Anne Bubnic's List: ARRA/Race To the Top

• early $44 billion for schools was made available April 1 and is to help states and school districts jump-start reform efforts and stabilize shrinking budgets. Another round of funding will be made available for states' applications later in the year, according to the federal Education Department.

  States were given guidelines this month on how they could use stimulus funds. The majority of the money states receive must be applied to programs that serve low-income students in Title 1 and special education students in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act programs
• states competing for Race to the Top funds will be judged on how well they are using the first round of stabilization and Title I funds to advance education reforms.
• Every dollar we spend must advance reforms and improve learning," Duncan said in a release. "We are putting real money on the line to challenge every state to push harder and do more for its children."

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   But the windfall also could mark the beginning of a deeper transformation of schools seven years after the No Child Left Behind law mandated an expansion of testing and new systems for school accountability. 
• he stimulus bill would help the Obama administration hammer three themes: "First and foremost, protecting children. Secondly, saving and creating jobs. And third, pushing a significant reform agenda."
• "What I've asked Arne Duncan to do is to make sure that he works as hard as he can over the next several years to make sure that we're reforming our schools, that we're rewarding innovation the way that it's taking place here," Obama said at Capital City Public Charter School.

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• Making progress toward rigorous college- and career-ready standards and assessments that are valid and reliable for all students, including English language learners and students with disabilities;
• Establishing prekindergarten to college and career data systems that track progress and foster continuous improvement;
• Making improvements in teacher effectiveness and in equitable distribution of qualified teachers for all students, particularly students who are most in need;
• Providing intensive support and effective interventions for the lowest-performing schools.
  
• First, every state should have a comprehensive data system that tracks student progress from one year to the next.
• a class of test scores can tell whether a teacher is effective, and an entire state of test scores can tell whether a policy is working. When empirical data replace emotion as the basis for developing policy, America will be able to transform the quality of education into a world-class system of learning.
• If a state needs educators to teach students who are gifted or disabled or learning to speak English, let's create the market that attracts their expertise.
• A meaningful bump in pay -- $1,000 a month or more -- would provide an incentive for educators to teach tough subjects such as physics and trigonometry or to teach in schools with a high population of students living in poverty. Moreover, giving a bonus to teachers for every one of their students who pass an advanced placement test in science and math will create an incentive for success and generate American intellectual capital in critical fields.
  
  Third, low-performing schools must be fixed. It is morally wrong to consign students to schools that consistently fail to educate them. Let's help those schools be successful with whatever assistance it takes. Where schools don't improve, we believe parents should have the option of sending their children to public charter schools whose leadership has proved it can prepare students for the next grade and beyond.
  
  Finally, let's stop tinkering around the edges of reform and really revolutionize the way we deliver knowledge to students. Learning is no longer local, yet we still operate in a system ruled by traditional course work and antiquated textbooks. Our education system is an eight-track tape deck living in the high-speed digital age.
• An online campus also would create an economic way to customize education for every child in America. Students wouldn't be limited by what was offered at their particular school. With the click of a mouse they could take Chinese at one virtual academy, geometry at another and 18th Century poetry at another. They could learn at their own pace, whether it is faster or slower than their peers.

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• The stakes are high, as this may be the most important opportunity school reformers get in the foreseeable future to make a difference. That said, the governance and accountability structures accompanying these funds will likely make or break their effectiveness. How then should the department distribute these funds? What criteria should be used? How should the department evaluate recipients and ensure that the process is fair and transparent? And, importantly, how can the administration support educational entrepreneurs without the perception of cronyism

• In a world of competing priorities and limited resources, there is great need for help that is targeted to those who need it most. Arguably, too many of our nation’s low-income and minority public school students fall into this category. But the reforms that are necessary to upgrade our nation’s public school system and ensure that these students receive a high-quality education require considerable investment. Weighed against other policy strategies, education reform initiatives too often remain near the bottom of the list.
• This report examines whether high-poverty and high-minority schools and districts are rethinking the school calendar, if they are adding learning time to the calendar in a significant way, and if they are using learning time differently. To address these questions, the Center for American Progress has conducted research over a two-and-a-half year period to identify and study schools and districts across the country with more learning time. This report identifies more than 300 current initiatives in high-poverty and high-minority schools across 30 states, implemented between 1991 and 2007.
• this report touches on why schools and districts choose to expand learning time, how that time was added to the calendar, and what additional time means for schools and students.

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