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Post subject: Re: Let's all run 2 race for the top money
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:03 am
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I still say the funny thing about this "Race" was you had to "Qualify" for the money...By that you had to be a school system that was failing at it's duties to educate before you would even be considered for the money. But you won't hear "Tha Fluffer" say that...lol..lol..lol...
Post subject: Re: Let's all run 2 race for the top money
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 9:07 am
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“Great.”
That was the first word that came to mind Tuesday after Dade County Superintendent Patty Priest learned her system would be sharing in Georgia’s $400 million cut of federal Race to the Top money.
“I don’t know what to say other than ‘great,’” a giddy-sounding Priest said just after the lunchtime announcement.
On Tuesday, Georgia was named as one of 10 winners in the federal program, which has $3.4 billion remaining in its pot.
Dade County Schools, the only Northwest Georgia system to team with the state on the second Race to the Top application, is among 26 Georgia school districts involved in the program. Dade is a four-school county system with about 2,300 students in Georgia’s rural Northwest corner.
“We’re excited about the opportunity,” Priest said. “We’re one of the smallest counties to be a part of it. I’m anxious to come to the table to hear new, exciting things.”
Gov. Sonny Perdue applauded the work by teachers, principals and superintendents who participated in planning teams.
“Now the real race begins,” Perdue said in a prepared statement. “This is truly a unique opportunity to implement a Georgia-created plan that will accelerate our work in improving student achievement.”
The Race to the Top competition aims to reward states for pursuing educational reforms that include preparing students for careers, doing a better job of monitoring student achievement and teacher performance, and turning around the lowest-performing schools.
Post subject: Re: Let's all run 2 race for the top money
Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2010 6:15 pm
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This should make us proud that to get this "Free Money" we had to have an under preforming School System. Look how fast we achived this distinction it has only taken us 10 years to go from a top small school system to a crappy one needing Federal money because we have a system that can't do the job. I know I am proud to send tax dollars to a system that is on the bottom... Thats why I paid for my Childs HS...
Post subject: Re: Let's all run 2 race for the top money
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 3:19 am
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News Channell 9 is doing a story on this "RACE" and it's funny how only one other school in this area "Qualified" for this money. I guess by "Qualifing" they were that far behind?
Post subject: Re: Let's all run 2 race for the top money
Posted: Thu Aug 26, 2010 7:18 am
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Remember the big stand against being on the list on phase one. Now this is the quote of the day.
Quote:
"I'm assuming it may be similar to our SIG grant in that you have to write an application and that kind of thing," Priest says. "That's a lot of extra work, but if you can help your students, that's what you want to do. We'll do the extra work, it's not a problem."
Name that Dade Countian.
Spoiler:
Only One Georgia County Racing to the Top Comments 0 August 25, 2010 6:12 PM Tanya Mendis When Dade County Superintendent Patty Priest found out Georgia was getting 400 million dollars in Race to the Top money, she wanted her students to reap the benefits.
Dade had already received close to a million dollars in a separate federal grant for their high school. When they found out the Race to the Top money would provide similar help district-wide, Priest couldn't pass up the chance.
But Dade wasn't only the original list of more than a dozen counties across the state. They asked to get in on the second round, and they did.
The state will spread the money out over four years to turn-around under-performing schools, develop new methods of teacher training, and better prepare students for college and the work-place.
Priest is excited Dade County will be at the discussion table.
"I'm assuming it may be similar to our SIG grant in that you have to write an application and that kind of thing," Priest says. "That's a lot of extra work, but if you can help your students, that's what you want to do. We'll do the extra work, it's not a problem."
Catoosa County schools may not be sharing part of the $400 million that Georgia has been awarded through the federal Race to the Top program. But Catoosa school officials say that’s not necessarily bad.
“I’m glad that Georgia schools are receiving Race to the Top fund,” Catoosa superintendent of schools Denia Reese said. “While Georgia’s application did not include all school systems in the state, I think we will all benefit after the programs are piloted in the participating schools.”
Race to the Top is a funding program created through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It is designed to spur reforms in the school. In Georgia, about half of the $400 million will go to statewide programs and schools in 26 counties will share the rest.
“Catoosa County Public Schools was not invited to participate in the initial application (of Race to the Top) because the system did not have any schools meeting the criteria for ‘persistently low achieving’ schools in Georgia,” said Marissa Brower, communications specialist for Catoosa schools. Brower said the system was also not invited to participate in the second round for the same reason.
Brower said one component of the Race to the Top funding was “turning around the lowest-achieving schools.”
“In order to participate in the Georgia application, systems had to agree to participate in school reform models,” Brower said.
Reese said, “In order to improve performance in low-performing schools, systems must implement reform models with sanctions for missing benchmarks. The sanctions that were discussed included firing 50 percent of teachers or the school principal if a school didn’t achieve benchmarks. The benchmarks in the application were very vague, and since we don’t have low-performing schools, we did not pursue applying for the funding.”
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