By Jim Broadway, Publisher, State School News Service
The General Assembly was so sure Illinois would receive a federal Race to the Top grant that the legislature appropriated the anticipated $400 million before adjourning last spring to hit the campaign trail.
But when the U.S. Department of Education revealed its list of winners today, Illinois was not on the list. After coming in fifth in Round 1, and strengthening its application in the meantime, the State Board of Education has graciously accepted that it will receive no RTTT funding.
State Superintendents Chris Koch was to hold a news conference on the subject at 1 p.m. Matt Vanover, ISBE spokesman, expressed the agency’s “disappointment” about the outcome, but stressed that Koch believes Illinois education is “better because of the competition.”
The state will proceed with many of the programs included in the RTTT application – the longitudinal data system, the efforts to improve the teaching and educational administrative corps, for example – but “we’re just going to do those things at a slower pace.”