© Copyright 2009, California Business for Education Excellence Foundation. All rights reserved.

Duncan to CA: Don't Count Your Race to the Top Funds Yet
by Michele McNeil and Alyson Klein (EdWeek)

Just because California has removed its teacher-student data fire wall, thereby making itself eligible to compete for Race to the Top Fund grants, that doesn't mean the state is a shoe-in for the money.

In fact, it seems that Education Secretary Arne Duncan is trying to temper expectations by building a larger narrative that any changes prompted by Race to the Top also could put states in better position for other stimulus-related education grant competitions. After all, the Education Department realizes it can't give $4 billion in Race to the Top money to every state. (But, it's worth pointing out that California was often singled out by Duncan for having the firewall, and did act swiftly to get rid of it.)

"This is a piece of a much larger package," he said in a phone interview today, pointing to some $10 billion in discretionary funds under the stimulus program, such as the school-improvement grants, or the "i3" innovation grants.

Sacramento Town Hall Call to Action

Taking Action to Raise Student Academic Achievement
Presented by James Lanich, Ph.D.

Results from Benchmark Survey
Presented by Ron Eckstein

On May 13th the California Business for Education Excellence Foundation and area business leaders held it's culminating Town Hall called Raising Student Achievement and Closing Achievement Gaps in our public schools.

The Sacramento Town Hall was a huge success with presentations by James Lanich, Ph.D. President of California Business for Education Excellence and Ron Ecskstein, Analyst with Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. Followed by a Best Practices Panel of high performing principals.