Race to the top: policy effects and educational outcomes

Race to the Top is a $4.35 billion dollar school reform initiative by President Obama. The new initiative has multiple goals. Its purpose is to design and implement high standards and assessments through common academic standards, to attract high quality teachers and to retain effective instructors, and to revise the processes for evaluating, retaining and paying highly qualified teachers. It also seeks to implement statewide data systems so that data can be used to drive instruction, to find effective approaches to help struggling schools, and to promote innovational education reform (Office of the Press Secretary, 2009). Dozens of states have already submitted applications to compete for these available funds.

Despite the program's seeming popularity, many individuals and associations have expressed reservations about the stipulations that are attached to Race to the Top (RTTT) funds. Three elements in particular are causing a great deal of concern. First, teacher's unions are actively campaigning against RTTT because the program suggests tying teacher pay to student test scores and replacing teachers who serve in underperforming schools. Secondly, many parents and educators are deeply concerned about the fact that in the push for higher test scores, teachers have been forced to use drill and kill, teach-to-the-test methods. The emphasis on test scores has taken priority over authentic learning and has placed a tremendous amount of pressure on both students and teachers. Educators and caregivers are worried that this trend will only worsen under Race to the Top. Finally, instructors and lawmakers are concerned about the possibility that by accepting RTTT funds, district and states will cede the right to make educational decisions regarding standards, assessments and teacher evaluations to the federal government.

Teacher's unions are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the Obama administration's new education initiative. The program requires schools to evaluate teachers and principals according to student growth data (Barkley, 2010). In theory, this would give the federal government the ability to distinguish between more and less effective teachers (Dillon, 2009) and would allow them to fire and replace teachers whose students routinely score low on standardized tests. However, the initiative fails to take into consideration those schools who serve students from low income homes or students who have limited English vocabularies. Despite the best intentions and hard work of the teacher, these students invariably score lower than their middle or upper class English speaking counterparts. Tying test scores to teacher performance could have the unintended effect of driving teachers away from lower-income school districts where they are desperately needed (Riggs, 2010) and towards highly performing schools. Riggs (2010) suggests that this system "encourages elitism in American public education, which is a direct attack on the fundamental American value of equality." In the long-term, the concept of attaching teacher retention and pay to student test scores is detrimental to student learning. By penalizing teachers whose students are not successful on standardized tests, the program encourages teachers to seek out affluent, higher-achieving schools where their possibilities of success are higher.

Another concern raised by teachers is the fact that RTTT places even more emphasis upon standardized test scores than No Child Left Behind did. Many educators are deeply concerned about the fact that in the push to raise test scores, rote memorization has taken the place of authentic learning. They are worried that this trend will only increase under Race to the Top. For example, Barbara Keshishian is the President of the New Jersey Education Association. On January 6, 2010 she released a statement explaining New Jersey's concern with RTTT.

We have already learned from 'No Child Left Behind' that a singular focus on standardized tests requires teachers and students to spend far too much time on test preparation, robbing them of opportunities to focus on critical thinking skills and non-tested subjects. By requiring all students to be tested every year in even more subjects, teaching to the test will become the sole focus in our classrooms.

Riggs (2010) states that these changes "run counter to sound educational practice and undermine fundamental American values" because the emphasis upon standardized testing does not consider the fact that students are individuals from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and these students all have strengths and weaknesses that cannot be measured by a one-size-fits-all approach. Standardized tests are only able to measure correct multiple choice answers. They cannot measure a child's creativity, their ability to problem solve, or their ability to critically evaluate information.

The culture of achievement that has accompanied the push for higher test scores has had severe physical and psychological effects on students. Taylor (2010) claims that academic stress is the greatest source of stress faced by school-aged children. He notes that many high school and college students have turned to performance-enhancing drugs such as Adderall and Ritalin to help them concentrate. Finally, he claims that teen suicide rates have risen drastically in recent years, particularly among girls. In summary, the ever-increasing push for higher test scores has created an academic culture where stressed out students and frustrated teachers are the norm, and where very little authentic learning actually takes place. Race to the Top's push for even higher test scores may only exacerbate this already toxic situation.