Magnet Schools of America

The District of Columbia along with Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina and Tennessee have been selected as finalists for the $4.35 billion Race to the Top grant. For more information, please see http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2010/03/03042010.html 

The Department of Education has released the final priorities regarding the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3). These grants will (1) allow eligible entities to expand and develop innovative practices that can serve as models of best practices, (2) allow eligible entities to work in partnership with the private sector and the philanthropic community, and (3) identify and document best practices that can be shared and taken to scale based on demonstrated success.

Pre-Application Meetings

Pre-application meetings are designed to provide technical assistance to interested applicants for all three types of grants under the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3).

• Baltimore, Maryland on Friday, March 19, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the BWI Marriot
• Denver, Colorado on Wednesday, March 24, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Marriot Denver Airport at Gateway Park
• Atlanta, Georgia on Tuesday, March 30, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Atlanta Airport

Interested applicants who wish to attend the Investing in Innovation (i3) Pre-Application Workshops or Pre- Application Webinars, must register online.

The full notice may be accessed here

The Department of Ed released the official notice inviting MSAP applications for new awards. Several important dates in the notice include:

Applications Available: March 8

Pre-Application Meeting: March 26

Deadline for Notice of Intent to Apply: April 5

MSAP Application Due Date: May 3

Deadline for Intergovernmental Review: July 2

The notice in its entirety is attached below and may be accessed here.

According to the Raleigh News Observer, by a 5-4 vote, the Wake County school board gave the first of two approvals needed to pass a resolution calling for abandoning busing for diversity in favor of assigning students to schools in their community. Supporters hailed it as a step toward providing families more stability while critics complained it would lead to resegregation. The article in its entirety may be accessed here.

The Committee for Education Funding (CEF), a coalition of 80 member organizations with the common goal of achieving adequate federal support for our nation's education system has released it's FY2011 Budget Response. The document in its entirety can be accessed here:

http://www.cef.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/Budget-Response-FY-11-final.pdf