Louisiana isn't making the progress it promised with a $17.4 million grant to improve public schools, according to an article in Education Week's Politics K-12 blog. The money was awarded in December 2011 as a "consolation prize" for states that were runners-up in 2010's $4.4 billion Race to the Top competition, which directed federal economic recovery money to school reform.
Seven states split $200 million in the runner-up funds, with Louisiana and Pennsylvania showing the least progress so far, EdWeek said.
As laid out in a U.S. Department of Education background sheet, Louisiana's plan focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Among other elements, the state's plan called for creating math teacher training units around the new, more rigorous Common Core education standards, implementing a system to measure teacher effectiveness, using data to improve teaching and "invest(ing) in scaling and incubating high-performing charter operators."
However, according to a recent report covering December 2011 to December 2012, implementation of this agenda "was delayed because of new state leadership and the need to align the Race to the Top plan with other statewide reform efforts." That timeframe saw a sweeping set of education laws that drastically changed the teacher evaluation system, among other elements. State Superintendent John White stepped into his current job in January 2012.
In an interview with EdWeek, White disagreed with the feds' assessment. In fact, he said, Louisiana is making quick progress on improving teacher effectiveness and data systems, even if it hadn't checked all the bureaucratic boxes mentioned in the report.
About one third of the state's local public school systems participated in the project. The report notes that the state exceeded its high school graduation goal.
For the second year of funding, Louisiana promised to "continue to provide guidance and support" in the transition to the new teacher evaluations, expand a database of test questions and add new math and science Advanced Placement tests.