Race to the Top: Innovation or Repurposing More of the Same?

This recent NY Times article examines how states are positioning themselves from an education policy and programmatic perspective to gain an edge in the new administrations "Race to the Top" fund worth about $4 billion cumulatively. One of the requirements of the grant proposal is for each state to get acceptance from all stakeholders (education unions and school boards) on the issue of tying teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests. Another requirement is for each state competing for Race to the Top funds to buy into the national educational standards movement and accept the forthcoming federal curriculum standards as their benchmark for student learning in their state, effectively eliminating their own curriculum standards. I wonder if either of these policy changes at the state levels actually offers any innovation. It is my belief that most school leaders evaluate their faculty at least partly on student performance. In addition, changing student learning benchmarks from state to national sounds like just more of the same. For $4 billion dollars, I would hope that we could buy some serious innovation and reform that engages the best minds in education with the best and brightest in technology to come up with innovative tools and resources that help us teach and assess the best ways we know how. What are your thoughts on this important topic?