Racing to the Top

Last week Achieve submitted comments to the U.S. Department of Education on its public notices for the Race to the Top Fund (RTTT) and for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF). The RTTT presents states with an unprecedented opportunity to make dramatic reforms to their P-20 education systems and accelerate their efforts to graduate all high school students prepared for college and careers. Likewise, the SFSF will promote public reporting of data on key indicators measuring progress towards the core education reforms of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) – including improvements to state academic standards, assessments, graduation rates, and postsecondary enrollment rates. (Read Achieve's comments on RTTT and SFSF in PDF format).

College- and career-ready standards serve as a foundation for both programs. In order to receive SFSF funds, Governors have to commit to enhancing the quality of their states’ standards and assessments. The Department also made a state’s commitment to developing and adopting common, college- and career-ready, internationally-benchmarked academic standards and assessments aligned to those standards a central feature of the Race to the Top criteria This is an excellent starting point as states work to raise expectations and improve high schools.

Achieve’s comments to the Department focus on a few specific ways the Department could strengthen the connections between college- and career-ready standards and assessments and the other three core reform areas to ensure alignment among all areas of a state’s proposed reforms. Ultimately, we hope that both the RTTT and SFSF will provide states with support to accelerate their efforts to increase the rates at which students – particularly students in low- or under-performing schools – graduate equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed after high school.