Feds poke holes in DC Race to Top bid
The District may well end up with a piece of the Obama Administration'sRace to the Top action when the grant competition moves to its second round later this year. Especially if, as Education Secretary Arne Duncanindicated Monday, the next group of winners will be considerably larger -- as many to ten to 15 states. After all, $3 billion is a lot of coin to unload, and Obama has proposed adding another $1.3 billion to fund.
If D.C. prevails, it's likely to be in spite of the weaknesses in its application, as outlined in reviewer comments posted Monday afternoon after announcement of the first round winners. Tiny Delaware, not a part of the pre-announcement chatter that was dominated by states such as Florida and Louisiana, came in first with 454.6 points out of a possible 500. Second-place Tennessee tallied 444.2 points.
The District, which came in last among the 16 finalists with 402.4 points, got hurt in four areas: no union support; lack of an evolved data collection system; questions about the sustainability of its gains in test scores and the narrowing of the achievement gap, and a tone in some passages suggesting that it is more intent on making a big national splash than putting human capital systems in place that will produce great teachers and school leaders.
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