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

To contact ECRA about how we can help improve your board please click here.