While President Barack Obama’s long list of historic achievements is up for partisan debate, one thing is for certain: he has failed to fix our broken education system in an effective way and his administration has been side-tracked from promoting realistic reforms.

Our schools are in crisis. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the research arm of the U.S. Department of Education, students are ranked 23rd out of 50 developed countries for proficiency in math and science. While these numbers are startling enough to cause panic, they reinforce the sad fact that while every president since before John F. Kennedy has promised to fix our schools, few have been consistently successful.

Now comes the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program, a $4.35 billion initiative funded by last year’s stimulus package. While ambitious in its desire to promote reform, we believe it is punitive in action. This “race” faces a bumpy road itself as it fails to address the complexity of education reform and the reality that a one-size-fits-all approach does not fit all. While we applaud the Obama administration’s efforts at starting a national dialogue about education reform, we criticize several of its factors. First, it is problematic and unfruitful to set RTTT up as a competitive application with a top down approach that has a narrow set of unproven criteria. We are also greatly discomforted that RTTT creates inequality among states by rewarding those that may not necessarily need grants and shunning those others who are in desperate need of them, giving rise to a system of haves and have nots. This is counterintuitive to the approach that all schools should be equipped with the full resources they need to support their students.  Finally, the competitive process has wasted valuable resources and time that could have been devoted to actually educate students.

According to the U.S. Department of Education (www.ed.gov), RTTT aims to improve overall school performance benchmark measurements, reward effective teachers and turn around low-performing schools. While these methods, though controversial, may improve some schools, it is the obstacles the Obama administration has built into these reforms that are a cause of concern, as the RTTT is designed as a contest where states are pitted against one another to compete for federal stimulus funds.

To qualify for funds, a state must meet certain benchmarks and win points, which are judged on RTTT’s rubric. States that earn scores closest to 500 win the race and as a result, the most funds.  The problem lies with funding schools through an unscientific model that relies on a few factors, one of which has scant research promoting its effectiveness: that tying teacher performance solely to student test scores encourages reform. Devotion to test scores not only stifles progress but forces schools into a cookie-cutter educational approach with policies that have had limited success in diverse communities. This discourages real change. Students learn, and display their learning, differently. We strongly disagree with this pass-or-fail premise and are aghast that the Obama administration has chosen to recycle the same failed education policies of over-testing since the trend began three decades ago that prevents students from learning effectively.

The RTTT program’s one-size-fits-all approach disregards the performance of individual school communities and ignores schools with strong programs that do not fit within their narrow definitions. For example, officials cannot compare the high test scores of Lowell with another school without taking into account the various socio-economic factors that contribute to each school’s performance. The same goes with comparing states that have different education policies.  For example, Delaware and Tennessee, two first round winners, have strong centralized state governments determined to follow the RTTT’s strict guidelines. Contrast that with California; with its myriad school districts, each following their own policies and performances, but being expected to embrace a limited package of questionable education models. Instead, all schools which implement proven reforms that fulfill their community’s needs should be fully funded. The Obama administration is foolish for turning a deaf ear to each states’ unique situation.

Though this forced change is problematic to schools, states are grappling with history-making budget deficits and are desperate to avoid layoffs and closures; they will enter any race. The Obama administration dangling billions in federal funds is like dangling a carcass to a cage of ravenous lions; threatening states to accept reforms or be shut out of funds is counterproductive and wastes valuable resources, especially for those who, despite redesigning their educational programs, fail to make the cut. With resources in short supply, we believe that federal funds should have been directed to strengthen current school-based improvement efforts. The ideal would be a comprehensive national education program for all schools, not piecemeal or incremental reform.

All public schools should be funded to achieve excellence but RTTT divides and conquers. The competitive grants did not necessarily go to the schools most in need. Uneven funding of public education does little to alleviate our woes, as our education crisis is a national problem. If one state fails, then we all fail. While we support the idea that states should be rewarded for gains in education, in these economic times the Obama administration must divert resources to all struggling public schools and not cherry pick those who satisfy their “points.”

Our concerns are lost while all the politicians, unions and interest groups debate how to achieve our future through education reform. Our student voices have been absent from the national dialogue as our schools continue to deteriorate. An approach that incorporates student ideas is the best policy prescription anyone from Washington, D.C. could develop.

As a former community organizer, President Obama should know that real change happens from the bottom up, not in a “Race to the Top-down.” Test scores and arcane rubrics should not dictate education policy. School communities should be at the forefront at providing leadership and implementing reform, for the best interests of students. Race To The Top, unfortunately, does not.

This article first appeared in the October 8, 2010 issue of The Lowell.