When Tennessee joined Delaware in early 2010 as one of only two states to receive millions of dollars from the federal government’s Race to the Top competition, the reaction was swift and positive from Memphis to the Tri-Cities. The $500 million in funds, to be disbursed over the next four years, will be used by the state to enact a set of broad, comprehensive school reforms from the earliest grades through its community college and university networks.

Race to the Top’s goals are to:

* Adopt standards and assessments to help students succeed in college and the workplace
* Build data systems to measure student growth and success
* Recruit, reward and retain effective teachers and principals
* Turn around the lowest-performing schools

These measures, as well as many others that will be part of the overall program in Tennessee, are being met with great enthusiasm by educators and economic development leaders alike, who single out the program’s workplace-readiness components for special praise. “The manufacturing sector, like many other high-skill and high-demand sectors, is increasingly requiring more technical and advanced skills than ever before,” says Mike Edwards, president and chief executive officer of the Knoxville Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Tennessee Business Roundtable. “For our state to compete for these jobs, our incumbent and future workforce must skill up to meet those demands. It is going to take a dramatic increase in output to compete for these new jobs; current training is not enough, so RTTT funding will be a huge contributor to these efforts.”

The funding is coming at a critical time in that it not only provides needed funding at every level of education, but it also comes at a time when the state government, legislature and business community are looking at how to enhance the system, adds Gordon Fee, who heads the Tennessee Business Roundtable’s education committee. “All the arrows are suddenly pointing in the right direction, and this looks like a unique opportunity to infuse some well-needed resources into the process,” Fee says. “Now the business community will be watching to make sure these funds are used for augmentation of existing programs, and for some innovative new things as well.”

For their part, state educators say they are more than ready to enhance existing partnerships with businesses and communities. There’s a lot of groundwork being laid in that regard, so that when the funds begin coming in, the programs can hit the ground running.

“Most likely, the most visible element of our Race to the Top plan in the coming months will be the Achievement School District,” says Dr. Tim Webb, Tennessee commissioner of education. “The First to the Top legislation [in Tennessee] also allowed for the creation of the ASD, meaning the commissioner of education could try new, bold and innovative reform efforts in some of the state's lowest-performing high schools. “Race to the Top has fundamentally changed the way we look at education in Tennessee,” Webb adds. “We are no longer near the bottom in education — we’re first. Our plan is now a roadmap for reform for our entire state.”