Kentucky Makes the First Cut

16 Finalists Announced in Phase 1 of

Race to the Top Competition

Finalists to Present in Mid-March

Winners Announced in Early April

Today the Department of Education announced that 15 states and the District of Columbia will advance as finalists for phase 1 of the Race to the Top competition. Race to the Top is the Department's $4.35 billion effort to dramatically re-shape America's educational system to better engage and prepare our students for success in a competitive 21st century economy and workplace.

States competing for Race to the Top funds were asked to document past education reform successes, as well as outline plans to: extend reforms using college and career-ready standards and assessments; build a workforce of highly effective educators; create educational data systems to support student achievement; and turn around their lowest-performing schools.

The phase 1 finalists are:
Colorado
Delaware
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Kentucky
Louisiana
Massachusetts
New York
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee

"These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," Secretary Arne Duncan said.

"Everyone that applied for Race to the Top is charting a path for education reform in America" Duncan continued. "I salute all of the applicants for their hard work. And I encourage non-finalists to reapply for phase 2."

The 16 finalists were chosen from among the 40 states and the District of Columbia that submitted applications for phase 1. Winners for phase 1 will be chosen from among the 16 finalists and announced in April. Applications for phase 2 will be due on June 1 of this year, with finalists announced in August and winners in September. The only states prohibited from applying in phase 2 are those that receive awards in phase 1.

In a join statement today, Governor Steve Beshear and Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said,

We are very excited to see Kentucky in the list of finalists for the first round of Race to the Top (RTTT) funding. The state’s selection is a reflection of the application’s high quality and reinforces the validity of the work in which we are engaging for Kentucky’s public school system.

With the combined efforts of the Governor’s office, the Department of Education and the General Assembly, Kentucky has become a strong contender for these federal funds.

The next step is preparing to defend our application to a panel of reviewers in Washington, who will make the final decisions on winners. Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to move forward with our vision for public education as laid out in
2009’s Senate Bill 1.

Chatter from the blogosphere

• Via Twitter from EDPressSec: #rttt finalist facts: natural point break @ 400 (80%) on a 500 point scale. Those above 400 were invited back as finalists. There will be very few winners.
• The chatter is that Kentucky (no charters), Ohio and New York were surprising additions to most pundits.
• Russo: Nine of the successful states, plus DC, got help from the Gates Foundation.
• 5 of the original 15 Gates-funded states that didn't make the cut are: AR, AZ, MN, NM, TX.
• All but two of 16 #rttt finalists got Gates funding to help complete their apps (DE and SC did it w/o Gates' help).
• Many of them are Southern, right-to-work states.
• Politics K-12: New York is a surprise because many argue its student-teacher data law is weak, and its attempt to loosen restrictions on charters failed. Kentucky made the list, but has no charter law. Also, Colorado is the only Western state to make the cut.
• From H-L: In Wisconsin, one of the states that applied but was not named a finalist, Gov. Jim Doyle called the announcement "a wake up call to many" and urged legislators to push for reform.

This from Politics K-12:

Now, these finalists will each assemble a five-person team that will come to Washington the week of March 15 to make a presentation to the peer reviewers, who can then adjust their grades before coming up with a final score. Duncan will have the final say—especially when it comes to how many awards are given out in this first round—but the general idea is that the scores will be ranked in order, with the highest-scoring states winning.

This from the Herald-Leader:

Critics have questioned the timing, saying the administration is out of touch with state budget needs in putting forward billions in reform at a time when many districts can barely afford basic necessities.

Florida's K-12 education budget is facing a roughly $1 billion shortfall, including a $778 million reduction in local property taxes because of falling real estate values. The rest is due mainly to increased enrollment from an influx of Haitian children
displaced by the earthquake there and former private school students no longer able to afford tuition.

"You can always say now is not the right time for change," said Amy Wilkins, vice president for government affairs and communications at The Education Trust. "But the fact is that improving education is sort of a linchpin in improving the economic health of the country. So we have to do this now."

Questions have also been raised about the department's approach in rewarding states that have a history of past success through education innovation, rather than those now looking to enact reform.

"Yet there is some merit to the argument that we only learn by bringing to light what best practices look like," said Brenda Welburn, executive director of the National Association of School Boards of Education.

How Finalists Were Chosen

Panels of 5 peer reviewers independently read and scored each state's application. The panels then met in February to finalize their comments and submit scores. Each state's score is the average of the five independent reviewers' scores.

The Department arranged the applications in order from high to low scores and determined which applicants were the strongest competitors to invite back based on "natural breaks"—i.e. scoring gaps in the line-up. The top 16 applications were then selected as finalists. All 41 applicants from phase 1 will receive their peer reviewers' comments and scores after the winners are announced in April. The Department will post the scores and applications on its Web site.

Choosing Winners from Among the Finalists

The finalists will be invited to DC in mid-March to present their proposals to the panel that reviewed their applications in depth during the initial stage, and to engage in Q&A discussions with the reviewers.

The purpose of the finalist stage is to allow reviewers to ensure that the state has the understanding, knowledge, capacity, and the will to truly deliver on what is proposed. The presentations will be videotaped and posted for viewing on the Department's website at the end of Phase 1.

At the conclusion of the presentations, the reviewers will meet again to discuss each application, finalize scores and comments, and submit them to the Department. Again, the final score for each application will be an average of the five peer reviewers' scores. The scores will be arranged in order from high to low and presented to Secretary Duncan for final selection.

Number of Winners & Award Sizes

The number of phase 1 winners will be determined by the strength of the applications. While the department does not have a predetermined amount of money to award in each phase of the competition, we expect no more than half of the money will be awarded in phase 1 to ensure a robust competition in phase 2.

"We are setting a high bar and we anticipate very few winners in phase 1. But this isn't just about the money. It's about collaboration among all stakeholders, building a shared agenda, and challenging ourselves to improve the way our students learn. I feel that every state that has applied is a winner—and the biggest winners of all are the students," Duncan said.

Of the $4.35 billion in Race to the Top funds provided under the Recovery Act, the Department will distribute approximately $4 billion directly to states to drive education reform and $350M to consortia of states that compete in a separate competition to create new college and career-ready assessments. The assessment competition is still in the design phase.

Based on Race to the Top's early positive effect on national education reform, President Obama proposed to continue the program next year by requesting $1.35 billion in the Administration's FY 2011 budget.

SOURCE: US Office of Education