Legislative Hearings on "Race to the Top" Continue

NSEA is actively participating in hearings of the Legislative Education Committee to review the current barriers for Nevada’s application for “Race to The Top” nationwide competition and identify solutions to removing those barriers. The “Race to the Top” competition is a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

One of the requirements of the competition is that states may not have any legal, statutory, or regulatory barriers to linking student achievement to teacher evaluations. Nevada does not currently meet this requirement and, therefore, cannot currently apply for these funds. The special hearing by the Interim Committee on Education included testimony from all interested parties as to why Nevada currently does not qualify to compete and what Nevada needs to do to qualify for the competition.

The Nevada State Education Association proposed changes to state law that will adapt Nevada law to Federal Guidelines for the "Race to the Top". The proposed change adds procedures for evaluations of teachers and other employees of a school district or charter school as a mandatory subject of bargaining at the local school district level. Additionally, the proposal would remove prohibition which provides that data relating to student achievement and test scores may be considered in evaluations but not the sole criterion in evaluating the performance of a teacher, paraprofessional, or other school employee in taking disciplinary action.

The “Race to the Top” program is an initiative of President Obama through his Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. This program will provide $4.35 billion to states that meet federal guidelines and criteria. More specifically, it would provide up to $175 million for Nevada.