School Grants and Proposal Opportunities

Race to the Top-District Rfa Analysis

School Grant Programs

On May 22, 2012, the Secretary of Education made public the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) intention to build upon recent achievements in education through the Race to the Top-State programs (ED, 2012a) by offering an additional $383 million in grant funding to local school districts in 2012 (ED, 2012b). The goal of the Race to the Top District (RTT-D) Competition is to continue advancing bold innovation and educational standards made possible through state Race to the Top grants. This essay examines the requirements and criteria that must be met in order to apply to the RTT-D program.

Eligibility Requirements

Eligibility for applying to the RTT-D is limited to Local Education Agencies (LEAs) or a consortium of LEAs (ED, 2012c). Based on Title IX, Section 9101, subsection 26, an LEA is defined as a public board of education or other public agency tasked with administering educational services at the elementary and secondary level (ED, n.d.). An LEA could be responsible for providing education at the town, city, county, township, school district, state, or Bureau of Indian Affairs level and must be recognized by the state as an LEA (ED, 2012d).

An LEA consortium is especially relevant because applicants must represent at least 2,000 participating students (ED, 2012d). Given that rural school districts would likely not meet the minimum criteria for the minimum number of participating students, they could enter into a partnership with other school districts in order to become eligible to compete for RTT-D funding.

In addition to meeting the minimum of 2,000 participating students, at least 75% of the students within the LEA or LEA consortium must be participating students (ED, 2012c). Of these, at least 40% of the participating students must be from low-income families.

Funding Requirements

There are four primary goals that the funding is intended to achieve and these are: (1) preparing students to succeed in college and the global workforce by implementing standards and tests, (2) creating data analysis tools to quantify student achievement, (3) implementing a merit-based system for teachers and principals, and (4) focusing these improvements on the nation's poorly performing schools (ED, 2012a). Despite the emphasis on the adoption of standards, the RTT-D program is also designed to encourage "… personalized, student-focused approaches to teaching and learning that will use collaborative, data-based strategies and 21st century tools to deliver instruction and supports tailored to the needs and goals of each student & #8230;" (ED, 2012b, para. 8). Accordingly, only those LEAs that can demonstrate the leadership and vision to implement these goals will be considered eligible to receive funding.

The RTT-D competitive funding deadline for receipt of applications was October 30, 2012 (ED, 2012e). Given the extremely short period for preparing a proposal, the ED has waived the rule-making process for priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria (ED, 2012a). However, there are two absolute priorities that must be met. The first is that an applicant must show how it will implement a personalized learning environment, as mentioned in the previous paragraph. The second absolute priority must be one of four additional priorities, which are: (1) at least 50% of the participating students must be from urban schools that have received funding from prior Race to the Top competitions, (2) at least 50% of participating students must be from rural schools that received funding from prior Race to the Top competitions, (3) at least 50% of the participating students are from urban LEAs that did not receive Race to the Top funding in the past, and (4) at least 50% of the participating students are from rural LEAs that did not receive Race to the Top funding in the past. It should be noted however, that preference will be given to applicants that have proposed strategies to comprehensively address the needs of economically, socially, physically, and/or cognitively disadvantaged students. In addition, the respective states are not required to provide any matching funds (ED, 2012a).

Application Availability

Applications were first made available on August 16, 2012 and can be downloaded from the ED website (ED, 2012a).

Due Dates

The original due date for completed applications was October 30, 2012, but due to the hurricane Sandy, LEAs located in areas that have been declared a disaster area by President Obama have a new deadline of 4:30 PM EST on November 7, 2012 (ED, 2012e). All other LEAs have an extended deadline of 4:30 PM EST on November 2, 2012, because the offices of the Department of Education were closed on October 29 and 30, 2012 due to the hurricane.

Although there was a deadline for a notice of intent to apply, which fell on August 30, 2012, this deadline was optional because of the time constraints placed on applicants (ED, 2012a).

Award Dates

If an applicant's application is accepted for funding, the funds are statutorily required to be disbursed by December 31, 2012.

Information Required

For applications to be considered, both the state and local education authorities who have oversight responsibilities for the LEA or LEA consortium must be given at least 5 business days to comment on the application (ED, 2012f). State and local educational authorities may decline to comment, and in fact the State of California has decided to waive this requirement for RTT-D applications from its school districts (California Department of Education, 2012). In addition, LEA consortiums must designate a lead LEA to apply on behalf of the consortium or formally designate itself as a separate legal entity in order to apply as a group (ED, 2012f). All documents related to the formation of a consortium, including memos and legal agreements should be included with the application, thereby providing evidence of the consortium's legal standing.