Georgia District refuses RTTT money

[Hannah Bell]

This is from WaPo:

By Valerie Strauss

In Ohio, which won $400 million in the Race sweepstakes, more than two dozen districts and public charter schools say they think it will cost them more than they will get from the federal government to implement the required reforms, according to Sean Cavanagh at www.edweek.com. And then there is the Jones County School District near Macon, Ga., headed by Superintendent Bill Mathews.

Mathews has decided not to accept $1.3 million in Race to the Top money -- the district’s share of Georgia’s $400 million pot -- for reasons including his refusal to implement a value-added assessment system for teachers, based on student standardized test scores. (The county had signed up for the money before Mathews became superintendent last year.)

Mathews was quoted in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the research doesn't bear out the effectiveness of these systems, and that implementing one would be too expensive. He said that educating children in the county’s public schools is a team effort by all of the adults in the building, and that singling out the teachers in this way would be wrong.

“My philosophy has always been that from the front door to the back door, from the secretary to the lunchroom worker, is responsible for the student achievement of every child,” Mathews was quoted as saying. “We set our goals and if we meet our goals, we all celebrate.”

http://www.schoolsmatter.info/2010/11/novembers-education-hero-superintendent.html

[Reader Rabbit]

1. Wow. That's an impressive stand for a Superintendent.

So many of them are go-along, get-along that you don't see that kind of backbone very often.

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Sounds like a smart superintendent

There are way too many strings attached to that money.