Florida's A+ Plan for Education has put the state ahead of the rest in tracking individual student achievement, helping keep the focus on students who need to catch up.

A decade into former Gov. Jeb Bush's signature accountability program, Florida now is poised to lead the nation in a new federal initiative, which U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has dubbed the ``Race to the Top.'' The new program will make available $4.35 billion in grants to states that promise to deliver cutting-edge reforms.

There's good reason that Florida is getting praise from Mr. Duncan. The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test has helped narrow the gap between rich and poor, white and black, suburban and urban. As the bar keeps rising on the FCAT, students and educators have met the challenge.

Today, only 7 percent of Florida schools have received a D or F grade from the state -- compared to 28 percent in 1999. The number of A and B schools has tripled during that time. And despite the state Legislature's disregard for adequately funding public education and FCAT critics' dismissal of the test as a rote exercise, African-American and Hispanic students have narrowed the achievement gap though white students still lead.

As a 2007 Urban Institute analysis noted, the pressure of ranking schools by how well their lower-tier of students performed forced educators to target kids with the biggest academic needs. That has helped elevate Florida students' performance not only on the FCAT but on other important standardized measures, such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

Right now, Florida is the only state that grades each school based on students' performance on the FCAT. That test carries consequences for students who fail. And it attaches severe consequences for schools that consistently rank at the bottom, even requiring a state takeover of a persistently failing school.

The president and Mr. Duncan, who pushed for education reform as the head of Chicago's public schools, are pressing for the new Race to the Top grants to spark competition between American students and their foreign counterparts, particularly in math and science, where the United States has lagged. The grants favor states that have rigorous standards and student-performance assessments, push to improve teacher quality in schools serving poor students and are creative in their approaches.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act had broad bipartisan support but failed to put enough money behind the effort. This new Race to the Top initiative commits to funding excellence -- and thinking outside the box.

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