"We're going to reward those states and those districts that are willing to challenge the status quo and get dramatically better," Education Secratary Arne Duncan said, March 16 at the White House.

"Those who keep doing the same old thing, however, won't be eligible for the money," he added.

The conversation around improvement has become central to access to stimulus money for schools. The challenge remains: how will we measure this success? How will we measure the impact of this money on Education in the U.S.?

Duncan has specifically pointed States to these areas of improvement:

• Improve teacher quality and get good teachers into high-poverty schools;
• Set up sophisticated data systems to track student learning;
• Boost the quality of academic standards and tests; and
• Intervene to help struggling schools.

I look forward to the development of measures that indicate how well states reach these areas of improvement. For without data, these ideas, this money, will leave schools and taxpayers empty handed.

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