State competes for piece of federal pie

South Carolina could learn this week whether it's a finalist for nearly $300 million in federal Race to the Top money.

Forty states and Washington, D.C., have applied for a portion of $4.35 billion that would go to comprehensive education reform in four areas:

-- Adopting standards and tests that prepare students to compete globally.

-- Building systems to measure student growth and improve instruction.

-- Recruiting and retaining top teachers and principals.

-- Turning around low-achieving schools.

Winners of the first round of two grant awards will be announced in April.

Federal officials haven't decided how many states will win money in the first round, but Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said there probably will be more losers than winners in the first round, and investments will be made in states that can be national leaders in reform.

States that don't receive money initially will be able to apply again. Betsy Carpentier, who oversaw South Carolina's more than 1,200-page application, said the state would reapply.

"We're so far ahead of most of other states," she said. "I think we're real competitive."

Many education experts think Louisiana and Florida are the country's frontrunners for the money. South Carolina has some strengths, particularly in the application section involving educator recruitment, evaluation and retention, but it has weaknesses in other policy areas, said Liam Goldrick, director of policy for the New Teacher Center, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve student learning by accelerating the effectiveness of teachers and school leaders.

"I would be very surprised if (South Carolina) was selected in the first round, although I think it has a chance in round two," he said.

The exact chances of the Palmetto State and many others largely will be determined by the federal government's cut scores and how many states can secure the grant funding overall, he said. If it is no more than 10 states, South Carolina's chances are low; if it's more than 20, the state's chances improve "markedly," he said.

State's applications will be scored on a 500-point scale, and more than half of those points are assigned to initiatives already in place. The remaining points are given to state's plans for the future. Carpentier said South Carolina has a number of programs that should earn it points, such as a statewide system for evaluating teachers, high academic standards for students, a system to roll those out to teachers and a pilot project that links teacher effectiveness to their college alma mater. The state has a well-developed data system with extensive capabilities in terms of linking student performance to areas such as crime, health and social services, she said.

Carpentier said the biggest change the state would see if it were to receive the money would be a shift in the way the state defines an effective educator. Businesses have used performance measures for years, but schools haven't, she said.

Some federal money would be used to create a system that measures how much students grow in a year, she said. An effective teacher would be one who moves a student one grade level and a highly effective teacher would move students more than that, she said. Teachers would be evaluated on their students' performance, and training and pay would be based on that review.

Reach Diette Courrégé at 937-5546 or dcourrege@postandcourier.com.