Senator Barbara Mikulski Senator Richard Shelby
Chairwoman Vice Chairman
U.S. Senate U.S. Senate
Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510
Congressman Harold Rogers Congresswoman Nita Lowey
Chairman Ranking Member
U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Appropriations Committee on Appropriations
Washington, DC 20515 Washington, DC 20515
Dear Members of Congress:
We are writing to express strong support for the recommended $300 million for the Race to the Top-Equity and Opportunity initiative in the Administration’s budget request for fiscal year 2015.
One of our greatest injustices as a nation is that poor and minority students are less likely to get effective teachers than their peers. According to Mathematica’s 2013 report, Access to Effective Teaching for Disadvantaged Students, poor and minority students in 29 districts had less access to effective teaching in grades 4 through 8. The report also found that providing equal access to effective teaching for Free and Reduced Lunch (FRL) and non-FRL students would narrow the student achievement gap.
RTT-Opportunity grantees would aggressively target opportunity and achievement gaps through investments in strong teaching and school leadership. This would include taking steps to improve recruitment and retention of effective teachers and leaders in high-poverty schools. It could also be used to help schools better use data to measure and address disparities in opportunity and performance, increase access to rigorous coursework, extend learning time, bolster school culture, provide social and emotional supports, expand college and career counseling and take other evidence-based strategies to help mitigate the effects of concentrated poverty.
We urge you to fund this important initiative that could be life-changing for millions of students. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Celine Coggins Tim Daly
Teach Plus TNTP
Katherine Bassett Jean Desravines
NNSTOY New Leaders
Dan Cruce Charles Barone
Hope Street Group Democratsfor Education Reform
Elisa Villanueva Beard
Teach For America
