After all these years, we may soon find out just how committed Washington is to innovation in education reform. The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), includes a $5 billion “Race to the Top Fund.” The fund will reward innovation and change, by awarding incentive grants to states that show progress in the following four areas:

• Boosting teacher effectiveness and getting more good teachers into high-poverty, high-minority schools
• Setting up data systems to track how much a student has learned from one year to the next
• Improving academic standards and tests
• Supporting struggling schools

The fund should be viewed as an opportunity that Washington should not pass up. Funding could go towards programs that can help create a higher quality 21st century education for Washington’s students. Details of the “Race to the Top Fund” are currently being planned by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. Yet, some states are wasting no time on taking action.

From edweek.org:
“States and districts are already evening the money in the $5 billion discretionary fund. New York City officials, for example, are considering applying for a grant to supplement the $20 million in local funds the city has dedicated to new bonuses for employees in schools that improve student achievement.”

This is a rare opportunity to receive funds that can support innovation and help improve education in Washington. And although our state has passed up grants like these before—that proved to be a mistake—that was then, and the “Race to the Top” is now.