‘Race to the Top’ Should Require Education Reforms To Be Evaluated

October 7 -- The Race to the Top initiative -- a $4.35 billion grant program included in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to encourage state-level education reforms -- should require rigorous evaluations of the reform efforts it funds, says a new report from the National Research Council. However, the initiative should not prematurely promote the use of value-added approaches that evaluate teachers based on gains in their students' performance in high-stakes decision making.

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