The Race to the Top program is a $4 billion education reform competition. The draft guidance for Race to the Top funds was released in August and the Department of Education is currently reviewing the public comments that were submitted. Therefore, it may be too early to say exactly what the application will look like. Readers should note that a number of groups submitting recommendations had strongly worded opinions and numerous suggestions relating to the guidelines and it could reasonably be expected that there will be changes.

Based on the draft guidance, the Department has listed 5 priority areas, and they're expected to approve applications in that order. The first priority is a comprehensive approach to the four education reform areas: 1) implementing standards and assessments; 2) improving teacher effectiveness and achieving equity in teacher distribution; 3) improving collection and use of data; and 4) supporting struggling schools.

The draft guidance states: "The State's application must describe how the State and participating districts intend to use Race to the Top and other funds to implement comprehensive and coherent policies and practices in the 4 education reform areas and how they are designed to 1) increase student achievement; 2) reduce the achievement gap across student subgroups; and 3) increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers."

As previously mentioned, a number of groups provided suggestions for changes to the guidelines including the following:

• The inclusion of provisions to enhance student literacy skills
• Broader indicators of school and student success than state assessments
• Encouragement to states to participate in the development of common core standards
• Training for school leaders on the effective use of data and data systems
• A comprehensive plan for training and developing school leaders
• Adherence to the adoption of uniform criteria for measuring the graduation rate