Florida is promoting Japanese “lesson study” teacher collaboration. Georgia is replicating one school district’s promising method for training assistant principals and principals. And Maryland wants to create a separate certification for teachers in science- and math-related subjects in its elementary schools—where educators typically work as generalists, covering all subjects.
Those are just a few of the less-publicized projects included in winning states’ Race to the Top plans, which I looked at in a story this week. While most of the attention paid to the $4 billion competition centers on big-ticket efforts in areas such as teacher pay and evaluation, charter schools, and standards, states are also using their awards (worth anywhere between $75 million and $700 milllion) to experiment in other ways.
What are some of the other, under-the-radar Race to the Top projects playing out in the states?