Brill Book: Race to Top Scores Sparked 'Near-Panic' at Ed. Dept.
Louisiana and Colorado take heart: Senior staff members at the U.S. Department of Education really wanted you to win the Race to the Top. So much, that when the round-two scores came in, and your states were inexplicably scored out of the winners' circle, the staff was in a "near-panic," while Education Secretary Arne Duncan was "surprised and upset."
"There are problems ... Big problems," then-Race to the Top Director Joanne Weiss told Duncan when the scores came in, writes journalist Steven Brill in his new book, Class Warfare: Inside the Fight to Fix America's Schools.
The Education Department staff chewed over whether Duncan should handpick the winners, choosing out of
