"Race To The Top" Enters Second Funding Round

Applications for the second round of President Obama’s "Race to the Top" education competition are due today.  Connecticut was not among the winners the first time around..and ranked 25 out of the 41 states that entered the contest. 

This time around, Connecticut’s application will highlight important changes that Governor Rell recently signed into law…including new requirements for high school graduation: additional credits and end-of-year exams; new authority granted to the State Board of Education to replace local boards in low-achieving schools; some schools in priority school districts can be converted into so-called “innovation schools”. 

Other provisions in the law allow for the elimination of enrollment caps for high-performing charter schools and require the State Board of Ed to approve alternate routes to certification for school administrators.

About 3.4 billion dollars is available in this second round of federal education grants. 

Read Robert Frahm's coverage in The Connecticut Mirror: State filing new bid for millions in federal education funds.