Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced that $200 million will be made available to continue the Race to the Top program which emphasizes education reforms central to the Obama Administration: raising academic standards, building cradle to career data systems, investing in great teachers and leaders, and turning around low-performing schools. Embedded in these reforms are controversial initiatives such as defining effective/highly effective teachers and principals, pay-for-performance, expansion of charter schools, among others.
CEC has been actively advocating to address these issues and ensure that children and youth with disabilities and/or gifts and talents and the professionals who work on their behalf are fairly considered and that reforms be based in evidence.
This new funding – recently made available due to Congress’ completion of the Fiscal Year 2011 budget – would enable states that were finalists in last year’s Race to the Top competition to recomplete for a RTTT grant: Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and South Carolina. These states, if they choose to reapply for RTTT funding, would have to update their applications to reflect a more limited scope of work as this $200 million allocation is less than that of the original funding for the program.
In the coming weeks, more information will be made available on the application process.
Comments