An impressive number of school districts — 251 — have signed onto the state’s Race to the Top application, representing a whopping 96% of our students. And stragglers are still crossing the finish line!
Does high participation even matter? Absolutely. Getting broad and deep buy in on our state’s new education reform plan from the tiny rural school districts to large urban ones is critically important because that is where the work gets done. It also helps our Race to the Top application be more competitive. The most important “state success factor” is having a well articulated reform agenda that is supported by school districts.
Why bother? We don’t really have a chance of winning, do we? It’s true that the chattering class in Washington, DC is not betting on our prospects as a winner. And, we haven’t heard that the feds are giving out any “most improved” awards (which would have Washington written all over them). But, you don’t tell your kid not to enter a race, just because you don’t think she will win. The truth is that this competition has leveraged more change than we would have thought possible. Look at how much we accomplished in this last legislative session. We finally gave the state authority to intervene in our lowest performing schools, we are going to do serious work on a new teacher and principal evaluation system, we opened up some alternative certification doors, and we extended teacher tenure from two years to three.
What’s next? State leaders have until June 1st to pull all the pieces together of what will be a very lengthy Race to the Top application. At this point, a small group of people are doing a hideous amount of work that will soon be available to the whole wide world. We’ll find out in August whether we are a finalist. Either way, we have a come a long way.
