The Department of Education has released the application materials for the latest round of the Race to the Top (RTT) competition. Geared towards individual school districts, this round will award grants from $5 – $40 million, depending on the size of the school district. From the application:
The Race to the Top – District competition invites applicants to demonstrate how they can personalize education for all students in their schools. It is aimed squarely at classrooms and the all-important relationship between educators and students…A successful applicant will provide teachers the information, tools, and supports that 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.
The Absolute Priorities for this competition include 1) personalized learning environments; 2) Non-rural LEAs in states with existing RTT funding; 3) Rural LEAs in RTT states; 4) Non-rural LEAs in non-RTT states; and 5) rural LEAs in non-RTT states.
To access the application and supporting documents, please visit http://www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-district/index.html
