The Maryville School District is among 61 finalists for the Education Department’s Race to the Top District competition.
The department is offering close to $400 million to support local plans to personalize and deepen student learning, improve achievement, and prepare students for college and careers. By the end of the year, the department expects to select 15 to 25 districts to receive four-year awards that will range from $5 million to $40 million.
Two other Missouri school systems, in Jefferson City and St Louis, were listed as finalists.
The 61 finalists, representing more than 200 school districts, were selected from 372 applications the Department received in November, to demonstrate how districts could personalize education for students and provide school leaders and teachers with key tools that support them to meet students’ needs.
“These finalists are setting the curve for the rest of the country with innovative plans to drive education reform in the classroom,” U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said. “This competition was designed to support local efforts to close the achievement gap and transform the learning environment in a diverse set of districts; but no matter who wins, children across the country will benefit from the clear vision and track records of success demonstrated by these finalists.”
Race to the Top-District applications were randomly assigned to three-person panels that independently read and scored each application, with independent reviewers’ scores averaged to determine a district’s score. The Department arranged the applications in rank order from high to low scores and determined which were the strongest competitors to invite back based on “natural breaks” – i.e. scoring gaps in the lineup. The top 61 applications were then selected as finalists.
The finalists represent a range of districts, both rural and non-rural, from both Race to the Top states and non-Race to the Top states.
The Department expects to select 15-25 winning applications from the Race to the Top-District competition for four-year awards that will range from $5 million to $40 million, depending on the population of students served through the plan. Awards will be announced no later than Dec. 31, 2012.