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The Secretary of Education awarded $4 billion over the course of the first two Race to the Top (RTTT) competitions. As of May 25, he has announced that nine finalists that did not win grants in the first two phases of RTTT competitions will be the recipients of a new $700 million grant, split between early childhood education and a new round of RTTT.
This month's newsletter provides in-depth analysis of two of President Obama's signature education programs--Race to the Top (RTTT) and Investing in Innovation (i3) grants. It also examines what the new funding may mean for many states, districts, and schools across the country.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— At the May 16 forum of higher education stakeholders, “edupreneurs,” and policymakers, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce (ICW) released a report on the urgent need for innovation coupled with policy reforms in higher education.
Compared to public school choice under NCLB, there has been far more research and evaluation done on the impact of SES. While the main factor for determining the success of SES must be its impact on increasing student achievement, parent satisfaction also can demonstrate the extent to which the program has been successful. Indeed, most states take into account parent satisfaction when it comes to evaluating individual providers.
Aside from actual limitations on services due to factors such as funding, the utilization of SES and public school choice has also been limited in many places by poor implementation.
Since 2003, participation in SES has increased from 233,000 students to nearly 700,000. During this same period, participation in public school choice has grown from approximately 50,000 students to roughly 150,000.
NCLB, for the first time in ESEA history, required low-performing schools to offer parents two choices: move their child to a higher-performing public school in their district or to a nearby charter school, or opt into free tutoring services. Both of these parental options were based on the premise that, rather than wait for a school to improve, parents deserve to have the opportunity to seek options that can provide immediate academic support to meet their needs – options that are widely available and utilized by millions of students from higher-income families.
This issue of the ICW newsletter provides an overview of the parental options under NCLB; the extent to which students and parents have selected these options; issues surrounding their implementation; and a look at their overall impact on students.
There are numerous resources available with information on how to advocate for turning around low-performing schools in your community. Here we have provided a list of organizations invested in the school reform debate.
School Improvement Grants (SIGs) are authorized under NCLB, but received limited funding or attention until the last few years. Recently, though, funding has significantly increased, and the focus of these grants—concentrating significant resources on those schools furthest behind—realigned SIGs with the Race to the Top fund competition.
