Education officials are inviting Rhode Islanders to share their ideas about how to improve schools at a series of community forums in five communities over the next month.

State Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist is aggressively pursuing a portion of $4.35 billion in competitive federal grants designed to reward states that embrace education reform, and says she needs public input that “will help us to submit a first-caliber application.”

The Race to the Top fund represents the largest federal investment in education reform. The U.S. Department of Education is also offering $650 million in innovation grants to school districts.

States and districts that win the grants will receive tens of millions of dollars.

Gist wants to share her priorities with residents and hear their views on ways to improve the education system.

“The federal Race to the Top funds could bring unprecedented resources to Rhode Island to help us transform education,” Gist said in a letter to education and community leaders. “The U.S. Department of Education will distribute these funds to states that have both made progress and shown promise in four vital areas: improving teacher effectiveness; accelerating the performance of low-performing schools; establishing world-class standards and assessments; and developing user-friendly data systems.”

Since Gist became the state’s top education leader July 1, she has announced several initiatives meant to improve teacher quality, including raising the bar for students who plan to go into teaching and declaring that seniority can no longer be used to determine teacher assignments.

Four of the five forums have been scheduled:

• Nov. 9 at the East Bay Educational Collaborative, 317 Market St., Warren

• Nov. 17 at the Northern R.I. Collaborative, 640 George Washington Highway, Lincoln

• Nov. 23 at Toll Gate High School, 575 Centerville Rd., Warwick

• Dec. 2 at Southern R.I. Educational Collaborative, 646 Camp Ave., North Kingstown

All begin at 6 p.m.

A Providence meeting is still to be scheduled.

For more information, visit: www.ride.ri.gov/Commissioner/

jjordan@projo.com