In what can hardly be described as shocking, California was not selected as one of the finalists in the Federal Race To The Top (RTTT) program. 41 states applied to be eligible for this program, which could include awards of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars. However, most education leaders in this state never thought California had a serious chance of competing because of all the structural issues we have at the state level.
The finalists are: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee. Winners will be announced in April. Here is the Washington Post article on the finalist announcement.
Here is a related article on how the scoring worked for determining finalists. The rubric included items like making education funding a priority, demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps, developing and adopting common academic standards, turning around the lowest-achieving schools, ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter or other autonomous public schools, and improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance.
I have stated many times that I thought it was a low likelihood that California would be eligible for this program, and even if it were, the benefit for a small district like San Carlos would not likely be significant. That said, it doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying to be eligible for Federal money (assuming the the requirements are consistent with our values), so I suspect California will try again in the second round of RTTT in June. However, I wouldn’t hold my breath.
