Education Funding

Race to Top’s Other ‘Finalists’

March 05, 2010 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

The Sweet Sixteen—15 states and the District of Columbia —are the obvious winners in moving one step closer to claiming a piece of the $4 billion Race to the Top prize.

But there are behind-the-scenes victors in this big elimination round, too. Let’s call them the Shadow Finalists.

One of the biggies is the Boston-based Mass Insight Education and Research Institute. All six states that Mass Insight has partnered with to use its strategies for turning around low-performing schools are finalists. Is that coincidence? Or was that a feature of each state’s application that stood out to the Race to the Top reviewers? Either way, it’s good news for Mass Insight.

Another is the Gates Foundation. Fourteen of the 16 actual finalists had $250,000 in Gates dough to help polish their applications. And then there are the four consulting firms—McKinsey and Co., among them—that Gates required the applicants to use. It wasn’t a perfect victory for Gates, though. Several states that had an assistance grant from the foundation didn’t make it to the final round, and two states that it turned down for help—Delaware and South Carolina—did.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, cast the finalist status of the District of Columbia as an endorsement of Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s controversial, hard-charging agenda for the public schools in the nation’s capital.

No doubt there are dozens of other unnamed, or little-known beneficiaries of yesterday’s finalists announcement. If you know who they are, email me at lmaxwell@epe.org or leave a comment.

A version of this news article first appeared in the State EdWatch blog.

Events

Ed-Tech Policy Webinar Artificial Intelligence in Practice: Building a Roadmap for AI Use in Schools
AI in education: game-changer or classroom chaos? Join our webinar & learn how to navigate this evolving tech responsibly.
Education Webinar Developing and Executing Impactful Research Campaigns to Fuel Your Ed Marketing Strategy 
Develop impactful research campaigns to fuel your marketing. Join the EdWeek Research Center for a webinar with actionable take-aways for companies who sell to K-12 districts.
This content is provided by our sponsor. It is not written by and does not necessarily reflect the views of Education Week's editorial staff.
Sponsor
Privacy & Security Webinar
Navigating Cybersecurity: Securing District Documents and Data
Learn how K-12 districts are addressing the challenges of maintaining a secure tech environment, managing documents and data, automating critical processes, and doing it all with limited resources.
Content provided by Softdocs

EdWeek Top School Jobs

Teacher Jobs
Search over ten thousand teaching jobs nationwide — elementary, middle, high school and more.
View Jobs
Principal Jobs
Find hundreds of jobs for principals, assistant principals, and other school leadership roles.
View Jobs
Administrator Jobs
Over a thousand district-level jobs: superintendents, directors, more.
View Jobs
Support Staff Jobs
Search thousands of jobs, from paraprofessionals to counselors and more.
View Jobs

Read Next

Education Funding Biden's Budget Proposes Smaller Bump to Education Spending
The president requested increases to Title I and IDEA, and funding to expand preschool access in his 2025 budget proposal.
7 min read
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on lowering prices for American families during an event at the YMCA Allard Center on March 11, 2024, in Goffstown, N.H. Biden's administration released its 2025 budget proposal, which includes a modest spending increase for the Education Department.
Evan Vucci/AP
Education Funding States Are Pulling Back on K-12 Spending. How Hard Will Schools Get Hit?
Some states are trimming education investments as financial forecasts suggest boom times may be over.
6 min read
Collage illustration of California state house and U.S. currency background.
F. Sheehan for Education Week / Getty
Education Funding Using AI to Guide School Funding: 4 Takeaways
One state is using AI to help guide school funding decisions. Will others follow?
5 min read
 Illustration of a robot hand drawing a graph line leading to budget and finalcial spending.
iStock/Getty
Education Funding A State Uses AI to Determine School Funding. Is This the Future or a Cautionary Tale?
Nevada reworked its funding formula hoping to target extra aid to students most in need. What happened could hold lessons for other states.
13 min read
Illustration of robotic hand putting coins into jar.
iStock / Getty Images Plus