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Mayor Fenty, OSSE, State Board Apply for Historic Race to the Top Funding

Wednesday, January 20, 2010
DC submitted its application for $112 million in new federal funding for additional education reforms

(Washington, DC) Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, State Superintendent Kerri Briggs, and State Board of Education Chair Lisa Raymond today applied for $112 million dollars to implement aggressive education reforms as part of President Obama’s Race to the Top Fund. DC’s application emphasizes the District’s strong reform efforts and the District’s unique ability to implement reforms quickly.

“DC is at the forefront in reforming education, we’re seeing fantastic results for our students, and our application takes these efforts to the next level,” said Mayor Fenty. “We’re optimistic that DC will receive this historic funding to help our schools build on growing achievement.”

The application was developed by OSSE, the District of Columbia Public Schools, the State Board of Education, and charter schools in working groups, led by the Deputy Mayor for Education’s office. The application is signed by DC Attorney General, State Superintendent Kerri Briggs, and State Board President Lisa Raymond, as required.

“Our application was truly a district-wide collaboration,” said Superintendent Briggs. “Our constant communication with working groups and community forums brought together policymakers, teachers, and parents to write this very strong application.”

The reforms will be implemented by OSSE and 31 LEAs (DCPS and 30 charter LEAs), which enroll 85 percent of the District’s public education students. All LEAs signed on to the application through Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs).

The application centers on four main areas:

  • Standards & Assessments: adopting the Common Core standards as a state, rolling out professional development and aligned assessments (including interims) across LEAs
  • Data and Accountability: ensuring that every school has ability to use school-, classroom-, and student-level data to drive instruction; completion of SLED
  • Great Teachers and Leaders: evaluating teachers and principals, based at least 50 percent on student performance; strengthening teacher pipelines, professional development and leadership training
  • Turning around Struggling Schools: intervening in the lowest-achieving schools with one of 4 prescribed models: turnaround, restart, closure, and transformation.

More information can be found at: OSSE's Race to the Top page

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