Race to the Top: Worcester

So, what is Worcester up to?

Worcester considering/opting in on (*some of which are required):

*teacher evaluation framework

*common core standards alignment (the irony (?) here is that everyone in the state is going to have to do this [barring, perhaps, a change in the Governor's office], but the districts doing RTTT might actually get some money for looking at what's done now and how it compares to Core, AND possibly getting money for new curriculum)

*climate, conditions, school culture strengthening (some talk here about having teachers, parents, and students all surveyed around school climate)

*School Interoperability Framework (acronym, inevitably: SIF): Worcester's been on this one for awhile. This is a statewide data system, basically.

*percent of graduates completing MassCore (this may well involve reworking our district requirements for high school graduation)

*teacher and learning system pilot

-possibly a wraparound zone (we're already doing this with the Promise Neighborhood grant; there's some question of if we should put this on the RTTT application as well)

-innovation schools (again, already doing work on this in the South Quadrant, but there's state support for this)

-early college science/math (yes, STEM) high schools (there's some ongoing thought at North/WEMS/elementary schools on this)

The starred ones are definite, as they are required. The others are ones that came up and are under administrative consideration to greater or lesser degrees. The School Committee will get more of an update--maybe next week?--on what's rolling forward. And again, all of this is happening SOON, as the preliminary plan is due to the state in two weeks.