State goes after Race to Top round 2 funds
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Bonnie Reiss, state education secretary, says California must revamp its application.
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California will throw its hat into the ring for the chance to win $700 million in the second round of federal Race to the Top funds despite the state's arguably long odds and dismal showing in the last round, state officials said Friday.
The state would need to vault from 27th place - out of 40 applicants - in round one to a spot among serious contenders - something that will require a complete revamp of the application, said state Secretary of Education Bonnie Reiss.
This time, six district superintendents, representing more than 1 million students in California, will craft the application rather than Sacramento policy wonks.
San Francisco Unified's Carlos Garcia is one of the select six.
The new application will shine a spotlight on what those districts are already doing to turn around struggling schools, evaluate and support teachers and principals and measure student performance.
"It shows what great work is going on in so many school districts in California," Reiss said. "These superintendents are writing an application that has the maximum amount of detail."
The other district superintendents drafting the application are from Long Beach, Los Angeles, Fresno, Sanger and Clovis unified school districts.
Garcia was reportedly in a meeting Friday with the other superintendents and
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/04/30/MNP71D7M8H.DTL#ixzz0mgqtNTsC
