Kevin Huffman in the Washington Post (hat tip: Schoolfinance101) has this to say on NJ’s RTTT application:

While the bumblers have made headlines, the heart of the administration’s education agenda lies in the distinction between real and sham reform. Take New Jersey’s Race to the Top application. The Garden State promises it will adopt new standards for students, change its data systems, provide teachers with computers for to-be-determined activities and convene a commission to devise a new teacher evaluation system.

But beyond all the promises, predicated on various commissions and boards miraculously completing complex political activities, there is little chance of reform trickling down to schools. The state asked school districts to sign on, but it gave them the option of signing on only to the pieces they liked. As a result, school district commitments to enact reform are a hodgepodge of assorted activities.

I’m picking on New Jersey not because it has the worst plan (it doesn’t) but because it so perfectly embodies the old way of applying for federal education funding — lots of promises and ideas; little chance of change on the ground.

Huffman’s criticism is fair. Our RTTT plan is earnest and well-intentioned, an essence of vapid milquetoast that’s heavy on the buzzwords and tepid on substantive change. This is in large part because the reforms itemized in our application rely on the monolithic DOE for implementation of everything from professional development to internal data assessments. It’s trickle-down reform, which has its place, but not without strong implementation prospects on the ground. Admit it: everyone you know is rolling their eyes before we even hit the track. Sure, we’ll cheer for charter schools, as long as we all agree that 11,000 kids on waiting lists is acceptable. We’ll wear the colors of interdistrict school choice, as long as we establish that the program is at capacity, with no plans for growth. With dignified demeanor, we’ll stand silent as only 20 out of 591 local leaders of NJEA express support for federal education aid while 571 turn their backs.

Our triumph in completing the RTTT application is that we made sham reform look respectable.