Race to the Top
Last school year we informed you that Ohio was selected to receive federal “Race to the Top (RttT)” dollars. The Ledgemont Local School District was one of 538 school districts in Ohio that applied for and received this grant. We announced that our school district will receive $25,000 per year over the next four school years. This is a very restrictive grant, meaning that the money we receive must be used only for federal approved initiatives designed to transform education in our schools. On Friday, January 28, 2011, the Ohio Department of Education received its share of the RttT funds; $400 million. This money was made available to the school districts on January 31, 2011.
Under the Race to the Top guidelines, teachers are required to focus their instruction on the new, enhanced content standards. They need to develop assessments that measure student progress as well as help to direct instruction. Decisions are data driven so an emphasis is made on collecting accurate student, teacher, and building data. Teachers and principals need to increase their focus on student achievement, which will become a part of their performance evaluation. In short, the intent is to not just tweak, but to transform the way we teach.
Obviously, this is a daunting task but we have already begun much of this work through our district involvement in the Ohio Improvement Process (OIP). We have made a smooth transition from the OIP into the RttT transformational model. Building Leadership Teams have been established and will continue the work of the District Leadership Teams on a more localized level. Our Year-1 progress report has been approved by ODE and our Year-2 Scope of Work and budget have also been approved. We recently received our second $25,000 grant payment..
This type of initiative requires extensive teacher training and professional development. The “Race to the Top” grant is designed to provide the additional dollars needed for this training. The majority of the grant money will be spent in this area. Last school year, several teachers attended professional development programs that were selected and approved by the RttT Transformational Team because they fit within the scope of our work. This will continue for the remaining three years of the grant. We currently have several training sessions scheduled for the 2011-12 school year.
We are pleased to be a "Race to the Top" school district because the techniques and knowledge acquired will be applied in our classrooms and provide our students with 21st Century, high quality instruction.