CFDA Numbers: 84.416
Program Type: Discretionary/Competitive Grants
Also known as: Race to the Top

Please visit our updated website https://innovation.ed.gov/what-we-do/teacher-quality/race-to-the-top-district/

What's New

The Race to the Top – District (RTT-D) program aims to support improvements in teaching and learning that leads to improved student outcomes. These personalization efforts take many forms within our portfolio, with some grantees paying close attention to how their in-school personalization investments interact with out-of-school conditions for learning. For example, the Middletown City School District in upstate New York, a 2012 RTT-D grantee, has been very successful at implementing academic and non-academic personalization strategies to improve the educational outcomes for its students. Video

Transforming the Culture of Teaching and Learning: Four Race to the Top-District Grantees’ Implementation of Personalized Learning is the second report from a study that followed four Race to the Top-District grantees from Fall 2013 through the start of their third year of implementation in Fall 2015.

Individual grantee case studies are included for Iredell-Statesville Schools (NC), Miami-Dade Public Schools (FL), New Haven Public Schools (CA) and Metropolitan School District of Warren Township (IN). This report details how personalized learning initiatives have sparked transformations in student learning through shifting the role of teachers, using technology to increase access to resources, restructuring assessments to provide meaningful information, and increasing college and career readiness exposure.

In addition, check out new resources from the Race to the Top-District program:

• Rapid Cycle Evaluation for Educators: Improving Student Outcomes through Rapid Cycle Evaluation
• Rapid Cycle Evaluation for Educators: A Primer on RCEs in the Race to the Top-District Program
• Elements of Personalized Learning: Partnerships
• Elements of Personalized Learning: Technology
• Personalized Learning in Progress: Case Studies of Four Race to the Top-District Grantees’ Early Implementation;
• Getting Ahead of the Curve – Using Leading Indicators for Personalized Learning; and
• Blended Learning Readiness and Progress Rubric.

Program Description

The Race to the Top-District program supports bold, locally directed improvements in learning and teaching that will directly improve student achievement. Program grantees serve as innovation laboratories, advancing new ways to educate our students through a personalized approach. The Race to the Top-District competition invited applicants to demonstrate how they can personalize education for all students in their schools. The Race to the Top-District program is aimed squarely at classrooms and the all-important relationship between educators and students. LEAs and consortia of LEAs that have received awards are building on the lessons learned from and the progress of States and districts in implementing reforms in the four core educational assurance areas through Race to the Top and other key programs. Grantees are providing teachers the information, tools, and supports that enable them to meet the needs of each student and substantially accelerate and deepen each student's learning. These LEAs are making equity and access a priority and aim to prepare each student to master the content and skills required for college- and career-readiness, provide each student the opportunity to pursue a rigorous course of study, and accelerate and deepen students' learning through attention to their individual needs. Through this program, LEAs are creating opportunities for students to identify and pursue areas of personal academic interest—all while ensuring that each student masters critical areas identified in college- and career-ready standards or college- and career-ready high school graduation requirements.

To learn more about personalized learning and our grantees, please visit https://rttd.grads360.org/#program.