The admirable Democrats for Education Reform has launched a smart and important collection of papers they're calling Race Smarter briefs.
Each short report tells a selected state how it can improve its chances in the second round of Race to the Top. The substance is serious and spot on. DFER went through applications, final scorecards, and reviewer comments to reach their conclusions, and the final products are excellent.
Though their findings and recommendations are specific and detailed, they also confirm the broader point that states would be better off upping the reform rather than watering down their plans in order to rope in more stakeholders.
So far, they have 8 briefs available, but I understand that more are on the way.
Check them out.
--Andy Smarick
CORRECTION: These briefs were coauthored by the Education Equality Project, Education Reform Now, and DFER. My apologies for slighting EEP and ERN originally.