Indiana education reform and the "Race to the Top"

The proposed education reforms reported in today's Indianapolis Star could have far-reaching impact. In order to apply for federal "Race to the Top" funds the state had to put together a package of aggressive reforms. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett promises that these reforms are his agenda, whether Indiana get the federal dollars or not.

I heard Dr. Bennett at a conference last week, and he spoke primarily about these proposals and the Race to the Top funds. Indiana is asking for $400 million, but if selected is likely to receive $150-250 million in one-time funds. (These are part of President Obama's larger stimulus package.) The application was submitted yesterday; finalists will be interviewed in March; awards will be announced in April.

If Indiana is a winner, individual school corporations will then apply to the state for some share of the funds. Corporations will have 90 days to submit a "work plan" consistent with Indiana's larger plan, and the superintendent, school board president, and local teacher union must sign on to the corporation's application.

Dr. Bennett laid out four "pillars" of Indiana's reform plan:

1. Standards and assurances: Indiana will start to align itself with national standards referred to as the Common Core. According to the Star's article today, ISTEP+ will also be replaced with a national test.
   
2. Longitudinal data will be collected to follow students' achievement throughout their education.
3. Rethinking how teachers and principals are evaluated--the Star article refers to four tiers of teacher performance.
   
4. Turning around lowest-performing 5% of schools.

Will Lebanon be in line for these funds, if Indiana gets the award? The LCSC submitted the required preliminary "Memorandum of Understanding" with signatures from Dr. Taylor and board president Alan Cragun. The teacher union did not sign the preliminary memorandum, but will have another chance to get on board when the time comes to write up the work plan.