Wisconsin to Receive More Than $236 Million in Additional Recovery Funds

Press Release

Wisconsin Recovery Dollars Have Provided Funding For More Than 7,000 Education Jobs

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan today announced that an additional $236,721,210 is now available for Wisconsin under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009. To date, Wisconsin has received $1,446,554,610 through the Recovery Act. The state recently reported that recovery dollars have been used to provide funding for more than 7,000 education jobs from Jan. 1 to March. 31, 2010, while also supporting programs that drive education reform.

"With this application, Wisconsin provided us with basic information on what is working in their classrooms," said Duncan. "This data is a critical tool in helping us work together--with students, parents, teachers, administrators, community leaders and elected officials at every level--to improve education for Wisconsin's students."

The application required states to provide data that will lay the foundation for reform including:

* How teachers and principals are evaluated and how this information is used to support, retain, promote or remove staff.
* The extent to which the state has a Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems that includes all the necessary America COMPETES Act requirements and how it will implement a comprehensive system by 2011.
* Whether the state provides student growth data on current students and the students taught in the previous year to, at a minimum, teachers of reading/language arts and mathematics in grades in which the state administers assessments in those subjects in a manner that is timely and informs instructional programs.
The number and identity of the schools that are Title I schools in improvement, corrective action or restructuring that are identified as persistently lowest-achieving schools.

State applications must describe the state's current ability to collect the data or other information needed for the assurance indicators and descriptors as well as the state's current ability to make the data or information easily available to the public. If the state is currently able to fully collect and publicly report the required data or other information at least annually, the state must provide the most recent data or information with its plan.

If a state is not currently able to fully collect or publicly report the data or other information at least annually, the plan must describe the state's process and timeline for developing and implementing the means to do so as soon as possible but no later than Sept. 30, 2011. The state plan must describe the state's collection and public reporting abilities with respect to each individual indicator or descriptor. The application, requirements and summary of the requirements can all be found here: http://www.ed.gov/programs/statestabilization/applicant.html.

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