In a press release yesterday, the RI Dept. of Education promised that the Round 2 application for federal Race to the Top (RTTT) funding would be posted on their Web site before the end of day. I stayed up til midnight, tingling with antici [say it!] pation, but no joy. I even tried their search box (put in "race to the top" and see what you get. Go ahead — I'll wait...).

Snark is not the first club out of the bag for me when it comes to education issues, but for crying out loud, if you put out a press release promising that you're going to post the document, ya gotta do it. If you want us to trust you in big things — like a $75M dollar renovation of our school systems — build that trust by setting and meeting expectations.

Hopefully, sometime soon, perhaps even by the time you read this, you'll be able to download the Round 2 application from the RIDE Web site.

And you'll want to download and read it carefully. RIDE will be holding a series of community forums on the RTTT proposal, and they'll be coming to Newport on Monday, May 10 at 6pm, location TBD.

Maybe the app will be posted by then. Press release follows:

Commissioner Gist Schedules Meetings on Race to the Top Proposal
RIDE to Post Draft of Proposal on Web Site

As the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (RIDE) develops a final draft of the Rhode Island Race to the Top Round 2 proposal, Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has scheduled a series of meetings to get additional feedback and advice from the public.

“Over the past month, we have received helpful guidance at a series of open meetings we have held with superintendents, school-committee chairs, principals, teachers, union leaders, and community members,” Gist said. “We want to continue to receive this guidance and to provide Rhode Islanders with accurate information about Race to the Top as we prepare our proposal. Race to the Top could bring $75 million to Rhode Island to help us transform education and make our schools the best in the country and the envy of the world.”

RIDE will post a complete draft of the Race to the Top Round 2 proposal, which is due at the U.S. Department of Education by June 1, on the Race to the Top page of the RIDE Web site today (Friday, April 30).
— via RIDE press release

Note: You'll do better with the search on the RIDE site if you use the acronym RTTT.

Update: Don't know when this went live, but as of 5:20pm on Saturday, May 1, the Phase 2 proposal was posted.