Notes on the Race to the Top Summit, Round 2

After presenting in Washington this past Tuesday, Commissioner Chester believes that only a few states (3,4, or 5) will be funded under Round 1. "I don't at all take for granted that we will be funded."
If MA is not, they will reapply in Round 2, due in June, with notification in September, and funds by the end of the year.
Should MA get funded, districts will have 90 days from the notification to submit plans (say, end of June).
There was speculation (from the armchair quarterbacks, as Chester says) that MA was weak on the "teacher/principal effectiveness" measure on the application, as MA did not, as some states did, lay out a particular amount for which they would value test scores (one state said 51% of any teacher's evaluation would be test scores). The commissioner says they are enlisting teachers, administrators, school committee members on board in reworking teacher measures. "The strength of our application is that we've given local authorities a seat at the design table," he says. "We see this as a strength, not a weakness."
(Just as a sidenote: does anyone else see the irony here? This is the same Commissioner that used that same single measure to designate Level 4 schools.)

He then walked us through the choices of how districts might allocate their funds. Everyone has to do something around teacher effectiveness, whether piloting a new program or weighing in on those who do (and eventually reworking their own), but beyond that and the Level 4's, you can choose from six options, allocating resources across four years as the district deems responsible for those projects.