Education Minnesota renews offer to help create a successful Race to the Top application in phase two
Federal education officials revealed Monday that Minnesota’s Race to the Top application missed winning the grant by a large margin.
Minnesota scored 375 out of 500 points in the competition, almost 70 points behind the two winning states.
The application lost the biggest share of points by failing to demonstrate progress in closing the achievement gap, receiving only 10 out of 25 possible points.
The application also received only 12 of 25 possible points for “ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals.”
“It’s unfortunate the Education Department’s Race to the Top application missed the mark by such a wide point margin,” said Education Minnesota President Tom Dooher. “The point of Race to the Top is to close the achievement gap in our schools. Obviously, Minnesota’s first application did not adequately articulate an effective plan and failed on several levels.”
Other major criticisms from the federal judges included “alternative pathways for aspiring teachers and principals” (10 of 21 points), and “improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance” (44 of 58 points).
Federal reviewers criticized the first application for lacking a “comprehensive and coherent reform agenda,” and said it lacked a clear strategy for how to increase student achievement, close the achievement gap and raise graduation rates.
“Thankfully, there’s time to try again,” Dooher said. “Education Minnesota has already called for new meetings to start work on a phase two application. We have innovative and effective proposals that would use the federal money in ways that directly benefit students, close the achievement gap and give a revised application a better chance to succeed in round two.”
Overall, Minnesota’s score of 375 ranked 20th of the 40 states that applied. Iowa was 24th with 346 points and Wisconsin was 26th with 341.2 points.
The Education Department has not announced whether it will write a second application. “We hope the Education Department will commit to trying again,” Dooher said. “We also hope they will seek broader input from groups most directly affected by the achievement gap. Education Minnesota is fully prepared to play a positive role in creating a successful application the second time around.”
March 30, 2010