Last week, the Department released final documents for the $3.5 billion School Improvement Grant program. This gives the nation's school districts an unprecedented sum of money to invest in??Secretary Duncan's prized strategy (and my bete noire): turnarounds.
I think that these funds will make few meaningful, lasting changes to the nation's most persistently failing schools. But the die is cast, and this money will start flowing shortly.
At this point, my hope is that the Department conducts a large-scale evaluation of this program like it's doing with the Race to the Top. Unfortunately, we're likely to have low-performing schools in the years to come; it would be helpful to know whether and how this type of massive federal investment can help. (More here.)