The U.S. Department of Education has issued a progress report lauding the achievements of Race To The Top grant winners and outlining the challenges they face, according to Education Week.
Eleven states and the District of Columbia won a total of $4 billion in federal funding through the competitive grant program. They are Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Tennessee.
The funding seeks to reward states that are improving in four areas:
- Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace;
- Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals how to improve instruction;
- Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
- Turning around their lowest-performing schools.
The progress report finds that the majority of winners are struggling in two of those areas: implementing evaluation systems for teachers and principals and upgrading data systems.