North Carolina is a Race to the Top Finalist
The U.S. Department of Education announced that North Carolina is one of the sixteen finalists in the Race to the Top Competition. The competitive grant fund was created with $4.35 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and is focused on statewide education reforms. Forty-one proposals were submitted.
"This is encouraging news for education in North Carolina--but our work isn't over,” said Governor Bev Perdue. “Every child in this state must graduate prepared to go on to college, a career or technical training, and we can accomplish that through innovation and rethinking the way we track our students' progress. Race to the Top can help North Carolina move forward faster and more aggressively towards this goal. Thank you to all of the educators, state and community leaders and others who have supported these efforts."
Governor Perdue called Executive Director Glenn Kleiman this morning to announce the good news and thank the Friday Institute, College of Education, and NC State University for this important service to the State and to NC teachers and students. The Friday Institute played a lead role in coordinating and preparing North Carolina’s proposal.
“Over the course of ten months we involved over 100 people representing numerous stakeholders in the process,” said State Board of Education Chairman Bill Harrison. “By the time the proposal was submitted, the Friday Institute, by far, had done most of the heavy lifting. I can safely say that without their support, there is no way we could have submitted a proposal of matching caliber.”
A team of North Carolina education leaders will travel to Washington D.C. on March 16 or 17 to present North Carolina’s proposal and respond to questions from the U.S. Department of Education review panel. This team will include Governor Bev Perdue, State Board of Education Chair Bill Harrison, State Superintendent June Atkinson, Department of Public Instruction Chief Academic Office Rebecca Garland, NC Association of School Administrators Executive Director Bill McNeal, and Friday Institute Executive Director Glenn Kleiman. The states whose proposals are accepted and funded will be announced in April, and those whose proposals are not accepted this round can reapply by June 1 for the second round of funding.
According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, “This isn't just about the money. It's about collaboration among all stakeholders, building a shared agenda, and challenging ourselves to improve the way our students learn."
This presentation gives a good overview of the NC Race to the Top Proposal process.
For more information on North Carolina’s Race to the Top Proposal, visit http://racetothetop.nc.gov/
To see a video of Secretary Duncan announce the winners, visit http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/03/finalists-for-race-to-the-top-announced/
For more information about the Race to the Top Fund, visit http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop/index.html