Re: Test Score Bounty Payments as Campaign Tool

[Free2teach1@aol.com]

Another cool $20 mil for the good citizens of  Ohio aka Diebold's new back-up 
system
 
Cincinnati schools to share federal grant
THE ENQUIRER 
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced in Cincinnati today  
that four Ohio school districts, including Cincinnati Public Schools, will 
share  a $20 million grant to improve teaching and learning. 
The grant is supposed to go toward financial incentives for schools and  
teachers that raise achievement in high-poverty districts. 
Spellings made the announcement during a visit she made to the Zoo Academy, a 
 Cincinnati Public School on the grounds of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical  
Garden. 
An official press conference on the grant award is scheduled for  this 
afternoon in Columbus.

The amount of money going to the Ohio  districts - the others are Cleveland, 
Toledo and Columbus - was not  available.
_http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061023/NEWS01/310230026
_ 
(http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061023/NEWS01/310230026) 
 
In case  anyone thought there was not a political agenda behind 
high-stakes  testing

MONEY FLOWS INTO TEACHER BONUS PROGRAM
Associated Press --  October 22, 2006
by Ben Feller

In the closing weeks of the fall  campaign, the Bush administration is 
handing out money for teachers who  raise student test scores, the first 
federal effort to reward classroom  performance with bonuses.

The 16 grants total $42 million and cover many  states. The government 
has announced only the first grants, $5.5 million for  Ohio, where 
Education Secretary Margaret Spellings was making the  presentation Monday.

The department will release the remaining grants in  the coming weeks, 
falling right before the Nov. 7 elections in which a  reeling Republican 
Party is eager for good news.





Judy  Rabin

Given the existence of an idealized vision of the community,  movements of 
protest are likely to occur within the political nation when the  discrepancy 
between the image and the reality comes to seem intolerably  wide.

--   J.H. Elliott