It’s just been announced – Delaware and Tennessee are the first awardees of the Department of Education’s “Race To The Top” Grant.
Update: The New York Times has a story up now. There’s not much more detail on how much the grant is and what it’s going to be used for.
Delaware and Tennessee beat out 13 other finalist states and the District of Columbia to win a share of $4 billion in federal Race to the Top education grant money, convincing the Obama Administration that they have bold plans for overhauling their public school systems, an Obama Administration official said on Monday.
The Department of Education did not immediately announce the size of the awards. But Delaware had asked for $107 million, and Tennessee for $502 million.
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The president’s goals include expanding the number and quality of charter schools, reworking outdated teacher evaluation systems, improving the sophistication of states’ student data tracking systems, and turning around thousands of the lowest-performing schools.
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Delaware already has a statewide annual teacher evaluation system, and has recently adopted regulations requiring that those evaluations be based on growth in student achievement, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality, which rated the finalists’ proposals.