• July 29, 2010
• July 22, 2010
• May 27, 2010
• May 13, 2010
• April 29, 2010
• April 15, 2010
• April 1, 2010
• March 18, 2010
• March 4, 2010
• February 25, 2010
• February 4, 2010
• January 21, 2010
• January 14, 2010
• January 7, 2010
• December 17, 2009
• December 10, 2009
• December 3, 2009
• November 26, 2009
• November 19, 2009
• November 12, 2009
• November 5, 2009
• October 29, 2009
• October 22, 2009
• October 15, 2009
• October 8, 2009
• October 1, 2009
• September 24, 2009
• September 17, 2009
• September 10, 2009
• September 3, 2009
• August 20, 2009
• August 13, 2009
• August 6, 2009

Every Thursday, REL-NEI highlights state-based resources, press releases, and news around the Northeast and Islands Region related to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). For a listing of REL Issues & Answers Reports categorized under ARRA topics and domains, click here.

Race to the Top Nearing First Finish Line

First-round applications to the $4.35 billion federal Race to the Top (RTTT) Fund are due on Monday, January 19th, and some states across the Northeast and Islands Region are still finalizing details. According to media reports:

• Rhode Island Education Commissioner Deborah Gist is negotiating with the teachers unions to get their support for the RTTT plan; the sticking point is how much students’ standardized test scores will count in teacher evaluations (Providence Journal).
• New York Gov. David Patterson may call state lawmakers to Albany for a special session on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, to consider legislation raising the state’s charter school cap (New York Daily News).
• The Connecticut State Department of Education plans to go after $175 million from RTTT, but as of Monday night, January 11th, less than half of the state’s 166 school districts had signed on to the application (Danbury News-Times).

In other RTTT news, an EdWeek blogger speculates about where the money might go if selection of winners were purely political.

On January 13th, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools issued a press release stating that Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Rhode Island are among 13 states that “fail to meet” a key RTTT guideline, and therefore should be disqualified, because they have laws limiting charter-school growth. At the same time, a new report (PDF) from the alliance that ranks state charter-school laws has Massachusetts and New York listed in the Top 10 states having positive policy environments for charter schools.

On January 11th, Connecticut Education Commissioner Mark McQuillan announced (PDF) three new education reform initiatives that will improve student achievement in the state:

1. A $175 million application to RTTT;
2. Membership in the New England Secondary School Consortium (NESSC); and
3. Involvement with the national Common Core State Standards Initiative.

For more information, visit these ARRA-related websites across the Northeast and Islands Region:

U.S. Department of Education

http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/leg/recovery/index.html

State Recovery Sites

http://www.recovery.gov/?q=content/state-local-tribal-and-territorial-resources

State Education Agency Recovery Sites

• Connecticut: http://www.sde.ct.gov/sde/cwp/view.asp?a=2703&Q=322296
• Maine: http://www.maine.gov/education/recovery/index.html
• Massachusetts: http://www.doe.mass.edu/arra/
• New Hampshire: http://www.ed.state.nh.us/education/recovery/index.htm
• New York: http://uspeny.nysed.gov/arra/
• Rhode Island: http://www.ride.ri.gov/Finance/Funding/ARRA/
• Vermont: http://education.vermont.gov/new/html/dept/recovery_act.html
• Puerto Rico: http://www.buengobiernopr.com/arra/index.html
• U.S. Virgin Islands: http://www.governordejongh.com/recovery/index.html

Education Week’s “Schools and the Stimulus”

http://www.edweek.org/ew/collections/schools-stimulus/index.html