Implementation Resources

• Race to the Top—District Fiscal Oversight Overview Webinar
  • Slides [PDF 154K]

Competition Resources

Technical Assistance Opportunities

To assist applicants in preparing the application and to respond to questions, the Department hosted multiple Technical Assistance webinars for potential applicants on the following topics: Overview of the Race to the Top—District Competition, Applying as a Consortium, and Preparing the Budget. Materials from those sessions are available below.

As of 5:00:00 pm Washington, DC time, on October 16, 2012, the Department will answer only logistical or formatting questions. The Department will host two optional webinar sessions that will address common grantee questions, review the application submission process, and allow attendees to ask questions. Registration for both webinars is not required. Questions will be accepted during the webinar session through the webinar chat feature, but participants are encouraged to submit questions by email to racetothetop.district@ed.gov prior to the date of the webinar for priority consideration.

The first webinar was held on Friday, October 12 from 2 pm to 3:00 pm ET. Participants can access the webinar through the following WebEx link: https://educateevents.webex.com/educateevents/onstage/g.php?d=745851877&t=a. For individuals who cannot access the WebEx, please use the following conference line information: Conference line: 1-800-619-6613; Passcode: 3824249.

The second webinar will be held on Tuesday, October 16 from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm ET. Participants can access the webinar through the following WebEx link: https://educateevents.webex.com/educateevents/onstage/g.php?t=a&d=745848863. For individuals who cannot access the WebEx, please use the following conference line information: Conference line: 1-800-369-2195; Passcode: 6554298.

Technical Assistance Resources

• Overview of the Race to the Top—District Competition webinar
  • Slides [PDF 352K]
  • Audio—August 16, 2012 [99.4M]
  • Audio—August 21, 2012 [56.1M]
• Race to the Top—District: Applying as a Consortium webinar
  • Updated Slides with notes [PDF 6.22M]
• Race to the Top—District: Preparing the Budget webinar
  • Slides [PDF 6.22M]
• Race to the Top—District: Final Questions webinar
  • Slides [PDF 22M]

Funder Calls

• January 30, 2013

  Audio [MP3, 5.01M] | Transcript [MS Word, 57K]
  Secretary Duncan and Ann Whalen, Director of the Implementation and Support Unit addressed more than 100 leaders from the philanthropic and business community to discuss the potential for business and philanthropic support of personalized learning through the Race to the Top District (RTT-D) program, which Secretary Duncan characterized as "game changing." Whalen discussed the unique aspects of RTT-D, in which districts must "demonstrate their commitment to... personalize education and extend the reach to all of their students." She explained that although there were many qualified districts, the bar was set very high and there was unfortunately not enough money to award all qualified districts. Secretary Duncan reinforced the hope that all high quality applicants will be able to secure the resources needed to drastically improve the educational outcomes of students in their districts.