On July 24, 2009, President Barack Obama introduced a new program to fund education by saying, “America will not succeed in the 21st century unless we do a far better job of educating our sons and daughters… And the race starts today. I am issuing a challenge to our nation’s governors and school boards, principals and teachers, businesses and non-profits, parents and students: if you set and enforce rigorous and challenging standards and assessments; if you put outstanding teachers at the front of the classroom; if you turn around failing schools – your state can win a Race to the Top grant that will not only help students outcompete workers around the world, but let them fulfill their God-given potential,” (Fact Sheet: The Race to the Top | The White House). The Race to the Top focused on five major areas of improvement: standards and assessments, effective teachers, accurate data-driven instruction, turning around struggling schools, and promoting reform in education. This “race” was designed to be conducted in two phases, evaluating states with a point system. In order for states to earn the points needed to stay in the “race,” they would have to comply with various reforms set by the program, such as adopting standards for kindergarten through twelfth grade. The program was designed to provide $4.35 billion in funding for education: $4 billion for statewide reform grants and $350 million for collaboration of states to improve assessments (ed.gov).
Overall, the Race to the Top program has provided funding for education “that will directly impact 13.6 million students, and 980,000 teachers in 25,000 schools,” (ed.gov). At the conclusion of phase one, awards were presented based on the state’s portion of the federal population of children aged 5-17. However, only four states were eligible for the largest awards and the majority of the first phase applicants were not expected to receive any award at all (Wikipedia). In the beginning of March 2009, fifteen states and the District of Columbia were identified as the phase one finalists. Later that month, the winners of phase one were announced: Tennessee, receiving $500 million, and Delaware, receiving $100 million. In August 2010, nine states and the District of Columbia were named winners of phase two (ed.gov / Wikipedia). Each winning state of phase two was provided a budget not to exceed: District of Columbia ($75 million), Florida ($700 million), Georgia ($400 million), Hawaii ($75 million), Maryland ($250 million), Massachusetts ($250 million), New York ($700 million), North Carolina ($400 million), Ohio ($400 million), and Rhode Island ($75 million) (ed.gov).
Some faults were found with the practices and policies of the Race to the Top funding program. States could choose not to participate. Teacher unions fought the federal government’s involvement. More rigorous practices than those set by the program were not always accepted. There is concern that the practices being pushed by the program have not been proven effective, or have even failed in the past (Wikipedia).
The Race to the Top program has prompted 46 states and the District of Columbia to make reforms to better education. The District of Columbia and 35 other states adopted the standards identified by the program to better prepare students for college and careers focusing on reading and math. Laws and policies to better education were changed in 34 states (ed.gov).
There has been a great deal of reform throughout the nation due to Race to the Top. However, there have also been some oversights. It is so important that teachers reach out to all students, but this program did not reach all the states. Several states made the efforts and did improve, yet they did not receive funding. It seems to be a vicious cycle: reform is required in order to receive funding through the Race to the Top; however funding is needed to make reform.
U.S. Department of Education (Race to the Top)
The White House (Race to the Top)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/fact-sheet-race-top
Wikipedia (Race to the Top)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_to_the_Top
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