Hoping to spur databases that track students from pre-K to college, the U.S. Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences awarded $250 million in three-year grants this week to 20 states with money from the 2009 federal stimulus act.

The grants, which ranged from $5.1 million for Ohio to $19.7 million for New York will also promote links between students and teachers. A familiar refrain from Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been linking teacher pay to student test scores. All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands applied.

While these grants were funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, they are not entirely new. In 2009, a total of $150 million in multiyear grants was awarded to 27 states -- and many of the states are the same as those who won this year.

One of the interesting recipients this year is Florida, which often gets kudos for its existing longitudinal data system. The state's application indicates it will spend the bulk of its award on equipment and contracting. They say their system is so often taxed with requests for information, the grant will help pay for ways to automate answers to some of these requests: "The challenge Florida faces is how to improve the accessibility of this data resource to researchers so that they can employ this data to better inform policy." What do YOU think that means?

The other winners are Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.