Neb., Iowa to try again for funds

Nebraska's plan to tie teacher evaluations to student achievement will be reviewed after it failed to make an initial cut for federal funding.

Nebraska and Iowa were not among the 16 finalists named Thursday to receive a portion of the $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” funds for schools.

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said in a conference call that winners — which will number in the single digits — will be chosen in early April. The department anticipates awarding only about $2 billion of the more than $4 billion available, leaving plenty of funds left for states to reapply.

States not selected in the first round can learn from the winning applications and from critiques of their own applications.

Nebraska and Iowa officials said they will review the critiques and go back for round two. States have a roughly 60-day window, from around April 1 to June 1, to reapply.

Nebraska Education Commissioner Roger Breed said the news that Nebraska was not a finalist was disappointing but not unexpected, given the few finalists chosen. Forty-one applied.

Breed said education officials had an honest discussion with stakeholders in the state and put forward a proposal backed by him, Gov. Dave Heineman and others.

“We said all along we will try to learn from the Phase 1 process and submit a better and more successful application for Phase 2,” he said.

Nebraska's $123 million application laid out a road map for improving student achievement. Tying teacher and principal evaluations to student achievement would be a first for the state. Other initiatives include adopting common core academic standards, using computerized student assessments to provide “early warning” diagnostic reports, creating a virtual school to give students in remote areas access to more rigorous curriculum in certain areas and providing incentives for teachers and others to serve in high-poverty and high-minority schools.

Elaine Watkins-Miller, a spokeswoman for the Iowa Department of Education, said Iowa officials will go through a similar review.

“We still feel we laid a strong foundation in the first process in how we want to advance education in Iowa,” she said. “Everybody's just getting ready to get back at it.”

In Iowa, a $212 million application calls for launching pilot programs that would group children by ability, not grade, and allow them to move ahead at their own pace. Iowa's list also includes better testing, expanded data systems and teacher training.

Selected Thursday were Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Duncan said the finalists were selected strictly on the basis of their applications' scores: All earned more than 400 points out of a possible 500 points. He declined to indicate details that might have set them apart, saying the competition was still under way.

He said he hopes to have a third phase in the future. President Barack Obama has proposed $1.35 billion for Race to the Top in next year's budget.

Obama established the fund to entice the nation's schools to enact his education agenda: adopting high academic standards and quality assessments, developing data systems to measure student growth, recruiting and rewarding good teachers and principals and turning around low-performing schools.

Contact the writer:

444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com

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