Race to the Top Money: Are Professionals Eating the Pie While Students Get the Crumbs?

Boys & Girls High School Principal Bernard Gassaway raised a few eyebrows earlier this year when he decided to turn down the $3.5 - $6 million Race to the Top grant to help his failing school.

But, according to a recent New York Post report, some of his reasons for doing so are valid.

In a letter he wrote in May, Gassaway publicly turned away the federal money, arguing against a stipulation that all Race to the Top monies are spent toward the Restart Model only.

In the letter, he argued that the Restart model, versus the Turnaround Model which he preferred, would not allow him to hire the staff needed for transforming the school and would instead funnel much of the money into professional development.

Well, the City released its plan on how to spend the more than $225 million in federal Race to the Top grant money on Monday, and the document calls for paying out millions and millions of dollars towards...professional development.

Technically trained experts with titles like, "network innovation manager," and "quality control analyst" would do things such as implement program-to-policy approaches that offer "shared accountability" in helping failing students to "prepare, graduate and succeed!"

As much as $78 million will go toward staffing up networks that directly support schools – including $22.8 million dedicated to special education instruction and data analysis work, according to the report.

It's a compromise in which, through the Restart Model and under the DOE's direction, tenured teachers and staff keep their jobs; and then, experts are brought in to train them on new systems and technology, followed by extensive follow up and measurements of success. This model supports the DOE's efforts to more accurately tie teacher performance with school success.

However, some groups see holes in the overall plan.

"I see a lot of money going to figuring out how to measure things...I don't see anything in here that's for kids," UFT President Michael Mulgrew said.

For Gassaway's part, it is not so much the systems and analytics that bother him, but his inability to aggressively address staff incompetence-- in other words, fire some old staff and hire new teachers.

Boys & Girls High School has ranked as one of New York State’s lowest performing schools for the last two years, and less than half of its students graduated in 2010. In December, the city narrowly spared Boys & Girls from complete closure.

Bed-Stuy Patch reached out to Gassaway regarding any changes in his decision to use the Race to the Top money but got no answer.

"Money alone is not the answer," said Gassaway in the letter.

"I have espoused that of all the models being offered, Turnaround would give us the best chance to speed-up the reform of Boys and Girls High School. While I defend all efforts to keep Boys and Girls High School open forever, I do not defend the right of incompetent staff to remain with children indefinitely.”

However, negotiations are ongoing between UFT and the State Education Department on performance-based hiring and firing practices.

In the meantime, as outlined in the 32-page Race to the Top report, a lot of mid-level managers and their support staff will be getting a nice piece of the pie to help implement a bevy of programmatic practices that will in turn develop the administrators, staff and teachers who will then reform the classroom models that will ultimately...help failing students.