Oregon applies for $200M education grant

Oregon education leaders have applied for $200 million of the $4 billion in federal stimulus money allocated to education reform.

Oregon’s application for the Race to the Top money targets four areas for reform:

• Improving the state’s lowest-performing schools.
• Hiring and retaining effective teachers and principals.
• Increasing standards.
• Building a Web portal to make it easier for educators to share data and improve classroom instruction.
• The application also calls for the establishment of the Education Coordinating Council to implement the reforms and report to the governor.

Nearly 200 education leaders worked on the application. It includes agreements with 112 school districts and nearly 40 teachers unions. Those groups represent 77 percent of Oregon students and 75 percent of Oregon students living in poverty.

Such support is considered critical to the success of the application.

The first round of Race to the Top grants will be awarded in April.