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...

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…