Race to the Top offers the opportunity for
Minnesota schools to compete for millions of dollars in grant monies
from the U.S. Department of Education. Leaders from K-12 education,
higher education, business and the minority community have been working
on Minnesota’s application and are now seeking school districts to
sign-on. If Minnesota is awarded funds through Race to the Top, more than half of the money will be designated for local school districts that pledge to implement the reforms. The application for Race to the Top requires states to meet the following six assurances: - State Success Factors - Have
a well articulated and supported reform strategy in place with a sound
implementation plan that includes past success in raising student
achievement and closing the achievement gap;
- Standards and Assessments - Adopt internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace;
- Data Systems to Support Instruction - Build data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practice;
- Greater Teachers and Leaders - Recruit, develop, retain and reward effective teachers and principals;
- Turning Around Struggling Schools - Turn around our persistently lowest-performing schools; and
- General Selection Criteria - Make
education funding a priority, ensuring successful conditions for
charters and other innovative school models and demonstrate other
reform conditions.
In addition, there is a separate
competitive grant program for states’ efforts in science,
technological, engineering and math (STEM). Minnesota’s recent efforts
in STEM also make the state well-positioned to win this competition.
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