How Will Rick Perry Take Credit for This?

Posted by JHW22

I admit that I COULD go searching for any statement by Governor Rick Perry regarding this amazing news and accomplishement and act of socialism, but I won't. Instead I will share some GOOD education news from the state of Texas. It's nice to have something nice to say about this state.

September 23, 2010 - The Austin Independent School District today was notified by the U.S. Department of Education that it was one of the 62 winning applicants of the $442 million Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant competition. The District received $62.3 million—the largest grant awarded in the nation—in order to expand the strategic compensation program, called AISD REACH, for the next five years. The announcement was made by U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

“This grant will accelerate our work to better recruit, develop, and reward high quality teachers and campus leaders, particularly at our high-needs schools in Austin. These critical resources will allow us to further refine and reinforce our support for outstanding teaching in our schools,” said AISD Superintendent Meria Carstarphen.

According to the US Department of Education:

Applicant Name: Austin Independent School District

PR/Award #: S385A010111

State: TX

5-Year Amount: $62,324,746

The Austin Independent School District (AISD) is applying for a federal Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grant in order to expand its strategic compensation initiative, AISD REACH. This program, which has been piloted for the past three years, is aimed at recruiting, developing, and retaining high quality teachers and administrators in Austin, particularly at the district's high-needs schools. The theory of action behind AISD REACH is that incentive programs in education must couple supports and rewards to accelerate academic improvement. To this end, REACH rewards gains in student achievement at the campus, team, and individual teacher levels. Additionally, REACH provides full-time mentors to novice teachers who are most at risk of attrition. Mentoring also represents one of several leadership pathways in REACH that allows accomplished teachers to remain in the profession supporting the growth of their colleagues. The third component of REACH is targeted professional development in which teams of teachers collaborate to address a data-driven need on their campus, monitor the impact of their work, and present the results of their efforts to a juried panel of their peers. Finally, REACH targets incentives for teachers and administrators who choose to work in the district's most challenging campuses. Taken together, AISD believes that this program, which has already yielded positive results, builds the capacity of Austin educators to better serve students, empowers them to support the growth of their colleagues, and challenges them to reach rigorous performance goals aligned to the district's goal of preparing all students to be college and career ready. AISD's TIF proposal is specifically aimed at expanding AISD REACH, currently implemented at 15 schools, to include all schools in East Austin, an area composed of 33 high-needs schools, where staff attrition rates and academic underperformance have been historically high. Finally, AISD's TIF proposal has been developed in collaboration with teachers, administrators, the teachers' union, and the business community. To this end, this proposal is supported by Education Austin, the Austin Chamber of Commerce, and legislators from Austin's state and federal delegations.

I bet it KILLS Perry to know that his state is getting federal money for education -- the largest grant of all -- because he hates edumication as much as Bush did.

P.S. If you know that Perry responded to this, please do not share that info with me. I want to enjoy this and not allow that idiot to burst my bubble.

edit: P.P.S. I am cracking up!! Another ISD near Perry's stomping ground, Round Rock ISD, also received a US Department of Education grant. They are pretty much the same as Austin in geography. All right there at Perry's doorstep. Oh, goodness, I can't stop laughing. All that federal money spilling into his state. What's a crappy governor to do?