North Carolina among ten states to win education dollars race

By Lauren Roth
The Virginian-Pilot
© August 25, 2010

North Carolina is one of nine states and the District of Columbia to win money in the $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition for federal education funds.

The Department of Education is distributing the money to states that commit to reforming teacher accountability, easing the way for charter schools, adopting common standards and turning around low-performing schools.

The other winners are Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, Ohio and Rhode Island. There were 19 finalists in the second round of Race to the Top funding. Delaware and Tennessee won the first round.

Virginia did poorly in the first round. The state didn't apply in the second round, citing its opposition to common standards, one of the judging criteria.

The North Carolina application requested about $400 million to improve teacher recruitment and retention, turn around low performing schools and better assess students. The application calls for using student performance as a factor in evaluating teachers. The state has also adopted national curriculum standards.

To read North Carolina's application, visit http://www.racetothetop.nc.gov/

COMMENTS ADVISORY: Users are solely responsible for opinions they post here; comments do not reflect the views of The Virginian-Pilot or its websites. Users must follow agreed-upon rules: Be civil, be clean, be on topic; don't attack private individuals, other users or classes of people. Read the full rules here.
- Comments are automatically checked for inappropriate language, but readers might find some comments offensive or inaccurate. If you believe a comment violates our rules, click the report violation link below it.

RATING TEACHERS BY STUDENT PERFORMANCE

Submitted by no trust left on Wed, 08/25/2010 at 7:45 am.

This is a very misleadig guide with way too many variables.Parents who are not involved are a big problem.The number of challenged and disruptive students in a class can vary greatly,from a few to half the class.Is there any way in the grading guide to factor in the many different variants of the class demographics?It will be difficult to implement a fair and equitable system.I believe a poor homelife causes students to fail more than any other reason.Childre can't live at school and shouldn't,but until some of these dis-interested,dont wanna be parents are involved more...you can't lay this all on teachers.