After becoming one of 16 finalists, the U.S. Department of Education announced last week the state of Ohio would not receive government funding from the "Race to the Top" educational grant competition.
Delaware and Tennessee were named winners of the first phase of the competition March 29.
"We obviously wanted to be one of the two states to receive funding in this round, but we are proud of being one of the finalists," Allison Kolodziej, deputy communications director for the office of Gov. Ted Strickland, said.
According to Scott Blake, press secretary for the Ohio Department of Education, 40 states and the District of Columbia submitted applications for the first phase of the program. The applicants were then narrowed to 16 finalists based on the state's outlined plan to improve standards and assessments that prepare students for college and careers, develop and retain effective educators, create data systems to measure student success and turn around their lowest performing schools.
Panels of five peer reviewers scored applications independently and each state's final score was an average of the five reviewers' scores.
Ohio ranked 10th out of the 41 entities and was invited with other finalists to present their proposal, which asked for $409 million in funding, to the same panel reviewers last month.
Kolodziej said Gov. Strickland and four Ohio education officials traveled to Washington, D.C. for the presentation.
After losing the bid, the Ohio Department of Education has headed back to the drawing boards to prepare for phase two of the competition.
Miami University senior Kate Delaney went through a public school system in northeast Ohio, and said she hopes the state comes away from the second round a winner.
"The schools I went to ranked highly in the state, but still, additional funding could allow better programming and improvements within the districts that could be really beneficial for students," she said.
The program for reform includes $4 billion for statewide grants to improve public education. In the first phase, the department granted $600 million to its winners, leaving $3.4 billion available for states that plan to apply for the second phase of "Race to the Top."
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Applications for the second phase are due June 1, and winners of the grant funding will be announced in September.
Kolodziej said the state is beginning to review the scoring and feedback given from the panels to adjust Ohio's application for round two.
"We'll take the experience gained from this application round to present an even stronger application in the second round of funding," Kolodziej said.
Blake said one thing the state is looking to do is to engage more of Ohio's school districts in the efforts for reform.
He said the school districts and community schools had the option of signing onto the state's grant application by signing a Memorandum of Understanding.
The memorandum shows a commitment from the local education agencies and requires those who sign the understanding to implement specific standards should the state receive grant funding.
Of Ohio's 613 districts, 266 signed memorandums. Of those who signed, however, 214 were community schools, showing a lack of support from local districts.
"Based off early feedback from reviewers that would have liked to see more participation from our districts, we are trying to figure out how to engage them more in our efforts," Blake said.
Despite the lack of participation from many of the districts, receiving the grant would impact more than one million students, which is more than half of the students in the state.
"Our overarching goal is to improve education for students across the state, giving students, regardless of school or district, access to well prepared and great teachers," Blake said. "It's about increasing student achievement at all levels."
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