Va. chases education dollars in D.C.

RICHMOND

The compact disc containing the state’s 900-page application for federal Race to the Top money is so precious that a state education official hand-delivered it to Washington on Friday.

Virginia is asking for a $350 million piece of the $4 billion innovation fund the Obama White House has made central to its education agenda.

But the state faces long odds in the competition.

“I would be shocked if Virginia is one of the winning states,” said Andy Smarick, a fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute think tank in Washington and a former official with the U.S. Department of Education. “In order to win Race to the Top, your policies have to be aligned with what the Obama administration wants. Virginia has been conspicuously quiet on most of those fronts.”

Patricia I. Wright, state superintendent of public instruction, acknowledged that “we are at a disadvantage” because Virginia’s application holds fast to the Standards of Learning. Other states, including North Carolina, are willing to move toward a national set of assessments and standards.

Virginia also has one of the country’s weakest charter school laws, which could be a negative in the scoring process. The charter-supportive stance of new Gov. Bob McDonnell is probably too little, too late, Smarick said.

The Race to the Top money is intended to encourage and reward states that are reforming standards and assessments; improving the collection and use of data; increasing teacher effectiveness; equitably distributing teachers; and turning around struggling schools, according to guidelines from the U.S. Department of Education.

Virginia’s application says the state would use the money to define standards for college readiness; expand the rating system for early education programs; develop a statewide Web portal of educational data; and support bonus pay plans and new teacher evaluations.

It would also double the number of science, technology, engineering and math academies in the state, provide startup funds to turn low-achieving schools into charter schools and pilot a university program to increase the pool of math and science teachers.

“This application is very much written the Virginia way,” Wright said. “We maintain local control and provide lots of incentives to do things in creative and innovative ways.”

The money, if granted, would help Virginia fulfill unmet needs and drive technology and resources to the classroom, she said.

By comparison, other states are including in their proposals innovative ideas such as mini-exams all school year to better measure progress, new pay scales that would require empirical data for at least 50 percent of teacher compensation decisions and complete rewrites of rules to vastly expand the number of charter schools in their state.

Virginia’s application was compiled with input from McDonnell’s transition office, as well as former Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s staff and groups such as the Virginia Education Association.

Betty Lambdin, a director with the education association, said winning a grant may be the state’s best chance to try new things. “Any expansion of innovation is going to be very difficult in this fiscal environment,” she said.

In North Carolina, the state has applied for $400 million to be split between state and school district initiatives.

Smarick said North Carolina has a better track record of reform than Virginia, and the state was one of 15 given an early boost by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which provided a grant to pay a consultant to help prepare the application.

Virginia and North Carolina both got widespread support from their school districts. In Virginia, 88.6 percent of the school divisions signed on the state plan; North Carolina had 100 percent.

Many states struggled to get buy-in, getting as few as half of their districts to participate. Collective-bargaining states had a harder task – they needed a signature from the union president in each district, and many resisted.

All five school divisions in South Hampton Roads signed on to Virginia’s application. Only divisions that sign on can receive Race to the Top money.

Competition finalists will be notified about March 1, and winners will be announced in early April.

Wright said she is optimistic about Virginia’s chances. But regardless, the plans developed for the application will be useful.

“It’s a road map we can work around when resources are available,” she said.

Lauren Roth, (757) 222-5133, lauren.roth@pilotonline.com