As Race to the Top competition intensifies, so do education reforms
BIG news: the DOE announced that 18 states and DC are finalists for the 2nd round of RTTT money. Here's one of many stories quoting DFER:
Eighteen states and the District of Columbia are finalists in the second round of Race to the Top, the influential and controversial competition for federal money to help states overhaul their education systems.
In announcing the finalists in a speech to the National Press Club in Washington on Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called Race to the Top part of "a quiet revolution" under way in education reform. He highlighted the reforms it's already prompted states to put in place.
"This minor provision in the [stimulus package] has unleashed an avalanche of pent-up educational reform activity at the state and at the local level," he said.
The finalists – which each received more than 400 points on a 500-point scale in evaluations – are Arizona, California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and South Carolina. They'll be competing for the $3.4 billion remaining in the program, and they will send teams in early August for the interview portion of the competition. The winners – somewhere between 10 and 15, according to Secretary Duncan – will be announced in September.
Perhaps the biggest surprise on that list is Arizona, which, in Round 1 of the competition, finished 40th out of 41 applicants.
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As Race to the Top competition intensifies, so do education reforms
In announcing the Race to the Top finalists Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan called the program part of 'a quiet revolution' under way in education reform.
posted by Whitney Tilson at 5:49 PM
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