Despite a strengthened second-round application for federal Race to the Top funds for education reform, California ranked 16th out of all state applicants, with a final score of 423.6, according to information (including reviewers’ scores and comments) now posted on the federal Race to the Top website.
While that score was 7.8 points higher than its first-round score of 415.8, it still wasn’t enough to push the state into a winning position – and while reviewer’s this time had many positive comments on the state’s application, there were still significant concerns.
Here are highlights of some reviewer comments:
“An impressive scope of work with specific actions aligned with each RTTT reform…”
“The state proposes an impressive leadership structure and framework that supports its capacity to implement, scale up and sustain the proposed reform plan.”
“The state received over 200 letters of support and non-LEA MOUs from an impressive array of legislators, governors (past and present), community organizations, business leaders and organizations, institutions of higher education and private foundations that represent a tremendous level of support from a diverse group of stakeholders for the state’s reform agenda. ….the state should be able to leverage this level of support to better implement reform plans.”
“The applicant has made impressive progress in each of the four education reform areas.”
“Because of the leadership role taken by seven Participating LEAs in the development role of the plan, the MOU indicates strong support from these seven …but of California’s 1,729 LEAs only 302 (17.5%) are participating. Even more troubling … is the small percentage of local teachers’ union leader signatures that have been obtained from the participating LEAs….It is problematical that such a low percentage of LEAs and an even lower percentage of union leaders have signed on in support of this effort.”
“Although the state provides very clear and concise methods for transitioning to the enhanced standards …providing information and soliciting feedback from parents were missing …”
“The state’s plan misses the opportunity to draw together all the elements of professional development that have been introduced throughout the plan into a coherent whole.”
“While student achievement and performance gaps have improved, the state acknowledges that it has much work to do to meet the needs of its diverse students.”
See a summary chart of where California ranked and its score
Read California’s full, 327-page application ALONG WITH the Score Sheet from reviewers and their comments here.
President Obama has announced plans to continue the Race to the Top challenge, requesting $1.35 billion for the program in his FY 2011 budget that is still pending in Congress.
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Posted August 30th, 2010 by admin |
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