Mostly unified application process bodes well for Minnesota.

State education officials recently submitted a 1,000-page application for a Race to the Top federal grant -- with significant help and input from Minnesota educators. The quickly-pulled-together collaborative effort paid off in a strong application.

Of Minnesota's 340 public school districts and 150 charter schools, 300 districts and 116 charters signed on to support the state's effort. Minnesota met a key criteria of grant eligibility: a state's ability to demonstrate that it can design and execute a unified approach to education reform.

Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) leaders are rightly proud of the participation rate. They reported that schools enrolling more that 93 percent of the state's public school students made a commitment to work together. That indicates that educators and other stakeholders are invested in the effort to get better at educating kids and are committed to change. That, in itself, is a notable achievement, one that doesn't happen without good communication between state and local education officials.

Rallying that broad support base prompted MDE leaders to increase the grant request from $230 million to $330 million. During what is sure to be a difficult state budget cycle, those funds could be the only new dollars K-12 districts receive.

Minnesota is now one of 40 states in the running to receive the competitive grants. As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the Obama administration allocated about $4.5 billion to be split by 10 to 15 states. Grant winners are expected to be notified in April. To receive the funding, states must offer examples of how they have improved students' achievement and outline innovative reform plans in six areas, including standards and assessment, data-supported instruction, effective teaching and turning around struggling schools. States must show that they can deliver educational services differently and more effectively.

Though a majority of districts and other groups signed on to the application, there were dissenters. Leaders of Education Minnesota, the state's 70,000-member teachers union, opposed provisions in the application that stress teacher evaluation and rating and tie student performance to individual teachers for things ranging from pay to licensure. Despite those concerns, about 28 union locals, including St. Paul and Minneapolis teachers, signed on to support the plan.

The process of working on the grant exercise rallied state players around key areas of education reform. It forced them to focus on the educational practices and innovations that work, driven by the incentive of funding to expand that good work. And, hopefully, it will speed disinvestment in activities that don't improve learning.

For educators, the process has been good preparation for expected changes in federal education policy. This year, the president and Congress are scheduled to revise and reauthorize No Child Left Behind, also known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The new education provisions are expected to include key elements of Race to the Top. Agreement on a general blueprint for reform holds promise to boost student achievement and close the achievement gap -- whether or not the state receives the federal grant.

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