I just heard Arne Duncan speak at a Policy Innovators in Education Network conference, and he indicated that we'll know shortly which states will take home the prize in Race to the Top's round one. He also reiterated--for about the thousandth time--that it's going to be a "very very" high bar. I'm willing to place my bet: it will be handful of states, as in five or fewer. I'd love to see Delaware, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia get the money. With just 350,000 public school students among them--or less than 1 percent of the U.S. total--a couple of billion dollars could really go far!
-Mike Petrilli
