Educators and legislators have dismissed the federal Race to the Top money and related competitions for education dollars as one-time gimmicks designed to push President Obama’s agenda on education.
James Shelton has some advice: Get used to it. Innovation, he said will drive reform in the new administration. “This is early training for what’s to come.”
As the assistant deputy secretary for innovation and improvement at the U.S. Department of Education, Shelton knows about what he speaks. Shelton manages the department’s competitive teacher quality, school choice and learning technology programs. That will include what’s expected to be hotly contested Invest in Innovation or I3 grants, a $650 million program that will award school districts, in partnerships with museums, corporations and universities, with grants of $5 million to $50 million.
Shelton spoke this week to educators and business leaders at the HP’s Cupertino campus in an event sponsored by the Silicon Valley Education Foundation and TechNet, the high tech lobby.
