Georgia was one of nine states and the District of Columbia to receive millions of dollars from the Race to the Top Fund from the U.S. Department of Education.  Georgia will receive $400 million.

Not all districts in Georgia will participate in the Race to the Top grant.  Three large districts in the Atlanta area, including Fulton and Cobb Counties decided not to participate.  One reason is that schools who do participate in the Department of Education proposal will have to evaluate teachers on a yet to be developed system that will no doubt include performance evaluations based in part on student achievement growth as measured on high stakes tests.  The districts participating also will have to embrace the Common Core Standards in mathematics and language arts.  The proposals funded by the U.S. Department of Education also include provisions for improving data collection and tracking systems, as well as increasing the number of charter schools in the state.

There is controversy over the research that supports these “reform” efforts, especially using the student achievement as a way to pay teachers, and the effectiveness of charter schools.

I’ll explore these two efforts, and identify some studies that shed light on why we should question the veracity of the Race to the Top assumptions, and whether this Federal program is the kind of reform that American education needs.