Educators Anxious About Federal Funding

January 15, 2010

While local school districts wouldn’t mind getting additional federal dollars, they aren’t exactly racing to be subjected to additional federal standards.

Roughly two dozen educators gathered Thursday to talk about the Race to the Top federal grant program and other educational issues during a roundtable discussion hosted by U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert, a Hinsdale Republican.

The federal government plans to dole out $4.35 billion in stimulus money to a handful of states to reform educational standards, data systems and teacher training and boost student achievement.

Biggert, a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, said she is encouraged by the program’s focus on data systems and professional development.

However, she is concerned about a "pay for performance" model and doesn’t want to encourage teachers to structure their lesson plans around the standardized tests their stude nts will take.

Dave Griffith, president of the Naperville Unit Education Association, has heard similar concerns from teachers.

"As soon as you hear the term ‘student performance, teacher evaluation,’ people leap right away and it’s going to take awhile to reorient people’s thinking in a different way in terms of what is student performance," he said. "(They’ve given) no definition. There’s a big ‘trust me’ hanging over this."

He and others also said they already see teachers teaching to the tests used for the No Child Left Behind program. Paul Zaander, superintendent of Downers Grove Grade School District 58 said he feels there is too much focus on producing "workers of tomorrow" and boosting math and science to the detriment of areas like foreign language and art.

"We really should be looking at whole children and whole individuals," he said.

Carrie Cox from the Orland Park High School District 230 Teachers’ Association said what schools really need in order to improve education is a limit on the number of students per classroom, more community support and the money districts are already owed by the state.

Illinois will apply for at least $500 million of the federal grant money, which would be doled out to low-income and low-performing schools first.

Just over one-third of the state’s public school districts signed on to take part including Elgin Area School District U-46, Indian Prairie Unit District 204 and Glenbard Township High School District 87.

Naperville Unit District 203 rejected it amid concerns there are too many answered questions and not enough time to put together the application, which would involve reopening teacher contracts.

Jerome Brendel, superintendent of Woodridge School District 68, said many districts felt that under the current economic conditions, it would send the wrong message to the community not to apply for the money.

He said he has seen curriculum in his own schools improve over the past five years by becoming more data-driven while being held accountable by the federal government.