Government opens competition for grants to poorest school districts, By Josh Lederman (AP), Seattle Times: “Hoping to build on state-level reforms aimed at closing the education achievement gap, the Education Department opened its Race to the Top competition to school districts on Sunday, inviting the poorest districts across the country to vie for almost $400 million in grants. Following four months of public comment on a draft proposal, the Education Department unveiled its final criteria for the district-level competition, which will award 15 to 25 grants to districts that have at least 2,000 students and 40 percent or more who qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches – a key poverty indicator…”
Tag: Race to the Top
Race to the Top Funding – Ohio
Is ‘Race to the Top’ aid at risk?, By Catherine Candisky, November 19, 2010, Columbus Dispatch: “In an effort to preserve his education plan, outgoing Gov. Ted Strickland went to Education Secretary Arne Duncan to put pressure on his successor to keep it. Strickland said yesterday that he told Duncan he fears Ohio will lose its $400 million federal Race to the Top grant if Gov.-elect John Kasich follows through on his plan to dump Strickland’s evidence-based school-funding model. ‘I asked Secretary Duncan if the (U.S.) Department of Education allowed states to change their plans’ after funds were awarded, ‘and how could it possibly be fair to other states,’ Strickland said. The governor said his evidence-based model ‘was such a vital part’ of Ohio’s plan that he questions whether the state would still qualify for the federal money…”
Race to the Top Grant Competition
9 states, DC get $3.4B in ‘Race to the Top’ grants, By Dorie Turner (AP), August 24, 2010, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “More than 13 million students and 1 million educators will share $3.4 billion from the second round of the federal ‘Race to the Top’ grant competition, the U.S. Education Department said Tuesday. The department chose nine states – Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island – and the District of Columbia for the grants. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said 25,000 schools will get money to raise student learning and close the achievement gap. The ‘Race to the Top’ program, part of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan, rewards states for taking up ambitious changes to improve struggling schools. The competition instigated a wave of reforms across the country, as states passed new teacher accountability policies and lifted caps on charter schools to boost their chances of winning…”