|
|
|  | |||
|
Find Your Congressman & Senators |
|
| |||
Race to the Top Final Priorities Released - Some Changes Support Educational Publishing IndustryNov. 12, 2009—The Department of Education has released the final priorities for the Race to the Top Competition. AEP submitted comments to ensure that students and teachers would be able to use a range of high quality instructional materials to meet the goals of the competition and that the educational publishing market was not hampered by the competition's requirements. Click here to read a summary of the areas AEP commented on, the other comments received by the Dept. of Ed., a discussion by the Dept. of the suggested changes, and the final outcome. Overall, it appears that AEP was successful in getting the Department to protect the copyright of proprietary materials used in conjunction with Race to the Top grants, use local data--as well as statewide information--to assess local professional development and instructional needs, and support differentiated instruction as part of instructional reform. However, the Department did not use our specific language regarding a variety of instructional programs for intervention but instead said that the language already supports flexibility. Finally, although not a part of AEP's requests, another commenter submitted questions regarding the use of the term evidence-based versus research-based. The Department declined to comment since the term scientifically-based research was not used, and thus, does not bind the instructional materials to the current ESEA's language and definitions. There are significant differences between the proposed priorities and the final notice, but the most obvious one appears to be synchronizing the language used across all of the ARRA programs (Race to the Top, i3, and School Improvement Grants.) For example, in the Race to the Top, Struggling Schools are now called Lowest-Achieving Schools. "Second, the Department has fully aligned the school intervention requirements and definitions across Race to the Top, the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund, and the forthcoming Title I School Improvement Grants final notice. The Department's intention, in so doing, is to make it easier for States to develop consistent and coherent plans across these three programs." Note that the changed definitions reflects the Department's emphasis on data collection and comparing data across schools and states to measure improvement and identify areas of need. Furthermore, numerous changes were made to defining what data was applicable in different situations, including the use of local data to target professional development. | |||||
|
© 2011 The Association of
Educational Publishers | |||||
