FROM: U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
Race to the Top District Competition Draft
Thank you for your interest in the Race to the Top – District (RTT-D) Program. Like the Race to the Top State program, the Race to the Top – District Program is designed to encourage unprecedented innovation and bold comprehensive reform in elementary and secondary education.
In order to run a rigorous competition and obligate funds to grantees before the December 31, 2012 statutory deadline, the Department of Education (Department) will waive rulemaking for this new program, pursuant to its authority in the General Education Provisions Act.
However, because the Department is very interested in your input, we are posting this draft executive summary of the draft requirements, priorities, selection criteria, and definitions for the Race to the Top District competition on this Web site. We encourage all interested parties to submit opinions, ideas, suggestions, and comments pertaining to the Race to the Top District program. This document will be posted for public input until 5:00 PM EDT on Friday, June 8, 2012, at which time the input section will be closed and we will begin considering input received as we develop final requirements, priorities, selection criteria, and definitions. Though the Department will not respond to comments, the Department will read and consider all comments in finalizing the Race to the Top District competition design. Later this summer we will publish a notice of final requirements, priorities, selection criteria, and definitions in the Federal Register along with a notice inviting applications.
The Race to the Top District competition will build on the lessons learned from the State-level competitions and support bold, locally directed improvements in teaching and learning that will directly improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness. More specifically, Race to the Top District will reward those LEAs that have the leadership and vision to implement the strategies, structures and systems of support to move beyond one-size–fits-all models of schooling, which have struggled to produce excellence and equity for all children, to 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, with the goal of enabling all students to graduate college- and career-ready.
Successful LEAs will provide the information, tools, and supports that enable teachers to truly differentiate instruction and meet the needs of each child. These LEAs will have the policy and systems infrastructure, capacity, and culture to enable teachers, teacher teams and school leaders to continuously focus on improving individual student achievement. They will organize around the goal of each child demonstrating content and skills mastery and credentialing required for college and career and will allow students significantly more freedom to study and advance at their own pace - both in and out of school. As importantly, they will create opportunities for students to identify and pursue areas of personal passion-- all of this occurring in the context of ensuring that each student demonstrates mastery in critical areas identified in college- and career ready standards. LEAs successfully implementing this approach to teaching and learning will lay the modern blueprint for raising student achievement, decreasing the achievement gap across student groups, and increasing the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers.
The Race to the Top State competition incentivized bold and comprehensive reform in elementary and secondary education and laid the foundation for unprecedented innovation. A total of 46 States and the District of Columbia put together comprehensive plans to implement college- and career-ready standards, use data systems to guide teaching and learning, evaluate and support teachers and school leaders, and turn around their lowest-performing schools. The Race to the Top District competition (RTT-D) will build on the lessons learned from the State-level competitions and support bold, locally directed improvements in teaching and learning that will directly improve student achievement and teacher effectiveness.
More specifically, RTT-D will reward those LEAs that have the leadership and vision to implement the strategies, structures and systems of support to move beyond one-size–fits-all models of schooling, which have struggled to produce excellence and equity for all children, to 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, with the goal of enabling all students to graduate college- and career-ready.
