An Obama administration official has strongly hinted to New York state that it won’t be getting any of the $5 billion in discretionary stimulus funding unless it does something about the law, supported by the state’s teachers’ unions, that prevents student test scores from being a part of tenure or other personnel decisions, reports Maura Walz at Gotham Schools (We regret the error.)
In other states, this dough is becoming quite a tantalizing carrot for states and districts who are eager to qualify for Race to the Top and Innovation funds. We’re seeing some significant state action on raising charter school caps, for instance. Will the prohibition on linked student-teacher data (just don’t call it a firewall) be next?
Also read this story from the NEA Representative Assembly, in which Dennis Van Roekel said he wants to get some clarification on the purpose of these data systems...