EdVANTAGE Blog

A few last words on the Race to the Top competition, before turning more to the substance of what New York’s $696.6 million grant will mean for schools and students…

Here is a chart comparing how scores changed between the first and second rounds of the Race to the Top competition on each of the criteria used to evaluate applications for New York and the averages for all the other finalists in each round.

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I’ve been fielding questions about when districts might receive funding from the state’s Race to the Top grant and how much.

The short answer is I don’t know and it will likely take some time to resolve.

A longer answer might begin, “We all have other things to focus on while the financial details of the Race to the Top grant get worked out.”

As we tried to indicate to school district leaders considering whether to sign memoranda of understanding in support of the state’s application in January and again in June, the primary reason for doing so should be that the grant would provide financial support for valuable state-level initiatives not available from any other foreseeable source, not for its impact on district finances.

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New York is among nine states and the District of Columbia announced today by U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan as winners of second round funding from the federal Race to the Top program.

New York will receive the maximum grant possible, just under $700 million, to be used over a four-year period.

New York achieved the second highest score among the winning states.  Massachusetts had the highest score. Read the rest of this entry »

The State Education Department has posted projections of 2010-11 School Aid under the state budget as it stands today.

The projections include district allocations from the state’s $607 million share of the federal Education Jobs Fund approved by Congress and President Obama earlier this month. Read the rest of this entry »

Various sources are reporting that New York is among the winning states for round two federal Race to the Top grants.  The official announcement will come later today.

See here and here for example.

There are so far unconfirmed reports that tomorrow the U.S. Education Department will announce round two winners in its $3.4 billion Race to the Top reform initiative.

UPDATE:  Education Week and other sources are saying it has been confirmed that second round Race to the Top winners will be announced tomorrow

New York is among the 18 states and the District of Columbia competing as finalists this time around.

Also, last week, gothamschools.org reported on how New York State’s August 10 presentation to Race to the Top reviewers went, in the eyes of the state’s team.

The team included Regents Chancellor Merryl Tisch, Commissioner David Steiner, State Education Department Senior Deputy Commissioner John King, New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, and New York City teacher union president Michael Mulgrew.

GothamSchools reported Chancellor Tisch said that “no surprises” came from the judges during the state’s 90-minute presentation and question-and-answer session two weeks ago and that she added, “I just thought it was a very fair, frank conversation.”

Late yesterday, Governor Paterson and legislative leaders released a letter committing to approve a plan to allocate New York State’s $607 million share of funding from the federal Education Jobs Fund approved earlier this month by Congress and President Obama.  They also announced that the state has submitted its application for the funding to U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the hanging issues left by the Governor’s veto of the budget bill amending provisions of law dealing education is that a freeze on required school district payment levels to charter schools was not extended.  This creates much larger costs for districts, most notably Buffalo and Albany, than they were expecting when their local budgets were adopted.

The Governor  vetoed  the bill because of overall cost concerns, not the charter school tuition freeze, which he included in his proposed budget.

The Buffalo News has run point-counterpoint columns on charter school funding.  Read the rest of this entry »

Property tax caps, deteriorating rigor in Regents Exams, releasing student data for individual teachers, political endorsements… Read the rest of this entry »

U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer has released estimates of allocations from the federal Education Jobs Fund for New York State school districts.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation creating the fund today; it was passed by the Senate last week.

New York State’s share of the $10 billion authorized nationwide is $607 million.

The Senator’s estimates are unofficial; the state must adopt an allocation scheme.  There are reports that the State Assembly and Senate could be called back next week to take actions necessary for the state to expend the federal aid.

You can see the Senator’s estimates here.  Again they are unofficial. Read the rest of this entry »