Performance And Chance In New York’s Competitive District Grant Program
New York State recently announced a new $75 million competitive grant program, which is part of its Race to the Top plan. In order to receive some of the money, districts must apply, and their applications receive a score between zero and 115. Almost a third of the points (35) are based on proposals for programs geared toward boosting student achievement, 10 points are based on need, and there are 20 possible points awarded for a description of how the proposal fits into districts’ budgets.
The remaining 50 points – almost half – of the application is based on “academic performance” over the prior year. Four measures are used to produce the 0-50 point score: One is the year-to-year change (between 2010 and 2011) in the district’s graduation rate, and the other three are changes in the state “performance index” in math, English Language Arts (ELA) and science. The “performance index” in these three subjects is calculated
