After receiving a scolding from Education Secretary Arne Duncan in June, the Golden State has responded by changing the way that it tracks student achievement and teacher performance so that it can run in the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition.
Yesterday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill to delete a provision in the Education Code that prevents student academic data from being used to evaluate teachers for employment purposes. He also signed legislation that allows the state's data system to track students' academic progress as well as their overall proficiency.
The U.S. Education Department has been pushing states to create better data systems and link student achievement with teacher performance to improve education.
"Hopefully some day we can track kids from preschool to high school and from high school to college and college to career," Duncan said in a June talk at the annual conference of the Institute of Education Sciences. "Hopefully we can track good kids to good teachers and good teachers to good colleges of education."
In June, Duncan singled California out and said the state needed to eliminate its "firewall" between student and teacher data. On Aug. 20, Schwarzenegger called the Legislature into a special session to address issues, including data systems, that prevent the state from being eligible for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, particularly Race to the Top.
With the passing of the student data legislation, states will be able to determine whether schools and districts meet annual growth targets by measuring the progress of cohorts of children as they go through school instead of measuring how students at each grade level did year over year.
Another bill that the governor signed yesterday will allow more districts to participate in the public school district choice program so that parents will have more options when they're deciding what schools work best for their children.
“These bills represent an important first step in bringing California’s students and schools closer to billions of much-needed federal funding," Schwarzenegger said, "but our work in Race to the Top education reform is not done. I urge the Legislature to act quickly to pass the other education reforms I proposed to improve our education system and ensure California is competitive for Race to the Top education funding for our schools.”
Legislators are still working on other aspects of the governor's package, which includes repealing the state's charter school cap, turning around low-performing schools and rewarding teachers who improve student achievement.
