A new $11.5 billion chunk of federal stimulus money is now available to states, the Associated Press reports. But to qualify, states will have to fill out a far more detailed application that demands information on how they’re trying to meet the Obama administration’s goals: tougher academic standards, better ways to recruit and keep effective teachers, a method of tracking student performance and a plan of action to turn around failing schools.

For example, states will be required to identify their lowest-achieving schools by name and tell the department how, or whether, officials have tried to turn the schools around.

States will also be pressed on how many core classes in poorer and wealthier schools are taught by “highly qualified” teachers. This is an effort to make states do a better job of educating poor and minority kids, who are far less likely to have effective teachers. The $11.5 billion is separate from the $4 billion “Race to the Top” competition.

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Filed under: K-12 Education News