Lots of news associated with the USDOE. This one is big.
Today the USODE sent letters to governors announcing the finalists for the first round of RttT.
The Department received 41 applications for the first phase of Race to the Top. Each application underwent a comprehensive and rigorous review by an expert panel of independent reviewers and we have selected the following finalists: Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
It was as I had thought: things like caps on charter schools or prohibitions on using standardized test data to determine teacher tenure did not automatically disqualify applicants.
Much was made about this. The local papers and other pundits had basically said that New York’s application was DOA, due to the above issues. In the end, the USDOE moved forward its agenda by holding out a carrot without necessarily using the stick.
