Drew Angerer/AP
Unlike other federal educational grants, the Race to the Top grant program is geared towards helping all students improve their educational achievements and not just those in low performing school districts. Through this educational grant program the state of Ohio will receive $400 million in grants over the next four years, helping all types of students and school districts along the way.
While many of the schools that will benefit from this federal grant money are some of the best school districts in the state, the Race to the Top program is designed to help these schools improve the educations that they provide their students. Specific parts of the Race to the Top program are setting standards, assessing the progress of students, installing data systems to support teachers, and hiring the best teachers available.
There are several main goals of the Race to the Top program that are expected to be achieved by 2013. These goals include increasing high school graduation rates by 0.5%, reducing graduation rate gaps by 50% between under-represented and majority students, reduce the performance gaps by 50% on national and statewide assessment tests, reduce the gap between Ohio and the best performing states by 50% on all national assessment tests concerning reading and mathematics, and double the increase of college enrollment of students age 19 and younger.
Many of the school districts that were awarded the federal grant money through the Race to the Top program view this money as a way to change the way they currently educate their students. With this increase in funding teachers will be able to alter their lessons plans so that they are developing their lesson plans in such a way that their students will learn what they need to know for state and national standardized tests. The added ability to perform frequent assessments on whether or not the students are comprehending the material will also allow teachers to make adjustments on the fly if they notice their students are struggling with specific material. These teaching adjustments are sure to have a great impact on the standardized test scores of many students, allowing them to further their education by attending college once they graduate from high school.
