Race to the Top is a multi-billion dollar federal aid initiative to align curriculum, instruction, student achievement growth and performance appraisal. The initiative is a more sophisticated approach to documenting student performance and accountability, and requires school districts to:
- Incorporate student achievement growth into teacher and principal evaluation
- Document value-added impact and return on investment for programs and interventions
- Reframe effectiveness as student academic progress rather than minimum proficiency
- Align curricular programming and instructional interventions (e.g. RTI) to Illinois Learning Standards and the new national Common Core State Standards
- Adopt a value-added growth model for individual student growth targeting
ECRA Group offers a comprehensive array of research and analytical related to the Race to the Top initiative, including:
- Development of Race to the Top Implementation Plan
- Value-added growth modeling for teacher and program evaluation
- Curriculum alignment to Illinois Learning Standards and national Common Core State Standards
- EXPLORE data analysis for course placement and achievement projections Response to Intervention (RTI) planning and evaluation
- 360° evaluations for instructional leaders
- Curriculum audits Assessment system development
- Local test development and psychometric services
