It's called "Race to the Top."
It is President Obama's $4.35 billion "carrot" for improving education in the U.S. and is prompting states to adopt a handful of key educational reforms. Education Commissioner Lucille Davy recently announced that New Jersey will apply and compete for additional federal education funds.
Tucked into the $110 billion federal stimulus slated for education, a comparatively tiny grant known as the "Race to the Top" will require states that want the money to commit to closing historic achievement gaps and getting more kids into college. States, however, must deal with the details that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan believe are important. Such details include:
•Tying teacher and principal pay – and school assignments – to student test scores.
•Adopting internationally benchmarked academic standards.
•Turning around their lowest-performing schools.
•Building long-term student tracking systems.
•Loosening legal caps on the number of charter schools that states allow each year.
Many states over the past few months have been scrambling to rewrite laws governing these systems. Many states moved to raise or get rid of caps on publicly funded but privately run charter schools. California Governor Arnold Swartzeneger even called a special legislative session last August to state lawmakers into repealing a law that prohibited districts from linking teacher pay to student test performance. It reportedly passed and he later signed it into law.
Back to New Jersey. Two weeks before the deadline to apply for up to $400 million in federal "Race to the Top" education reform aid, Commissioner Davy announced details of the New Jersey's proposed plan that would bring state-of-the-art data systems to schools, tie teacher evaluations more closely to student academic growth and include plans for turning around, or closing, poorly-performing schools.
States must have support from stakeholders including superintendents, school boards and teachers unions.
However, the New Jersey Education Association, which represents 200,000 members, declared the state's plan "flawed in numerous areas," and said the teachers union would recommend local unions do not sign.
The specific objection was to the provisions that tie teacher pay and evaluations to student performance, and ones that could lengthen the school day in poorly-performing districts.
School districts have until January 14,2010 to decide if they will enter the "Race to the Top" in New Jersey.
To read further please link on the following: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_education_commissioner_unve.html
Tucked into the $110 billion federal stimulus slated for education, a comparatively tiny grant known as the "Race to the Top" will require states that want the money to commit to closing historic achievement gaps and getting more kids into college. States, however, must deal with the details that President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan believe are important. Such details include:
•Tying teacher and principal pay – and school assignments – to student test scores.
•Adopting internationally benchmarked academic standards.
•Turning around their lowest-performing schools.
•Building long-term student tracking systems.
•Loosening legal caps on the number of charter schools that states allow each year.
Many states over the past few months have been scrambling to rewrite laws governing these systems. Many states moved to raise or get rid of caps on publicly funded but privately run charter schools. California Governor Arnold Swartzeneger even called a special legislative session last August to state lawmakers into repealing a law that prohibited districts from linking teacher pay to student test performance. It reportedly passed and he later signed it into law.
Back to New Jersey. Two weeks before the deadline to apply for up to $400 million in federal "Race to the Top" education reform aid, Commissioner Davy announced details of the New Jersey's proposed plan that would bring state-of-the-art data systems to schools, tie teacher evaluations more closely to student academic growth and include plans for turning around, or closing, poorly-performing schools.
States must have support from stakeholders including superintendents, school boards and teachers unions.
However, the New Jersey Education Association, which represents 200,000 members, declared the state's plan "flawed in numerous areas," and said the teachers union would recommend local unions do not sign.
The specific objection was to the provisions that tie teacher pay and evaluations to student performance, and ones that could lengthen the school day in poorly-performing districts.
School districts have until January 14,2010 to decide if they will enter the "Race to the Top" in New Jersey.
To read further please link on the following: http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/01/nj_education_commissioner_unve.html
