EdVANTAGE Blog

Yesterday, the U.S. Education Department issued final guidelines and application materials for its $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition.

Education Week notes that three factors are most important to the federal authorities,

…states will need to make a persuasive case for their education reform agenda, demonstrate significant buy-in from local school districts, and develop plans to evaluate teachers and principals based on student performance, according to final regulations set for release Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education.

The New York Times reports the new guidelines are getting praise from many quarters for adding flexibility in the requirements for states.The generally conservative Fordham Foundation remains generally positive about the Department’s efforts, but does raise concerns that it may have gone too far in addressing concerns raised by the “education establishment” (they would include us in that ilk, I suppose).

Fordham (not affiliated with the New York-based university) notes, for example,

“There’s greater leeway for districts to use less aggressive interventions with failing schools (“the transformation model”); states can argue that district-run faux charters are a substitute for a real charter law; and a charter law with a cap can still garner points.”

They also ask,”Does the increased weight now given to ‘multiple measures’ in teacher evaluations mean that student performance data might get crowded out?”

The guidelines indicate that New York is one of four states eligible for the largest award levels — $350 to $700 million.  (California, Florida, and Texas are the others).

As I wrote in our monthly newsletter, should New York win a grant — only 10 to 15 states are expected to do so — the funding would not materially help the state in dealing with its current fiscal hardship, nor is it intended to.  The maximum grant would roughly just match the sum of the mid-year School Aid cuts proposed by Governor Paterson.

This federal support is not envisioned as general aid to states or schools. It is intended to accelerate systemic efforts to improve outcomes for students. States are required to outline current efforts and new plans for upgrading standards and assessments, building data student performance data systems, improving teacher quality, and turning around low-performing schools.

As support for those purposes, a grant to New York would be a huge boost to the state’s efforts, a level of funding unattainable from any other imaginable source for the foreseeable future.

Education Commissioner David Steiner has assured that the plan his agency is developing will not be warped by the prospect of federal funds, and will chart a course to be pursued whether the state wins federal aid or not.