Race to the Top 101 - How Tennessee Won the National Competition and What Happens Next
Taking Note
August 2010
Essays on innovative ideas and new developments in public education
Race to the Top 101
How Tennessee Won the National Competition and What Happens Next
Tennessee has forged a series of nationally
recognized education-reform policies and programs that positioned the state to compete
in the federal Race to the Top competition to
spur education innovation. Some of the policies
pre-dated Race to the Top. Other changes were
made in part to improve the state’s chances in
the competition. In this essay, we examine the
purpose of Race to the Top, the recent history
of education reform efforts in Tennessee, and
how certain policy changes factored into the
state’s successful bid in the competition.
Where the Money Goes
Tennessee Total = $500 million
Projected Funds Distribution (millions of dollars)
Local School Systems
Research
Low-Performing Schools
Oversight & Implementation
Professional Development
Background
Signed into law by President Obama in February
2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided $4.35 billion for the Race
to the Top Fund, a competitive grant program
designed to encourage and reward states that
are implementing ambitious plans in education
reform.1 (Later, the president asked Congress to
approve an additional $1.35 billion to “expand
the Race to the Top competition to include
local school districts that are also committed to
change.”2 As of July 2010, the request for additional funding remained pending in Congress.)
In remarks unveiling the new program in
summer 2009, U.S. Education Secretary Arne
Duncan set a high bar. “For states, for district
leaders, for unions, for business, and for nonprofits, the Race to the Top is the equivalent of
education reform’s moon shot.”3
Race to the Top focuses on four core education reform areas:
1. Adopting standards and assessments that
prepare students to succeed in college
and the workplace and to compete in the
global economy;
2. Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform
teachers and principals about how they
can improve instruction;
3. Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and
SCORE
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Recruitment & Retention
$250M
20
90
10
70
60
Note: Projected expenditures are based on preliminary
estimates and subject to change.
Source: Tennessee Department of Education, Education First Consulting
retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed
most; and
4. Turning around the lowest-achieving
schools.
Additionally, Race to the Top places a “competitive priority” on developing strategies to
promote teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics — the
so-called STEM disciplines.
Nationally, views differed on Race to the
Top — across political and ideological lines.
The Economic Policy Institute, a left-of-center
think tank whose leadership includes the head
of the American Federation of Teachers union,
derided Race to the Top’s complex 500-point
scoring system as “subjective and arbitrary.”4
Education historian Diane Ravitch, who served
in former President George H.W. Bush’s
administration, worried that Race to the Top’s
emphasis on incentives and competition “may
well make schools worse, not better.”5
1207 18th Avenue South, Suite 326, Nashville, TN 37212
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tel 615.727.1545
Meanwhile, watchers of Congress and legislatures noted the rapid speed in which the
competition fueled policy changes at the state
levels. Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist wrote in USA Today that Race to the Top
had, in a matter of months, “engineered the
kind of wholesale reform that ordinarily would
take a generation to pull off.”6 In a joint column
for The Wall Street Journal, Democratic Leadership Council Chairman Harold Ford Jr., former
IBM Chairman Louis Gerstner and philanthropist Eli Broad opined, “Competition brings out
the best performance. That’s true in athletics
and in business, and it’s true in education.”7
Early Returns
In January 2010, 40 states and the District of
Columbia submitted education-reform plans to
the U.S. Department of Education in pursuit of
Race to the Top funds. Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., emerged as finalists. On March 29,
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fax 615.727.1569
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www.tnscore.org