Jim Garvey of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and Chris Meyer, special advisor to the state superintendent in the Department of Education, spoke to the St. Tammany Parish School Board Committee as a Whole on Human Resources and Education about the Federal competitive grant program, Race to the Top.

The Race to the Top funding is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly known as ARRA. The money available for the grants is $4 billion and will be awarded to about 10-12 states.

Revisions to the program requirements fueled questions from the board for over an hour asking for clarifications and other concerns. The process of achieving funding is to submit an application to the state consisting of a plan of how the funds would be used. The applications from each school system would be examined and then made a part of the state’s application for the program.

Questions remain on how the money will be distributed among the school districts that elect to participate, although emphasis will be on those who want to take their district to the next level as opposed to those districts that have underachieving schools.

Originally, St. Tammany only had one qualifying school under the 80-percentile mark, and Superintendent Gayle Sloan said that it would not have fallen in consideration under the old criteria because their score is 79.9 percent.

However, innovative programs and other considerations are now part of the criteria as opposed to only selecting those areas with underachieving schools and this would allow St. Tammany more of an opportunity to be selected for funding.

Meyer said that nationwide, Louisiana has gotten a good reputation for being “on the right path” in education reform and innovation.

The four “pillars” of the Race to the Top program are strong standards and assessment programs that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace and to compete in the global economy; building data systems that measure student growth and success and inform teachers and principals about how they can improve instruction; recruiting, developing, rewarding and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and turning around our lowest-achieving schools.

In addition, some of the priorities that will be considered in applications include the district and state’s comprehensive approach to education reform; an emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math; innovations for improving early learning outcomes; and expansion and adaptation of statewide longitudinal data systems.

Meyer said that unlike the rest of the country, Louisiana is already at the forefront of the country in creating a value added system for teachers. In the past, a widget-effect theory considered teachers as interchangeable parts in the education process. Meyer said this has been disproved and part of the value added assessment program will help determine which teachers are most effective and why, and also in which area a particularly teachers may need professional development.

School board member Jack Loup asked what the requirements will be for funding after the program ends. Meyer explained that it will be the state’s responsibility to keep the proven outcomes of reform and money would be distributed much like Title I money is currently distributed.

Sloan said that currently the district is carefully spending stimulus funding it has received and the programs, such as graduation coaching, that have been started using stimulus funds are only on a two-year trial period. Whether they can continue will depend on measurable results at the end of the two years. Sloan said that additional personnel that have been hired know that the programs will be evaluated carefully to determine whether they will continue when stimulus funding runs out.

She added that with the Race to the Top funds, the district would have four years to pilot a new program instead of two.

Garvey and Meyer stated that the district is not under any obligation or commitment to continue programs that are not supported by results.

Other board members showed concern about the long-range effects the funding may have on current MFP and other state and Federal funding the district relies upon.

There is also a concern that more revisions to the plan may be made that would change goals and funding requirements.

Of the goals of national education is to develop national standards of what course material students should know at each grade level. The same standards would be used in each state so a real comparison could be made from state to state that is not available presently.

The use of longitudinal assessments would consider where the students start and then where they end as opposed to current testing or assessment methods that only consider where a student is on a given day.

Board members Charles Harrell said that the plan doesn’t seem to be well thought out at this point. Sloan said that the changes reflected in the plan are the result of feedback from educators throughout the country that reviewed the plan.

Sloan concluded the session by telling the presenters, “If w decide to play, you’d get a great return on your investment.” The board will consider applying for the funding after further review of the finalized program, including conference calls in December.