In the inbox

The Baltimore Sun said this in their thursday editorial:

Maryland hasn't even taken up some of the more sweeping reforms that other states already have adopted, such as creating greater opportunities for charter schools or alternative certification for teachers. But the Montgomery County school district and several local unions are balking at even the relatively modest changes — particularly, tying teacher evaluations to student test scores — that the General Assembly approved this year.

To which I had a reply in my inbox:

A modest change??? That would change everything, IMHO.

Let there be no doubt, as far as institutional change goes, what the state of Maryland is asking of localities is substantial. But I remember reading somewhere, or maybe I was talking about it with some collleagues, that perhaps what MCPS really has up its sleave is its own RttT application, which would likely come about in a sort of 3rd round of applications.

Maybe the key statement is later down in the Sun editorial:

Montgomery County may turn up its nose at the new standards, believing that its system is better than anything the state could possibly come up with, but what it's objecting to really amounts to ceding control over 30 percent of the evaluation.

I've never been much of a power guy; but I suppose this could be the issue. It'd be a lot easier if we made decisions based on the best ideas. But I suppose that's the same reason why I blog about evaluation instead of making decisions about it.