The Race to the Top State competitions provided incentives to States to adopt bold and comprehensive reforms in elementary and secondary education and laid the foundation for unprecedented innovation. A total of 46 States and the District of Columbia put together plans to implement college- and career-ready standards, use data systems to guide learning and teaching, evaluate and support teachers and school leaders, and turn around their lowest-performing schools. The purpose of the Race to the Top – District competition is to build on the momentum of other Race to the Top competitions by encouraging bold, innovative reform at the local level.
The Race to the Top – District competition invites applicants to demonstrate how they can personalize education for all students in their schools. The Race to the Top – District competition is aimed squarely at classrooms and the all-important relationship between educators and students. An LEA or consortium of LEAs receiving an award under this competition will build on the experience of States and districts in implementing reforms in the four core educational assurance areas through Race to the Top and other key programs. A successful applicant will provide teachers the information, tools, and supports that will enable them to meet the needs of each student and substantially accelerate and deepen each student’s learning. These LEAs will have the policies, systems, infrastructure, capacity, and culture to enable teachers, teacher teams, and school leaders to continuously focus on improving individual student achievement and closing achievement gaps. These LEAs will also make equity and access a priority and aim to prepare each student to master the content and skills required for college- and career-readiness, provide each student the opportunity to pursue a rigorous course of study, and accelerate and deepen students’ learning through attention to their individual needs. As important, they will create opportunities for students to identify and pursue areas of personal academic interest – all while ensuring that each student masters critical areas identified in college- and career-ready standards or college- and career-ready high school graduation requirements.
In 2013, the district competition will have five absolute priorities.
- Personalized Learning Environments: To meet this priority, an applicant must coherently and comprehensively address how it will build on the core educational assurance areas to create learning environments that are designed to significantly improve learning and teaching through the personalization of strategies, tools, and supports for students and educators that are aligned with college- and career-ready standards or college- and career-ready graduation requirements; accelerate student achievement and deepen student learning by meeting the academic needs of each student; increase the effectiveness of educators; expand student access to the most effective educators; decrease achievement gaps across student groups; and increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers.
- Non-Rural LEAs in Race to the Top States: To meet this priority, an applicant must be an LEA or a consortium of LEAs in which more than 50 percent of participating students are in non-rural LEAs in States that received awards under the Race to the Top Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 competition.
- Rural LEAs in Race to the Top States: To meet this priority, an applicant must be an LEA or a consortium of LEAs in which more than 50 percent of participating students are in rural LEAs in States that received awards under the Race to the Top Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 competition.
- Non-Rural LEAs in non-Race to the Top States: To meet this priority, an applicant must be an LEA or a consortium of LEAs in which more than 50 percent of participating students are in non-rural LEAs in States that did not receive awards under the Race to the Top Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 competition.
- Rural LEAs in non-Race to the Top States: To meet this priority, an applicant must be an LEA or a consortium of LEAs in which more than 50 percent of participating students are in rural LEAs in States that did not receive awards under the Race to the Top Phase 1, Phase 2, or Phase 3 competition.
The 2013 competitive preference priority is for:
- Results, Resource Alignment, and Integrated Services: The Department will give priority to an applicant based on the extent to which the applicant proposes to integrate public or private resources in a partnership designed to augment the schools’ resources by providing additional student and family supports to schools that address the social, emotional, or behavioral needs of the participating students, giving highest priority to students in participating schools with high-need students. To meet this priority, an applicant’s proposal does not need to be comprehensive and may provide student and family supports that focus on a subset of these needs.
In the FY 2012 competition, the Department awarded approximately $383 million to 16 Race to the Top – District grantees representing 55 local educational agencies (LEAs), with grants ranging from $10 to $40 million.
Previous district awards can be found at; In general, FY 2013 Race to the Top – District grant funds must be used to implement the applicant’s approved FY 2013 Race to the Top – District plan, including the applicant’s approved budget; the budget must be consistent with the Department’s administrative regulations as well as OMB’s cost principle circulars, such as A-87. The ARRA places several restrictions on the use of FY 2013 Race to the Top – District grant funds, as described below. With these exceptions, applicants have considerable flexibility in designing their plans and, therefore, have considerable discretion in determining how grant funds will be used, consistent with their approved plan, if they are awarded a grant. As noted above, the ARRA places several restrictions on uses of Race to the Top grant funds as follows: Section 14003 of the ARRA prohibits Race to the Top funds from being used for: