The administration chose Wisconsin as the site for the president's Race to the Top speech yesterday, we're told, because that state's legislature is about to get rid of its data firewall.
But did anyone read the bill in question? According to a local newspaper, while the legislation would allow student test data to be tied to teachers, that information can't be used to remove teachers from the classroom. Of course, that isn't the only reason to link teachers to student performance data, but in the most serious cases where that data reveal that student learning is being imperiled, a principal should be empowered to act.*
I've been warning that there's a big difference between changes in law and changes in practices and therefore we need to drastically scale back our excitement about all of the RTT-generated changes in state laws. For example, hostile districts may erase a charter cap lift's ability to generate new schools. Similarly, local union contracts may render a state merit pay program meaningless. And just because a state gets rid of its data firewall doesn't mean that the state will actually link teachers to students or, if it does, make use of the data that's generated. In fact, in the case of Wisconsin, a principal may actually be barred from acting on data swiftly and forcefully.
I hope the Department is wise to these important distinctions. States are bound to make the most electrifying promises in their RTT applications. It'll take some hard-nosed peer reviewers and senior Department officials to cut to the quick and figure out whether great sounding proposals will actually lead to reform.
* Thanks to Robert Pondiscio for pointing out that I was insufficiently clear on this point earlier. I appreciate his alerting me to my poor wording which came across as an intemperate tone. ??I'll do better next time.