States rewrite education rules, with or without Race to the Top

"Losing out on the federal grant "was more of an opportunity to lay out our plan for reform."

Some of the states rejected for federal "Race to the Top" education grants are proceeding to revamp their school systems anyway — in some cases more ambitiously than states that won.

Colorado, for example, is moving forward with a new system tying teacher and principal reviews to student performance. That sort of linkage is central to the Race to the Top program. "We’ve had dramatic changes," says Mike Johnston, a Democratic state senator who sponsored the legislation creating the new system. Johnston says losing out on the federal grant "was more of an opportunity to lay out our plan for reform."

By Ben Wieder, Stateline Staff Writer

Full Story: http://www.stateline.org/live/details/story?contentId=607542