(Education/Race to the Top) District Grant Contest Unveiled
Source: NY Times
School districts will be able to submit proposals for innovative educational programs this year to compete for federal grants of up to $25 million under a new national contest, part of the three-year-old Race to the Top program. Rules for the competition were to be announced on Tuesday by the Department of Education.
Like the departments state-level competition for federal grants that preceded it, the program will require systems for measuring student progress and assessing teachers and administrators and will target low-income communities. Under the departments rules, the schools included in each application must have at least 40 percent of students qualify for federally subsidized school lunches.
A spokesman for the department said it would look for programs that provide ways to tailor instruction to individual students.
We need to take classroom learning beyond a one-size-fits-all model and bring it into the 21st century, Arne Duncan, the education secretary, said in a statement.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/education/us-school-districts-can-enter-race-to-top-competition.html