Selection Criteria
A. State Success Factors: (125 points, 25% of total)
(A)(1) Articulating State’s education reform agenda and LEA’s participation in it (65 points)
i. Articulating comprehensive, coherent reform agenda (5)
ii. Securing LEA Commitment (45)
iii. Translating LEA participation into statewide impact (15)
(A)(2) Building strong statewide capacity to implement, scale up, and sustain proposed plans (30 points)
i. Ensuring the capacity to implement (20)
ii. Using broad stakeholder support (10)
(A)(3) Demonstrating significant progress in raising achievement and closing gaps (30 points)
i. Making progress in each reform area (5)
ii. Improving student outcomes (25)
B. Standards and Assessments: (70 points, 14% of total)
(B)(1) Developing and adopting common standards (40 points)
i. Participating in consortium developing high-quality standards (20)
ii. Adopting standards (20)
(B)(2) Developing and implementing common, high-quality assessments (10 points)
(B)(3) Supporting the transition to enhanced standards and high-quality assessments (20 points)
C. Data Systems to Support Instruction (47 points, 9% of total)
(C)(1) Fully implementing a statewide longitudinal data system (24 points)
(C)(2) Accessing and using State data (5 points)
(C)(3) Using data to improve instruction (18 points)
D. Great Teachers and Leaders (138 points, 28% of total)
(D)(1) Providing high-quality pathways for aspiring teachers and principals (21 points)
(D)(2) Improving teacher and principal effectiveness based on performance (58 points)
i. Measuring student growth (5)
ii. Developing evaluation systems (15)
iii. Conducting annual evaluations (10)
ii. Using evaluations to inform key decisions (28)
(D)(3) Ensuring equitable distribution of effective teachers and principals (25 points)
i. Ensuring equitable distribution in high-poverty or high-minority schools (15)
ii. Ensuring equitable distribution in hard-to-staff subjects and specialty areas (10)
(D)(4) Improving the effectiveness of teacher and principal preparation programs (14 points)
(D)(5) Providing effective support to teachers and principals (20 points)
E. Turning Around the Lowest Achieving Schools (50 points, 10% of total)
(E)(1) Intervening in the lowest-achieving schools and LEAs (10 points)
(E)(2) Turning around the lowest-achieving schools (40 points)
i. Identifying the persistently lowest-achieving schools (5)
ii. Turning around the persistently lowest-achieving schools (35)
F. General (55 points, 11% of total)
Eligibility requirement (a)
(F)(1) Making education funding a priority (10 points)
(F)(2) Ensuring successful conditions for high-performing charter schools and other innovative schools (40 points)
