Race to the Top Funds Applications By State

All of the applications submitted by states are online so get your Race to the Top Funds applications right here.

I am reading through New York State's application right now. That's 348 pages of pitchwork and data, and qualifying statements and analysis. I'll get back to you soon.

Did Arne Duncan Save Healthcare?

Arne Duncan part of last minute health care deal

Race to the Top Set for FAIL

This seemed to have a bit of the rhetorical flourish, but then, it is something that business people talk about when they talk about how they would like to nourish and invest in the American education sector.

Why Race to the Top is set to fail takes a look at how inefficiencies, improper evaluation of performance and talent, and a lack of clear thinking on curriculum and life skills in American education is setting Race to the Top to fail.

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.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan in Brooklyn

To think that before I went home last night, Arne Duncan was just a few miles from my subway stop.

Mr. Duncan presented a doomsday portrait of education in the United States if the stimulus money were not available. He said up to 600,000 jobs could be lost and average class size could rise to 40 students from 25.

He was visiting Explore Charter School.

Arne Duncan Lives by the Basketball

Teachers College at Columbia University had Arne Duncan as a speaker long before he was nominated to Education Secretary. Here is what he said about Barack Obama and the future of education.