Home»Who's to blame for Nevada's Race to the Top failure?
Who's to blame for Nevada's Race to the Top failure?
Page Last Updated: Wednesday July 28, 2010 6:50pm PDT
It wasn’t really a surprise. Nevadans are hardened to hearing bad news about their schools. But the state’s failure to advance into the second round of finalists for Race to the Top federal grants is still a tough pill to swallow.
Fingers are being pointed in all directions by all parties concerned. Who should take the rap for the latest fiasco involving education in the Silver State?
By all accounts we weren’t even close. The 19 finalists for the second round include neighboring California and Arizona.
The day after Nevada’s rejection came the blame game. At an education rally for Harry Reid, Governor Gibbons was assigned the onus of guilt and there were some unkind words for Sharron Angle as well.
A gubernatorial spokesperson threw the blame back on Reid, saying the majority leader squandered his influence and responsibility. The executive branch also blasted state legislators and the teachers union.
Said director of the Greenspun Family Foundation and former CCSD superintendent Dr. Brian Cram, “If you look at the bottom line, do we support education? The answer is not very well, financially.”
“I can’t get into the mind of the committee, but I can tell you what they probably analyzed was what kind of progress Nevada has made toward accountability for schools. I suspect they didn’t feel like Nevada has made adequate progress in that area.”
Not participating in the first round of grants cost the state what could have been valuable feedback and legislation grading. Nevada Teachers on Student Performance only made it through the legislature in a watered-down version.
“The committee wanted to fund programs that showed clear intent to hold teachers accountable for results with their classroom,” Cram said.
But Dr. Cram, a Reid supporter, says there’s across the board blame for one group in particular.
“A lot of politicians advocate for education, say it’s important – children ought to have quality schools. I think they actually believe that but I think they have to follow up by putting their money where their mouth is.”
With gubernatorial candidates Brian Sandoval and Rory Reid both vowing not to introduce new taxes, that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon.
News 3 spoke with U.S. Senate candidate Sharron Angle today as well. She places the blame for Nevada’s failure on Harry Reid. Angle also questions the validity of federal grants for education, saying Nevada should be wary of accepting education funds that come with strings attached.
COMMENTS
This is by far the worst education quality here. You go to schools and they got classroom sizes of tons of students and 1 teacher, studensts are ask to use the internet rather than have their own books and materials, and inadequate portable classrooms while casinos, administrators are worrying and profits and budgeting. Another reason to leave!
@Surviving.
When I attended The University of Texas at Austin there were Freshman English Courses with 300 plus students for ONE class. So big they had other rooms with multiple TV's to watch the one instructor with an army of TA's running around. Although we all like the 35-1 student to teacher ratio, it is the student who must have the drive to excel. University Professors are not there to hold the students hand and kindly walk the student through the curriculum. If you can't run with the big dogs, stay on the porch. Also, if you don't like Las Vegas, then leave.
Robert M. Hey, did you have to walk there with no shoes in the snow... uphill both ways? Did they flog you with a cat-o-nine-tails for any scores under 90? I heard they even made you write your own text books.
Just kiddin....
Seeing how its an federal grant, the blame goes to Harry Reid, since he is placing blame on others. But, I feel it rest with the States Education Secretary, it is her job to monitor and implement educational programs for the state and rally school district to make improvements that would have qualified Nevada for the "Race to The Top" grant. I also blame the school district because they should of investigated and done some research on the program and rallied the teachers to achieve the requirement need to qualify for the program. But, most districts in the state were battling educators on pay and benefit cuts. There is plenty of blame to go around, face it they all screwed up.
There has been a great deal of political finger pointing, much of it is misleading. Nevada came to the table of Race to the Top, already in bad standing with the Federal government. What did you expect?
What bothers me is the continued dependance on Federal monies to keep the State of Nevada afloat. So maybe Senator Reid was doing the right thing.
The one greatest sustainable tax revenue from Nevada's Brothel Industry, was turned down by the Nevada Legislature and now we all are touched by the terrible CUTS in their efforts to balance the budget. Money is green.The media refuses to address this. What is the problem?
You cannot balance education's budget on the backs of the teachers.Teachers can't hand pick their classes, nor can force parents to practice flash cards,check homework, or play educational games with their children. Many students come to school with vision, dental,& medical needs,hunger, and emotional stress. And now teacher evals and pay are linked to test scores!
First, let me say, I ama teacher. In a perfect world we certainly could judge teachers by their students' performance. Unfortunately this is not a perfect world. We test children who speak other languages and are not allowed to take tests in their own language. We test children with various disabilities. We test children that come from disfunctional families, are homeless or have other extenuating circumstances. We test children that have no support from parents. We test children that are just having a bad day or are little slower than others. Are these excuses for poor teacher performance? NO! these are hard realitites. We as teachers do our very best to help every child be the best they can be and yet the reality of it is, some kids fail. Is it fair to judge a teacher by student test scores? No and if the governemnt continues to add these kind of demands I can almost guarantee that there will be many more cases of cheating to get ahead like the one we have seen this week.
cont. We(teachers) are regularly observed in the classroom by administrators. We are held accountable for everything we do in that classroom. We continually go overboard to provide good lessons, a safe place to learn, school supplies that parents should have sent in, and pretty much pay for our own training, continuing professional development and licenses. We honestly, do not need to be judged by student test scores when we are constanly judged by administrators, parents,and our peers.
cont. We(teachers) are regularly observed in the classroom by administrators. We are held accountable for everything we do in that classroom. We continually go overboard to provide good lessons, a safe place to learn, school supplies that parents should have sent in, and pretty much pay for our own training, continuing professional development and licenses. We honestly, do not need to be judged by student test scores when we are constanly judged by administrators, parents,and our peers.
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PAULETTE S.
July 28, 2010 6:10pm PDT
Mark as Offensive
Nevada has the lowest graduation rate of any state. The quality of education in Clark County equals the quality of parents who live here. Education has never been and never will be first with any political agenda in Nevada, and politicians and gaming run the State and choose what is important. If you want to know why Nevada is not even in the running....look in the mirror.