District Receives $33K in Race to Top State Funds

The Commack Union Free School District will receive $33,894 in state "Race to the Top" funds.

"To date the District has not determined how the funds will be utilized.  However, in a District the size of Commack, the $33,000 amounts to approximately $4.40 per student.  Clearly, we will work diligently to determine how best to apply these monies in an effort to positively impact student achievement," Superintendent Dr. Donald James said. 

Long Island is receiving 2.3 percent ($8 million) of the $348.3 million allotted by the state.

Brentwood will receive the most - $867,637 - in Suffolk County, while Freeport leads Nassau by getting $348,602.

According to state education officials, districts will be able to compete for grants from the pool of $133.6 million. This money will go towards districts with much more grave financial issues compared to where Sachem sits.

New York, California and Texas are grouped into Category 1 of the U.S. Department of Education's system for allocating Race to the Top funds, meaning those states receive between $350-700 million.

In August, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that 10 applicants won grants in the second phase of the Race to the Top competition. Along with Phase 1 winners Delaware and Tennessee, 11 states and the District of Columbia were awarded money in the Obama Administration's education reform program that will directly impact 13.6 million students, and 980,000 teachers in 25,000 schools.

The 10 winning Phase 2 applications were: the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island.

"These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children," said Duncan in a statement from the U.S. Government. "Every state that applied showed a tremendous amount of leadership and a bold commitment to education reform. The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking," Duncan said. "We set a high bar and these states met the challenge."

The Race to the Top program includes $4 billion for statewide reform grants and $350 million to support states working together to improve the quality of their assessments, which the Department awarded this week. The Race to the Top state competition is designed to reward states that are leading the way in comprehensive, coherent, statewide education reform across four key areas:

• Adopting standards and assessments that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace;
• Building data systems that measure student growth and success, and inform teachers and principals how to improve instruction;
• Recruiting, developing, rewarding, and retaining effective teachers and principals, especially where they are needed most; and
• Turning around their lowest-performing schools.