If we could take politics out of the schools, new teachers and students could move forward. Teachers who have been in the system for years wouldn't have time to bully new teachers or teachers they don't like. Don't be a dedicated hard-working teacher who plays by the rules. That is a sure bet for termination. A principal could be threatened. Dirty little secrets might get out!

I disagree with your comments. It is about time more people stood up to the Maryland State Department of Education. They are constantly coming up with UNFUNDED mandates for the local jurisdictions and the counties are stuck paying the tab even if they don't need or want something. An example is All Day Kindergarten which has cost local systems millions of dollars and not necessary for all kids. This money only benefits a few counties. Harford County is getting practically nothing and most of the counties in the state aren't either.

The biggest bully here is the federal government which is forcing states to make all kinds of questionable changes to get a shot at the Race to the Bottom cash.

The real bullies here are MSDE and the Obama administration who, instead of working with the systems they have identified as the neediest in the country are trying to force every system to make changes they don't need or want. It is ridiculous to make my county, Frederick, spend more money than we will ever see to meet the bureaucratic demands of MSDE and Washington with our own resources. Frederick would get about $500,000 a year to implement changes that will cost far more than that and will divert us from focusing on what we know we need to do to improve our schools. One size fits all changes never work. The real bullies are in Baltimore and Washington, not Montgomery County.

If the biggest bully in the school yard is the federal government, his side kick is MSDE. The Constitution leaves education to the state. MSDE is selling out that right for a few bucks... for one year?

Thank goodness for Montgomery and Frederick County Boards of Education and Superintendents not allowing themselves to be bullied by Dr. Grasmick. We just wish more counties would have taken a stand against this so called reform. Montgomery County just won a national award for the quality of their teaching force. Two out of 6 items on their evaluation are tied to student performance. They already have many of the initiatives built into their PAR program so leave them alone. Why is MSDE trying to make them fit the cookie cutter plan they outlined in their RTTT application? Allow others to use Montgomery County's PAR program and other best practices from across the state to improve teaching and student performance instead of once again throwing everything out to jump through the federal RTTT hoops. If it's about getting money to Baltimore City and Prince George's County, let them have the money so they can teach the most challenging population we have. How can the US Secretary of Education have on his website the new FIRST program happening in Prince George's County and tout it's success while at the same time MSDE is threatening to dismantle their system for the one they dreamed up. Many of our school systems are already trying new reform initiatives, but because it doesn't look like Nancy's then they are seen as obstructionists.
It would be great if more local boards had the backbone that Frederick County and Montgomery County have on this issue.

I absolutely agree and give kudos to these Districts for having the guts to stand up for their teachers and know that these $$'s are just another gimmick. We work too hard as teachers to have decisions made by people who have never been in a clasroom. We are so underpaid as it it.

The recent revelations about the cheating scandal at George Washington Elementary School should show us the dangers of evaluation systems which make teachers responsible for the low scores of students, when those low scores are the result of factors which teachers do not control. At GWES, the motivation for cheating was only a desire to receive undeserved accolades. Imagine how much greater that temptation will be when continued employment for all teachers is at stake!

The new state-mandated evaluation system is flawed, not only in that it is sure to generate even more ingenious schemes for cheating, but also because it offers no guarantee of equity between teachers or across the state. Test scores which might draw praise in one part of the state might well be a cause for termination of a teacher’s employment in another. Furthermore, cheating injures the honest by creating higher expectations than honest efforts can achieve.

Montgomery County and Frederick County, aware of these and other weaknesses of the state’s new Race To The Top mandates, were absolutely right to decline to support a draconian new regime in which test scores are king, It is not they who created the rule that Baltimore City and Prince Georges County could not benefit unless everyone got on board. In fact, it is not even clear that such is the rule.

Montgomery County has created a Professional Growth System for teachers which is a model for the nation. What is more, it did so in collaboration with the local teachers’organization. In contrast, the state evaluation system was unilaterally developed by the Maryland State Department of Education, with little if any collaboration with the Maryland State Education Association. Suggestions made by that organization for improving objectionable provisions were received but not adopted by those crafting Maryland’s application. This probably explains why not one MSEA affiliate signed on to the state’s application.

In fact, only a few days before the Maryland State Board of Education was to act on the RTTT application, a provision was added to bestow upon every principal in the state, regardless of collective bargaining provisions or the wishes of the local boards of education, the right unilaterally to remove five teachers per year from their schools on the unsubstantiated allegation that such teachers were “disruptive.” Endowing principals with such arbitrary and capricious power can only have a chilling effect, intimidating teachers rather than maintaining an open, professional and collaborative atmosphere. What teacher will dare disagree with a principal who sees alternative suggestions as “disruptive”? And which of the ‘best and the brightest” will be attracted to teaching under such an authoritarian regime?

Montgomery County and Frederick County should be praised for refusing to endorse this approach.

A race to the top of what? Test scores? That equals a race to the bottom in creative thinking and ingenuity.

Well, look at Diane Ravitich's comments detailed in this very blog:http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/education/blog/2010/05/diane_ravitch_one_of_americas.htmlPunishing schools based on test scores is not the answer to saving communities.

Way to go Montgomery Co.