 | MESPA Home > Press Room | | Race to the Top Plan Update
12/4/2009 1:05 PMMemorandum from the Minnesota Department of Education
(St. Paul MN -- December 4, 2009) The Minnesota Department of Education (“Department”) will be hosting WebEx seminars and small group meetings to share with you the state of Minnesota’s Race to the Top (“RTTT”) plan. We are excited about enhancing and improving the State’s educational system through this initiative.
As you may know, the United States Department of Education recently released the final application for the Race to the Top plan. The final application is very similar to the application outlined at regional meetings with school districts and charter schools in October. We appreciated hearing your feedback during the regional meetings and through individual stakeholder meetings.
The final Race to the Top selection criteria are grouped against six assurance areas:
- State Success Factors: Having a well articulated and broadly supported reform strategy with sound implementation plans, past success in raising student achievement and closing the achievement gap.
- Standards and Assessments: Adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace.
- Data Systems to Support Instruction: Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices.
- Great Teachers and Leaders: Recruiting, developing, retaining and rewarding effective teachers and principals.
- Turning Around Struggling Schools: Turning around the persistently lowest performing schools.
- General Selection Criteria: Making education funding a priority, ensuring successful conditions for charters and other innovative school models, and demonstrating other reform conditions.
WebEx Seminars
The Department will host WebEx seminars for school districts and charter schools on Tuesday, December 8 and Wednesday, December 9. The WebEx Seminars will allow school districts and charter schools to receive an overview of the State’s Race to the Top plan prior to the small group meetings. Space is limited to 195 spaces per session. You must pre-register in order to participate. For a complete list of WebEx seminars times -- and links for registration, scroll to the PDF document below.
RTTT Group Meetings
In addition to the WebEx meetings, the Department will be holding small group meetings with local districts and charter schools from December 10-18, 2009. These meetings will provide staff with the opportunity to learn more about the plan in a smaller group setting. The Department will also review the process for participation, budget information and timelines for state and local activities proposed under the state of Minnesota’s Race to the Top plan.
School district superintendents are strongly encouraged to invite local teacher representatives, school board members and appropriate staff. Given the importance of teacher participation, the Department will reimburse the school district for substitute pay for one teacher to participate in the meeting. Please send the Department an e-mail message to rttt.mde@state.mn.us if you plan to request substitute pay reimbursement.
School districts and charter schools (including superintendents, teachers, and school board members) may attend any one (1) of the following meetings listed in the document below. For a complete list of RITT Group Meetings (with times, locations, and registration instructions), scroll to the PDF document below.
Follow-up WebEx Seminars
After the small group meetings, the Department will host another series of WebEx seminars. These seminars are designed to give school districts and charter schools the opportunity to ask any follow-up questions. In addition, school districts and charter schools are welcome at any time to directly request information from the Department by sending an e-mail to rttt.mde@state.mn.us
The WebEx seminars will be available on the following dates and times:
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
10:00-12:00 noon
WebEx Access Information: TBD
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
1:30-3:30 p.m.
WebEx Access Information: TBD
Thursday, January 7, 2010
10:00-12:00 noon
WebEx Access Information: TBD
Friday, January 8, 2010
1:30-3:30 p.m.
WebEx Access Information: TBD
Please note that district and charter school staff will be asked to identify themselves prior to entering the conference call; this information is being requested in order to ensure that all school districts and charter schools have a chance to participate in the WebEx seminars.
Final RTTT Participation
The school district and charter school’s final participation form must be provided to the Department no later than Wednesday, January 13, 2009 at 4:30 p.m. Forms must be sent via e-mail to rttt.mde@state.mn.us, faxed to 651-582-8724 or may be hand delivered to:
Lesley Hinz
Minnesota Department of Education
1500 Highway 36 West
Roseville, MN 55113
The Department will not accept the forms by U.S. mail due to the general delay in receiving U.S. mail in Roseville.
RTTT_regional_mtg_final_120409.pdf
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| Race to the Top details |
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| Note from MESPA Executive Director P. Fred Storti | December 8, 2009 -- As you know RTTT is a competitive grant that is framed by the United
States Department of Education. There is a good possibility it could
award $175 to $225 million to the state. The grant provides a very
good opportunity for the Minnesota Department of Education to create a vision for K-12 education and pull
together the critical components.
All school districts in the state are eligible to participate, if they choose. This will be a district recommendation -- made with input from principals, teachers, and school boards.
A small number of schools (30-40) would qualify as “turn-around” schools, receiving extra funding and having extra requirements as they have consistently been underachieving, not making AYP, for several years. But that is only one portion of the RTTT application and funding. So again, I urge you to stay involved.
School districts will make the decision whether or not to participate.
This decision will made made soon -- probably the first week of
January. The Minnesota Department of Education needs to have district
decisions before the grant is submitted to the USDOE on January 19.
There will be community meetings throughout the state in the next couple of weeks before the Holidays. I urge you to attend so that you are informed. This is an important grant that has policy implications for change.
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