Associated Press
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
ATLANTA — The U.S. Education Department said Tuesday that Florida, eight other states and the nation's capital will get money to reform schools in the second round of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant competition.
Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., were on that list, department spokesman Justin Hamilton said.
U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, confirmed that Florida will receive up to $700 million — the maximum amount it could request — in Race to the Top funding. The money will go toward a plan that the state created that aims to create such changes as increased teacher evaluation and performance pay.
"This award means the outstanding collaboration in Florida has been recognized," Castor said in a written statement. Our students will benefit and will have the tools and resources they need to succeed. Educators will have the ability to focus on the needs of the students they serve and design reforms specifically for them."
The aim of the historic program is to reward ambitious changes to improve schools and close the achievement gap. The competition instigated a wave of reforms across the country, as states passed new teacher accountability policies and lifted caps on charter schools to boost their chances of winning.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan praised Florida's application, which earned the fourth-highest number of points from independent reviewers.
"Florida just put together a fantastic application," Duncan said.
The state demonstrated broad support for its reform efforts, particularly in comparison to its past proposal, he said. It has strong data systems, a commitment to improving rural schools and a history of raising the bar for all students.
"Florida has been a leader in the country in education reform," Duncan said.
Tennessee and Delaware were named winners in the first round of the competition in March, sharing $600 million. The applicants named winners Tuesday will share a remaining $3.4 billion. Another $350 million is coming in a separate competition for states creating new academic assessments.
The program, part of President Barack Obama's economic stimulus plan, rewards states for embarking on ambitious reforms to improve struggling schools, close the achievement gap and boost graduation rates.
"New York's schools have made strong strides toward excellence and this grant will accelerate that progress," said U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., who met with Duncan on New York's proposal. "This is great news for parents, teachers, and taxpayers across the state."
Thirty-five states and the District of Columbia applied for the second round of the competition. The Education Department named 19 applicants finalists in July.
More than a dozen states vying for the money changed laws to foster the growth of charter schools, and at least 17 reformed teacher evaluation systems to include student achievement. Dozens also adopted Common Core State Standards, the uniform math and reading benchmarks developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association.
"The change unleashed by conditioning federal funding on bold and forward-looking state education policies is indisputable," the Democrats for Education Reform said in a statement. "Under the president's leadership, local civil rights, child advocacy, business and education reform groups, in collaboration with those state and local teacher unions ready for change, sprung into action to achieve things that they had been waiting and wanting to do for years."
In a speech announcing the finalists last month, Duncan called the change a "quiet revolution."
Between both rounds of the competition, a total of 46 states and the District of Columbia applied.
While the program has been praised for instigating swift reforms, the competition for many states was an uphill battle, with teacher unions hesitant to sign on to reforms directly tying teacher evaluations to student performance on standardized tests, and education leaders concerned winning meant giving up too much local control.
A number of states that did not win the competition said they still planned to proceed with the reforms they had proposed, though they acknowledged change would take place at a slower pace.
Staff writer Jeffrey S. Solochek and Associated Press writers Dorie Turner, Christine Armario and Michael Gormley contributed to this report.