Barack Obama and Arne Duncan Star in Education Reform Competition

It's a Race to the Top, with US$4.35 billion on the line to improve American education.

I was reading today about a new proposal to award billions in grants to education institutions heralded by Education Secretary Arne Duncan and US President Barack Obama.

Here's the summary of what this is about:

The centerpiece of the Obama administration's education reform efforts is the $4.35 billion Race to the Top Fund, a national competition which will highlight and replicate effective education reform strategies in four significant areas:

* Adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace;
* Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals;
* Building data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices; and
* Turning around our lowest-performing schools.