drop in graduation rates.
“That’s not easy to do, because a lot of people are going to be unhappy about it,” said Sy Fliegel, president of the Center for Educational Innovation-Public Education Association. “If you keep raising the passing grade, you can bet next year there’s going to be a drop.”
After the state’s embarrassing showing in the first round of Race to the Top, many in the education world are feeling much more confident about the chances in round two. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said 10 to 15 states could win in the second round. The finalist will be announced in late July, and the winners in September.
But with many states competing just as hard as New York, and the federal government blasting the state’s first application for superfluous request like new desk chairs, Tisch said much of her reform agenda still hangs in the balance. Without the estimated $700 million from the grant competition, she doubts the state can afford to implement the rest of her reforms.
“The truth of the matter is, there is very little free money in the system right now,” Tisch said. “It would be unrealistic for us to say that we’re going to be able to find money in the system to do this work.”
In the coming months, Tisch said she wants to take up her pet issue—alternative certification, which would allow organizations like Teach for America to train and certify teachers, rather than restricting such programs to teacher colleges and universities. In 2005, she wrote her doctoral thesis on the subject (she went back to school later in life to add to her credentials).
The plan is another key component of the Race to the Top reforms, she said, and not intended to replace the quality education that goes on at teacher colleges across the state.
“We are not doing this to undercut these colleges, rather to enhance the profession as a whole,” she said.
In public, Tisch often defers most of the attention to Steiner, playing the role of his biggest booster before audiences of educators and business leaders alike. But privately, those who have worked with her say she is fiercely defensive about making sure the Board of Regents gets credit for what is accomplished. Tisch says that in the past the Regents have been forgotten, ignored or, as it was during the Pataki administration, targeted for elimination.
There was a feeling among some board members of lacking in direction during previous years. “Dying on the vine” as one described it, while another said it was “the same old tired game.” But with Tisch on board, many have reported feeling a new vivacity.
For Tisch, resurrecting the Regents was one of the reasons she feels she was appointed chancellor in the first place.
“That’s my role as a leader,” Tisch said. “They could have gone to someone else.”
