Information on Race to the Top Funds


The U.S. Department of Education has created a new webpage for the Race to the Top Fund at www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop.

The webpage includes the Department’s “Notice of Proposed Priorities” about the following four areas identified for education reform:
  • Teacher quality;
  • Collection and use of data to inform instruction;
  • Development of standards and assessments; and
  • Assistance for schools needing improvement.

The Notice was printed in the Federal Register on July 29, 2009 and comments are due within 30 days after this date.

The “Notice of Proposed Priorities” includes the proposals for how states are to report their respective “comprehensive approach to the four education reform areas.”

Absolute Priority -- Comprehensive Approach to the Four Education Reform Areas
According to the Department, a State’s “application must comprehensively address each of the four education reform areas specified in the ARRA to demonstrate that the State and its participating LEAs are taking a systemic approach to education reform. The State’s application must describe how the State and participating LEAs intend to use Race to the Top and other funds to implement comprehensive and coherent policies and practices in the four education reform areas, and how these are designed to increase student achievement, reduce the achievement gap across student subgroups...and increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers.”

In addition to states’ progress to advance STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), the notice also outlines how states would report on Expansion and Adaptation of Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems, P-20 Coordination and Vertical Alignment, and School-Level Conditions for Reform and Innovation.

The Notice lists two proposed eligibility requirements that states would have to meet in order to be eligible to receive Race to the Top funding:
  • State applications for funding under Phase 1 and Phase 2 of the State Fiscal Stabilization program must be approved by the Department by December 31, 2009; and
  • A state must not have any legal, statutory, or regulatory barriers to linking data on student achievement or student growth (as defined in the Notice) to teachers and principals for the purpose of teacher and principal evaluation.
The other program requirement listed in the Notice proposes that states and their participating local education agencies “must use funds under this program to participate in a national evaluation of the program, if the Department chooses to conduct one. In addition, the Department is seeking comment on whether a State should, instead of or in addition to a national evaluation, be required to conduct its own evaluation of its program activities using funds under this program.”
 
 
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