By Brian Williams, Times of Northwest Indiana
brian.williams@nwi.com
The potential $250 million -- or more -- in federal funds is likely to be the only additional money Hoosier schools are going to see for a long time.
In general, it can't be used to offset the $300 million in cuts schools start making this month due to the state's budget crisis.
The new competitive federal grant program known as Race to the Top is designed to drive educational reforms -- not, for example, to shore up high school electives or add a middle school language program.
Instead, the program could result in more catch-up help for students and advanced training for teachers, Merrillville schools Superintendent Tony Lux said.
The federal reform effort focuses on four areas: adopting internationally benchmarked standards and assessments; building data systems that measure student growth and improve instructional practice; realigning development and evaluation of teachers and principals; intervening to turn around lowest-achieving schools.
Shares of the $4.35 billion federal funding will go only to states serious about education reform and structural changes, Indiana Department of Education spokesman Cam Savage said.
Fast Forward, the state's version of the plan, will be "very aggressive in terms of reform," Savage said.
School districts intending to take part in the plan must submit a partnership agreement signed by the superintendent, board president and union leader to the DOE by Tuesday. The state's application to the U.S. Education Department is due one week later. Awards will be announced in April.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett has kept details of Indiana's plan under wraps, saying he doesn't want competing states to borrow from them. As a result, several area unions have not yet decided if they will support their district's bid.
JoAnne DeFries, head of the Hebron teachers union, said secrecy has left unknowns.
"It's uncomfortable to sign on to something you haven't read," DeFries said.
One concern is a provision in the Indiana plan requiring at least 51 percent of teacher and principal evaluations to be based on a new student growth model.
"No one has seen this growth model yet," DeFries said.
East Porter County teachers union leader Greg Simms said that student growth measured by tests, it is unclear how teachers of subjects not assessed by a statewide test would be evaluated.
Indiana could receive in the range of $250 million, but because the grants are competitive, the state could also get nothing, Savage said. A second round of funding will be available in June.