Latest Blog Posts

Obama vs. That Darn Constitution

January 29, 2010 at 12:38 pm

The Obama administration may need a bit of a refresher on the U.S. Constitution. In a peculiar move, the administration has announced that its "incentive-based" education reform strategy is now going to extend to its dealings with Congress. If Congress behaves and reauthorizes No Child Left Behind this year (a feat that seems highly unlikely at this point) and does so "consistent with the president's plan," the administration announced this week that it is going to make an extra $1 billion available for edu-spending.

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You Call This Transparency?

January 28, 2010 at 4:34 pm

Yesterday, on a press conference call, Education Secretary Arne Duncan made the following statement about the $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTT) program and transparency: "Our new competitive grant programs like Race to the Top and the Investing in Innovation fund include greater transparency than ever before including publishing winning and losing applications, reviewer comments, and applicant's presentations." (Thanks to Eliza Krigman of the National Journal for the quotation.) I've been asked, in light of the questions I've raised earlier this week (here, here, and here), about the department's process, and whether this means I'm satisfied and/or abashed. The answer is "neither."

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Much to Like in Obama's Education Themes

January 28, 2010 at 2:09 pm

Like my colleague Checker Finn, I think there's much to like in the themes of the president's education remarks in last night's State of the Union address. As Finn characterizes the president's immensely broad themes: "Use federal education dollars to reward success, not failure; apply [Education Secretary] Arne Duncan's "race to the top" reform priorities to the mega-bucks Elementary/Secondary Education Act; and keep a 'competitive' element in this rather than simply distributing dollars via formula." All of this reflects admirable intentions, but, like much else the president listed, it's much more difficult to do than to say.

For me, there were, however, two discordant notes and one surprising development in the SOTU.

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It Depends on What the Meaning of 'Transparency' Is

January 27, 2010 at 8:57 pm

Yesterday, on his Eduwonk blog, Andy Rotherham weighed in on the brewing controversy I've discussed here and here over the Race to the Top (RTT) review process. As usual, he offers a thoughtful assessment of the pros and cons of Education Secretary Arne Duncan's decision to keep secret the identities of the judges in the $4.35 billion grant competition until after winners are announced, and of Duncan's decision to release minimal detail about how the reviewers were chosen or the substance of the instructions they have received.

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'Unprecedented Levels of Transparency'? Not So Far

January 26, 2010 at 11:40 am

Here's an update on yesterday's post regarding Education Secretary Arne Duncan's desire to keep under lock and key the names of the judges reviewing state applications for his signature $4.35 billion Race to the Top (RTT) program. Following on the president's 2009 pledge that stimulus spending would be accompanied by an "unprecedented level of openness" and carried out with particular attention to transparency, Duncan personally promised in a blog post yesterday afternoon that the department had "enhanced" the "discretionary grant process to ensure maximum integrity and transparency" in the RTT process. Yet, he also repeated his insistence that the names of the judges would not be publicly released until after the cake is baked and the winners are announced in April—when it might be just a wee bit late for concerns about the judges or the process to be addressed.

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Books by Frederick M. Hess