Florida wins ‘Race to the Top’ funding
Florida joined eight other states and the District of Columbia Tuesday in winning the second round the Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” competition, which has spurred a wave of education reform across the country.
The 10 applicants have been chosen along with two first-round winners for grants totaling about $4.35 billion.
Florida’s education leaders stated in their application that they want to use the funds to double the percentage of incoming high school freshmen who graduate and go on to college. They also want cut the achievement gap in half by 2015 and increase the percentage of students scoring at or above proficient on the National Assessment of Education Progress.
Florida will be awarded up to $700 million to accomplish those goals.
“Florida’s students, teachers and schools won a great victory today,” Gov. Charlie Crist said.
Florida applied for the first round of the competition and was named a finalist, but only Delaware and Tennessee were given intial grants. About $3.4 billion remained for the second-round winners.
The other winners announced by the Education Department Tuesday are: Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.
“These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,” U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said. “Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform.”
Florida’s plan call for making sure teachers are well chosen, trained and held accountable for student achievement. The state’s application said teachers will be expected to provide a “culture of rigor” for students and work to improve their practice, by data analysis and peer collaboration.
“With this critical funding secured we will be able to accelerate the academic progress of our students, provide assistance to our low performing schools and develop a system that properly recognizes and rewards our hardest working teachers,” Education Commissioner Eric Smith said.
In its first round, unions in only five districts supported the state’s application, which linked teacher pay to student test scores. In the second round, Gov. Charlie Crist pulled together a working group consistent of union, local and state school leaders, in the end achieving a broad consensus of support.
Read more at the Miami Herald.