The Virginian-Pilot
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Virginia has been shut out of the first round of a national contest to win part of $4 billion in school innovation money from the federal government. However, North Carolina is in the running.
The finalists for the money, called Race to the Top, are Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Lousiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.
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, which was not considered competitive, said the state would use the money to define standards for college readiness; expand the rating system for early education programs; develop a state wide Web portal of educational data; and support bonus pay plans and new teacher evaluations.
By comparison, other states included 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.
In North Carolina, the state applied for $400 million to be split between state and school district initiatives.
Education experts 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.
To see a video of U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan announcing the finalists, click here: http://ow.ly/1ed2L.
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The application....
Here is a copy of the application. Dated January 10, 2010. On page 5 you will see the " Legal name of applicant " Governor Timothy M. Kaine. This project had nothing to do with the current administration.
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/phase1-applications/virginia.pdf
I find it interesting to note that in non right to work states there had to be NEA buy in and they failed to obtain that in many cases. So a state will a collective bargaining agreement could not obtain tax dollars unless a union allowed them to.
I cant help but wonder what might happen if DOE money was diverted directly to state and local government for the sole purpose of providing education to our children and not in hiring consultants to write grants for contests that award our tax dollars or paying for a huge bureaucracy to oversee it.
we're becoming South Carolina
Virginia is becoming more and more like South Carolina, socially, economically, and definately politically!
Make Up Your Mind
Do you want the Federal Government in or out of your life?
Amazing
At the federal level it's Bush's fault for everything in the past, present and future.
At the state level it's McDonald's fault for everything in the past, present and future.
Wow what is the common link? Could it be that Bush and Mcdonald are republican.
hey deacon
You guys are still blaming Jimmy Carter for everything, stop with the violin playing.
They take our money
They take our money, and then want us to jump through hoops just to get some of our own money back. What good does that do? We need to get rid of Arney Duncan.
va gets an f-
That proposal stunk!
For once I agree with Gertz. The children will suffer.
For once I agree with Gertz. This proposal was prepared by the ineffective and inept part-time Kaine Administration. This is one of many examples of how Kaine was not working for Virginians. If he had spent more time working on initiatives such as this, and not working on DNC activities, Virginia might have inched forward. The children will suffer.
DON'T FORGET THE USELESS
Board of Education. Most of them aren't even literate. Kaine and his cronies set Virginia Education back 20 years.
What A Picture
http://www.willatworklearning.com/2006/06/us_graduation_r.html
The link above shows a map of the US and lists graduatin rates for 2003
If you have a predominatley "Southern Hee Haw" in your make up, you might not want to look at this map.
That was 7 years ago-and the rates are going up even higher.
Given the recent Norfolk PS cheats and what not, I guess the Feds ruled out Virginia as a "transformation" state. If this does happen and VA does not get money, the "Race To The Top" will become "A Child Left Behind". Oh..wait...that already happens in beautiful, gridlocked, Hampton Roads. Where every day is a parade, every headline a tax increase, every city spending money it doesn't have, and still having money for the boondoggle that is LRT.
But...keep going Hampton Roads! Your doing such a great job! Everything will be okay. Oceana won't move, encroachment will stop and Ford will come back as well.
And Anna Nicole Smith married for love too!