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In 2009, the Obama Administration created a $4.3 billion dollar grant competition for states called Race to the Top (RttT). The money, earmarked from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, was to be distributed by the Department of Education to states who were making efforts to adhere to precirculated reforms supported by Secretary Duncan, such as lifting caps on charter schools, tying teacher evaluations to test scores, and opening alternative teacher certification markets. These reforms, so the administration said, were to help the "crisis" or "failure" in public education. Critics, on the other hand, have argued that these types of reforms facilitate the neoliberal mantras of deregulation and privatization, which pose a serious threat to communitarian and democratic ideals. States that did what they were told got money, while those who didn't support the reforms were left to fend for themselves. In this paper, the author explores RttT as a type of structural adjustment policy like those supported and implemented by international financial institutions over the past 40 years. Structural adjustment policies, critical geographers argue, were pivotal in what they call the "race to the bottom"—the ways neoliberal economic policies adversely affected poor countries, laborers, and the environment. The bottom here refers to how low, in terms of repealing labor and environmental protections, countries were willing to go in exchange for foreign capital. The author argues that, however dissimilar the two policies might seem at first, both share a common ideology, language, and economic objective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With teacher shortages in both general and critical needs areas and constricting operating budgets, it is important for Colleges of Education to develop methods of providing alternative certification programs to reach larger segments of the population. One method of increasing the scope of potential preservice teachers is through the development of an online certification program. However, with such a program, a number of challenges related to effectively monitoring students' classroom teaching experiences exist. This study examined the results of a project providing interns with two forms of a technology-mediated, remote observation program with the objective of overcoming cost-related barriers to geographic dispersion of interns, while maintaining quality controls. In this paper, we will discuss the design, development, and implementation of this program. Specifically, we will compare issues related to intern satisfaction, observer satisfaction, learning effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness for both face- to-face and remote graduate intern observations. In addition, we will explore similarities and differences in two alternatives to remote observations, synchronous and asynchronous, as possible solutions for cost-effective expansion of teacher licensure programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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