Melrose and Mass. Racing To The Top Again

Melrose school officials are in a holding pattern — again.

The second phase of Race to the Top, a $4.35 billion competitive federal education grant initiative funded through the stimulus package, begins this summer and Massachusetts — after losing out on the first round of funding this spring — is once again seeking its share with a revised application, which will be reviewed this summer along with applications from 34 other states and the District of Columbia. Awards should be announced by the end of September.

In January, Superintendent Joe Casey, the executive board of the Melrose Education Association teacher's union, and the Melrose School Committee all signed off on participation in the Race to the Top program.

At Tuesday night's School Committee meeting, Casey said the state has worked to supplement and enhance its application to the U.S. Department of Education.

"Melrose has continued its unwavering support of Race to the Top," he said, making a point to thank the Melrose Education Association for partnering with Melrose school administration and the School Committee.

While Massachusetts was one of 16 finalists out of 41 applicants in the first round of grant awarding, in March the Obama administration only awarded Race to the Top $600 million between two states, Delaware and Tennessee.

Along with $350 million Race to the Top funds set aside for a separate competition to improve the quality of assessments, that left $3.4 billion for the second phase of grant awards, designed to encourage education reforms. The U.S. Department of Education has announced that depending on the size of the winning state, 10-15 states could win grants in this second round.

Committee member J.D. LaRock, who is policy director for the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education, told his fellow committee members Tuesday night that Massachusetts has had even more local school districts sign on to participate in Race to the Top since the first phase of grant awards, which should help the state's application. On the other hand, since the first phase of awards, other states have passed education bills designed to initiate reforms to increase their chances of winning Race to the Top funds — just as Massachusetts did in January this year.

In the first phase of awards, Massachusetts' application was highly related in the area of turning around under-performing schools, but lost points for not adopting what were still undeveloped national core standards, which the state opted against because "Massachusetts is acknowledged as having the highest standards in the nation," LaRock said.

The most substantive revisions in the state's second application are in the area of teacher evaluation, LaRock said. The new application now proposes statewide implementation of revised teacher evaluation regulations that will be formulated by a variety of groups, including teachers unions.

"Under Massachusetts state law, local school committees working with their unions decide exactly how teachers will be evaluated," LaRock said. "The scope was ambitious. We're hopeful that will generate more points."

Massachusetts state officials have said that the state could potentially receive $250 million through Race to the Top, of which 50 percent must be disbursed to participating school districts such as Melrose over four years; the total amount each district would receive is determined by its funding for Title I funding, a federal program for extending extra help to students. Local school districts could apply in a competitive grant program for the remaining 50 percent of funds.