$200 Million for Round Three of Race to the Top

Last week, the Department of Education announced that the nine Race to the Top (RTT) round two finalists are invited to submit applications for round three. With $200 million available, states will be competing for awards that are expected to range from $12 million to $49 million, depending on the size of the state. These nine states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and South Carolina – did not win grants during the first two rounds of RTT. However, they have demonstrated capacity and commitment around comprehensive education reform and, as a result, will work with the DOE to implement their proposed initiatives.

These states will be required to apply to two parts. First, they must submit a “portfolio of assurances” demonstrating their commitment to RTT’s goals of: raising academic standards, building cradle to career data systems, improving teacher evaluation systems and turning around persistently lowest-performing schools. Next, states will submit a detailed implementation plan, including a budget, explaining how their reform proposals will have a broader impact in science, technology, engineering & mathematics (STEM) education.

Part one of the application is due November 22^nd, followed by part two on December 16^th. Awards are expected to be announced in late December.

NOVEMBER 28th UPDATE:

The Department of Education has announced that only seven states applied for round three funding. According to the announcement, South Carolina did not submit an application and California submitted an incomplete application.