“Great.”
That was the first word that came to mind Tuesday after Dade County Superintendent Patty Priest learned her system would be sharing in Georgia’s $400 million cut of federal Race to the Top money.
“I don’t know what to say other than ‘great,'” a giddy-sounding Priest said just after the lunchtime announcement.
On Tuesday, Georgia was named as one of 10 winners in the federal program, which has $3.4 billion remaining in its pot.
Dade County Schools, the only Northwest Georgia system to team with the state on the second Race to the Top application, is among 26 Georgia school districts involved in the program. Dade is a four-school county system with about 2,300 students in Georgia’s rural Northwest corner.
“We’re excited about the opportunity,” Priest said. “We’re one of the smallest counties to be a part of it. I’m anxious to come to the table to hear new, exciting things.”
Gov. Sonny Perdue applauded the work by teachers, principals and superintendents who participated in planning teams.
“Now the real race begins,” Perdue said in a prepared statement. “This is truly a unique opportunity to implement a Georgia-created plan that will accelerate our work in improving student achievement.”
The Race to the Top competition aims to reward states for pursuing educational reforms that include preparing students for careers, doing a better job of monitoring student achievement and teacher performance, and turning around the lowest-performing schools.
Georgia lost its first-round attempt earlier this year when Tennessee and Delaware were named the winners out of 16 finalists, while the Peach State came in third.
This time, Georgia bettered its first-round score of 433.6 by more than 12 points, finishing eighth among the 10 winners with a second-round score of 446.4, records show. There were 19 finalists in the second round.
SECOND ROUND WINNERSThe U.S. Department of Education announced 10 winners in the second round of the Race to the Top federal funding competition. Georgia was named one of 10 winners in the $3.4 billion second round.Applicant Score Funding* Georgia 446.4 $400 million* District of Columbia 450 $75 million* Florida 452.4 $700 million* Hawaii 462.4 $75 million* Maryland 450 $250 million* Massachusetts 471 $250 million* New York 464.8 $700 million* North Carolina 441.6 $400 million* Ohio 440.8 $400 million* Rhode Island 451.2 $75 millionSource: U.S. Department of EducationHOW IT WORKSIn accordance with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the U.S. Department Education will obligate all funds to winning states by Sept. 30. Those states then have a four-year project period to implement their plans and spend the grant money. States and schools systems are accountable for meeting the goals, timelines, budgets and annual targets established in the states’ applications, and a funding schedule is tied to them.
Georgia’s first-round application included 23 school systems, which drew criticism from federal reviewers about a lack of district support. For the second go-round, officials sought out three additional districts.
The level of support in the first round also drew fire from professional teacher organizations, which remain critical of the state’s lack of detail on how the money will be distributed. Still, officials said, getting any federal dollars is a good thing.
“Although we still have concerns about omissions from the application process and how funds will be dispersed, any funding received during these dire economic times will be welcomed by those schools and systems blessed enough to receive them,” Georgia Association of Educators president Calvine Rollins said in a release.
“Our main concern was that these funds were not broad-based and would only be received by a very limited number of schools and systems,” Rollins said.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, 46 states and the District of Columbia filed applications in rounds one and two of Race to the Top. During the competition, 35 states and D.C. adopted rigorous standards in reading and math and 34 states changed laws or policies to improve education.
Tennessee and Delaware were the only two winners in the first round of Race to the Top. In Tennessee, the state Legislature passed a sweeping educational reform package as part of its Race to the Top application.
Dade is one of four Georgia school systems to pilot a “value-added” teacher effectiveness measure as part of its reforms. The program is being fielded by Atlanta, Dade, Gwinnett and Peach school districts to establish a system to measure student gains in achievement from one year to another, a method of determining how effective teachers are in the classroom.
Norma Womack’s grandson, Hunter Conway, is a freshman at Dade High School and she hopes to see reforms take shape by the time he gets his diploma.
Womack, who is raising her grandson, said she likes plans for improved tracking of student achievement and that teachers will be rewarded for their skills.
“I like what I hear about it,” she said.
But she said she hopes Georgia and Dade County make good use of the money.
“I don’t want it to be one of those take-the-money-and-run kind of things,” she said.