15 states make cut in Race to Top

Mar 4, 2010 — Washington Post

Nick Anderson

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia survived the first cut Thursday in the Obama administration's unprecedented $4 billion school reform contest.

Analysts pointed to some surprises among the finalists, including New York, Ohio and Kentucky. It was also notable that the most populous state, California, missed the cut even though the state's legislature approved a significant school-improvement plan.

Federal officials say the competition has already spurred innovation in public education through the lure of funding in difficult fiscal times, driving several states to lift limits on charter schools, overhaul antiquated teacher evaluation systems and take steps toward performance pay.

Twenty-five state applicants, including Virginia, were sent back to the drawing board. They will in all likelihood join Maryland and several others in applying for a share of the money in a second round. That deadline is in June.

The announcement of finalists in the Race to the Top competition at 11:30 a.m. carried at least some political risk because few governors or state education leaders want to be told they are not in the vanguard of reform. It's also seen as a test of President Obama's resolve to push for major changes in public education as he seeks to rewrite the 2002 No Child Left Behind law.

The finalists are: Colorado, Delaware, the District, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.

"These states are an example for the country of what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a statement. "Everyone that applied for Race to the Top is charting a path for education reform in America."

The inclusion of the District among the finalists appeared to signal that the administration views with approval the reform agenda of controversial Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee. The District's application also encompassed public charter schools.

There was instant debate about what the list of finalists portended for reform. "Sweet 16?" asked Michael Petrilli, an editor for the journal Education Next and former George W. Bush administration official, in a blog post. "But really? New York, which failed to pass a slew of reforms last month? Kentucky, without a charter school law? Ohio? . . . [T]his is a sad day for reformville."

Andrew Rotherham, a co-founder of the think tank Education Sector, who advised some states on their applications, said: "There's a fair amount of premature condemnation and praise" because winners aren't yet known. "For the most part," he said, the finalists chosen "make sense."

But Joe Williams, leader of the pro-Obama group Democrats for Education Reform, said the administration had succeeded in defining a new brand with Race to the Top.

"The fact that you had thousands of education advocates and officials all over the country at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time this morning looking on the Internet to see which states were finalists shows they've created a sense of enthusiasm for reform with this." Williams said. "It's hard to remember a time when states were comparing themselves to each other."

For months, the competition has generated buzz in the education world. Forty states and the District applied in January for a share of the funding, with possible awards of tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars at stake. Officials who represent the finalists will be interviewed before the administration announces winners in April.

Experts convened by the Education Department screened the bids on a novel 500-point system that reflects Obama's agenda.

For example, the scoring rubric awards up to 10 points for making education funding a priority and up to 30 for demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps. Three areas of reform are worth up to 40 points each: developing and adopting common academic standards; turning around the lowest-achieving schools; and ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter or other autonomous public schools. Proposals to improve teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance are worth as many as 58 points, signaling Obama's willingness to challenge unions to accept merit pay.

Duncan has the final call on who wins, but aides say he will lay out in detail his justification if he departs from the expert rankings. Experts and former U.S. education officials say Duncan is the first education secretary to have control over so much money to drive school reform. Congress authorized the funding through the 2009 economic stimulus law but set few conditions on how to spend it.