State officials and University researchers are trying to bring millions of dollars of funding to the state’s education system through the federal Race to the Top program.

The program awards portions of a $4 billion education fund to states that submit plans to help improve achievement, graduation and college enrollment.

Arizona will be competing with every other state for a larger share of the funding when officials submit their proposals in December.

Deborah Duvall, special adviser to Gov. Jan Brewer in the competition, said the program is a compelling incentive to implement reform that could drastically improve education in the state.

“Education plays a key role in the future quality of life of all of our citizens,” Duvall said. “So this Race to the Top for us is really a vision for education for us in Arizona as much as it is an opportunity to win competitive grant money.”

Other key policies advocated by the program include holding teachers and principals accountable for student performance and aligning the graduation and admissions standards of public high schools and universities.

The Arizona Board of Regents will also play a small role in the competition, said spokeswoman Andrea Smiley, since many of the plans outlined in the group’s 2020 Vision plan for increased enrollment and access fit in with many of the policies advocated in Race to the Top.

One of those policies is improving the “pipeline” between high school and college — aligning the standards between high school graduation and college admissions so incoming freshmen are better prepared for a college curriculum.

“The Race to the Top is focusing on the pipeline, which is an important element of what needs to occur for our efforts to be successful,” Smiley said.

Mehmet Dali Ozturk, a researcher at the University’s Office of Education Partnerships, said his office is working closely with Brewer’s staff to come up with proposals that fit in with the program’s criteria.

One of the requirements for the federal funding is making the funding of public education in the state a priority. Despite the state’s comparatively low level of funding for public education — Arizona was ranked only above Utah in per-pupil funding, according to a 2005 report by the U.S. Census Bureau — Ozturk said he is confident Arizona can secure a large portion of funding on the strength of its ideas.

The College of Teacher Education and Leadership was awarded more than $34 million in September for its Professional Development School, which allows teachers in rural, impoverished areas of the state to become certified through courses taken in their own communities. Ozturk said the school is an example of the kind of innovative program that could improve K-12 education and help the state win grant money.

“We have great ideas and this is an opportunity for those ideas to be recognized and rewarded,” Ozturk said.

Duvall said the U.S. Department of Education would be impressed by Arizona’s reforms in recent years, including Proposition 301, which gives extra pay to teachers who meet performance goals set at the beginning of the year.

“Arizona has done a number of things over the past year that show we are committed to education reform,” Duvall said. “We have pieces of the program already in place, we just need to bring them all together.”

Reach the reporter at derek.quizon@asu.edu.