EdVANTAGE Blog

In this post:

• Cuomo on Triborough
• Silver on taxes
• SED on paperwork
• Fellows on loan
• Buffalo News on cyber-bullying

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On Friday, President Obama unveiled his administration’s long-awaited plan to authorize states to gain waivers from specific requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

State Education Commissioner John King attended the White House event and issued a statement saying the Board of Regents will start discussions on the waiver opportunity at its October meeting and that the State Education Department will seek recommendations from stakeholder groups and accountability experts.

Council members are well represented on the stakeholder group SED will consult.

The requirements for obtaining waivers resemble those of the Race to the Top competition, so New York should be well-positioned to gain approval.

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Here is an interesting and/or intimidating item — a set of detailed time lines for projects to be undertaken by the State Education Department and various partners (including school districts) under the state’s Race to the Top grant. Read the rest of this entry »

A forthcoming movie promises to stir up education politics across the country when it begins appearing in theaters on September 24.

“Waiting for Superman” is the latest effort from Davis Guggenheim, director of “An Inconvenient Truth,” the film about global climate change that helped Al Gore win both an Oscar and a Nobel Peace Prize.

New York Magazine has a preview that is worth reading for its insights into national education politics.

I’ll probably write more on this some day soon.

UPDATE:  Here is a comment on the movie from New York State United Teachers.

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 »

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 »