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[by:51VOA.COM]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English 
[00:02.91]Education Report.
[00:04.91]The Obama administration 
[00:07.07]is launching a national competition 
[00:10.08]called Race to the Top. 
[00:13.03]States will compete for more than 
[00:15.64]four billion dollars in grants 
[00:18.45]to support the best plans 
[00:20.89]for improving schools.
[00:22.75]President Obama 
[00:25.04]and Education Secretary Arne Duncan 
[00:28.45]announced the details last week.
[00:31.49]BARACK OBAMA: "This competition 
[00:32.39]will not be based on politics 
[00:33.76]or ideology or the preferences 
[00:36.70]of a particular interest group. 
[00:38.59]Instead, it will be based 
[00:40.39]on a simple principle: 
[00:41.79]whether a state is ready 
[00:43.38]to do what works. 
[00:45.17]We will use the best evidence 
[00:47.42]available to determine 
[00:49.47]whether a state can meet 
[00:50.89]a few key benchmarks for reform. 
[00:53.29]And states that outperform the rest 
[00:55.56]will be rewarded with a grant."
[00:58.12]The president wants the United States 
[01:00.29]to regain the world's highest 
[01:03.09]college graduation rates, 
[01:05.34]especially in math and science. 
[01:08.31]His target is two thousand twenty. 
[01:11.60]But he says the education system 
[01:14.49]is "falling short" and "countries 
[01:17.40]that out-educate us today 
[01:19.94]will out-compete us tomorrow."
[01:22.90]The United States 
[01:24.59]is one of thirty countries 
[01:26.58]in the Organization 
[01:27.97]for Economic Cooperation and Development. 
[01:31.71]The OECD has the Program 
[01:35.19]for International Student Assessment, 
[01:38.28]or PISA. Every three years PISA 
[01:42.22]measures the performance 
[01:43.93]of fifteen-year-olds.
[01:46.32]In two thousand six, 
[01:48.81]the United States had lower scores 
[01:51.81]in mathematics than twenty-three 
[01:54.75]of the other twenty-nine OECD countries. 
[01:59.04]Sixteen countries did better in science.
[02:03.18]The Race to the Top competition 
[02:06.22]will look for states 
[02:08.22]and local school systems 
[02:10.62]with effective reforms in four areas. 
[02:14.80]One area is meeting international 
[02:18.18]standards for preparing students 
[02:21.00]for college and jobs. 
[02:23.89]Another is developing better ways to hire, 
[02:28.23]keep and reward effective teachers 
[02:31.73]and school leaders.
[02:34.07]A third area is building data systems 
[02:38.11]that not only measure student success, 
[02:41.75]but also inform teachers how to improve.
[02:46.70]President Obama supports linking teacher 
[02:50.80]pay to student performance. 
[02:53.74]Teachers unions have resisted that idea. 
[02:57.60]States that want to take part 
[03:00.20]in the Race to the Top cannot have rules 
[03:03.78]that bar performance-based 
[03:06.34]pay for teachers. 
[03:08.43]That requirement could make it difficult 
[03:11.51]for several states to receive money 
[03:14.27]from the fund. 
[03:15.77]Among them are California and New York.
[03:19.60]Finally, to win grants, 
[03:22.25]states must show they are improving 
[03:25.00]the lowest performing schools.
[03:27.89]The Education Department will 
[03:30.63]award the first grants early next year. 
[03:33.59]States will get two chances to win. 
[03:37.13]Also, the department plans 
[03:39.93]to award almost six billion dollars 
[03:42.73]through other federal programs 
[03:45.51]in the coming months 
[03:47.10]to support reform efforts.
[03:49.68]And that's the VOA Special English 
[03:53.09]Education Report, 
[03:54.64]written by June Simms. 
[03:56.59]I'm Steve Ember.