U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced on March 29, that Delaware and Tennessee won grants in the first phase of the Race to the Top competition. Delaware and Tennessee will receive approximately $100 and $500 million respectively to implement their comprehensive school reform plans over the next four years. The Department of Education has made all Phase 1 applications, peer reviewers' comments and scores available on its website. Videos of states' presentations will be posted this week. The Department of Education will have about $3.4 billion available for the second phase of the Race to the Top competition. Applications for Phase 2 of Race to the Top are due on June 1, 2010. The Department also announced that it will require states' budgets in their Phase 2 application to be within the ranges that were suggested in the original notice. For more information visit: http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html.

 

Additionally, the Department announced that five more states (Indiana, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, and Washington) received funding under the $3.5 billion School Improvement Grants (SIG) program.  These funds are distributed by formula to the state and then competed out by the state to districts.  For a district to apply for funding, it must have a state-identified “persistently lowest achieving” school or a so-called Tier III school (which has failed to make adequate progress for two years but is not identified as a persistently lowest achieving school).  Also, the Department has added to the resources Frequently Asked Questions for LEAs.  The order in which these questions and answers are presented reflects the frequency with which the Department has received inquiries about the issues addressed.  For more information on the program and to access Frequently Asked Questions, visit http://www2.ed.gov/programs/sif/index.html.

 

Additionally, the Department of Education will hold a Technical Assistance Planning Workshop for potential applicants to Phase 2 of the Race to the Top grant competition.  At the workshop, representatives from Delaware and Tennessee will discuss their plans and laws, talk about their approaches to building statewide collaboration, and answer your questions.  Department staff will also review the Race to the Top selection criteria, requirements, and priorities and will answer technical questions about the Race to the Top program.  This will be a unique opportunity to engage with the winning states and with Department of Education staff, and we urge Chief State School Officers and key staff to attend. The workshop will be held at the Millennium Hotel Minneapolis, Minnesota, on April 21, 2010.  For those who cannot attend in person, a conference call-in number will be provided.  In addition, the Department of Education will post the transcript of the workshop at
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html.