Advice for Duncan: 'Race to the Top' Needs A Larger Dose of Early Ed New America Blogs:
"Advice for Duncan: 'Race to the Top' Needs A Larger Dose of Early Ed
Lisa Guernsey -
August 27, 2009 - 11:18am
Tomorrow is the deadline to submit comments on the Department of Education's proposed guidelines for Race to the Top, the new grant program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Secretary Duncan released draft guidelines for RTT last month, and with more than 650 comments submitted so far, he is getting plenty of feedback on his vision.
Race to the Top gives the Secretary unprecedented discretion to dole out $4.3 billion in grants to states over the next year. But the money doesn't come free. States have to be looking pretty good in Duncan's eyes even before they apply for the money. What's more, if they want their applications to have any shot of being competitive, they will have to show that they are already making progress on many fronts, including working toward common standards, allowing for the creation of more charter schools and using longitudinal data systems to track students' performance.
The stipulations and criteria have caused a lot of consternation among state education leaders over the past few weeks, partly because the guidelines for participating are so tightly defined. In an analysis conducted by The National Teachers Project, only two states appear to meet each one of the Department of Education's expectations. Five states -- California, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania -- do not even meet the basic eligibility requirements, according to TNTP."
"Advice for Duncan: 'Race to the Top' Needs A Larger Dose of Early Ed
Lisa Guernsey -
August 27, 2009 - 11:18am
Tomorrow is the deadline to submit comments on the Department of Education's proposed guidelines for Race to the Top, the new grant program created under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Secretary Duncan released draft guidelines for RTT last month, and with more than 650 comments submitted so far, he is getting plenty of feedback on his vision.
Race to the Top gives the Secretary unprecedented discretion to dole out $4.3 billion in grants to states over the next year. But the money doesn't come free. States have to be looking pretty good in Duncan's eyes even before they apply for the money. What's more, if they want their applications to have any shot of being competitive, they will have to show that they are already making progress on many fronts, including working toward common standards, allowing for the creation of more charter schools and using longitudinal data systems to track students' performance.
The stipulations and criteria have caused a lot of consternation among state education leaders over the past few weeks, partly because the guidelines for participating are so tightly defined. In an analysis conducted by The National Teachers Project, only two states appear to meet each one of the Department of Education's expectations. Five states -- California, Michigan, Nevada, New York and Pennsylvania -- do not even meet the basic eligibility requirements, according to TNTP."