No one is going to win this "Race to the Top".   It hurts to listen to President Obama or Education Secretary Arne Duncan talk about it.   It is wrong to set up education as a competition.  Compulsory education for everyone cannot be a race or competitive.  This sets up states, schools and children as losers. 

At first, when the replacement for No Child Left Behind was suggested as the program Race to the Top, I was under the impression it was that we, as a country, would be racing to the top of the educated countries, with our children being the most well educated.  I was wrong.  As it stands now, it is a competition between states, districts and schools to see who is going to 'win' this race, who is going to create the reform program that shows the most growth.  Not only is a competition for results; it is a competition for funding.  This is about pitting states against one another for reform dollars.  This isn't about creating the best schools for ALL children - this is about creating a competitive structures so some children get the best schools and others will not. 

Under the plan, as presented, some children get school reform that is funded by the federal government, and some children will get what they have always received - with no reform, either because their state didn't apply for funds or wasn't granted them in order to implement reforms.    Some states might still decided to reform schools, with out federal assistance, but reform costs money (the planning of reform costs money) and I don't know of too many states with extra money for the school system.  

In addition, there is little to no information about how 'success' will be measured.  States, when they apply for grants under "Race to the Top" will have to submit reforms as well as how they will create systems to verify data and track performance of students, teachers and schools.   Will high stakes testing be used?  Will it be required?  How will schools be compared?  Who is going to determine who is successful?  Is this up to the states to decide too, or are will still under the oppressive reliance on high stakes testing that still looms over us under No Child Left Behind?

Granted, it is still too early to tell.  In fact, it may always be too early to tell.  This policy or program or whatever you want to term it of "Race to the Top" isn't even a policy.  It is a lack of policy.  It almost feels like, "Gee, we don't know what to do either - lets ask THEM what THEY want to do and then give the money to the people who sound like the know what they are talking about".    Is this education reform?  

I guess, I assume that everything that is proposed and funded will consider best practice, research-based initiatives and reforms, and keep equity, achievement gaps and student performance for ALL students as essential.  I have no assurance of this - there is no mention of any of this on the ed.gov website I read today.   I just keep thinking back to those schools left in Chicago where there are continual conflicts, lack of support and resources, where the Charter Schools have left some students in non-charter schools to essentially fend for themselves.

I am not even ready to discuss  teacher pay for performance, school inequity, general school funding, and all of the other issues that are being brought up as part of school reform.  I will leave those for another day - or another week, month or year.  

What it comes down to is the competitive model for school reform is just inappropriate.  Schools shouldn't compete for students.  This isn't a free market.  ALL students need a good, quality education.  All children deserve the best schools.  Every child should have the best teachers and the best schools and education based on what works.  Setting it up as a competition will leave someone a loser, some kid with less than the best.   Which students deserve to be the losers here?  The ones whose state legislatures can't get their act together to create quality reform?  Who is making this decision? 

School reform should be collaborative.  The goal of school reform should be to bring ALL students up, to support everyone's learning.   All students, all children, deserve the best.  This should be a race where everyone wins.