THE FIRST 100 DAYS
LESSONS LEARNED FROM RACE TO THE TOP ROUND ONE WINNERS
AUGUST 2010
Executive Summary:
The First Hundred Days
The federal Race to the Top (RTTT)
competition has brought sweeping changes
to the nation’s education policy landscape,
with 34 states changing their laws or
regulations to become more competitive
for the grant. In March 2010, Delaware
and Tennessee became the first winners of
the competition, and the U.S. Department
of Education is expected to select up to
12 additional states for funding in August
2010. While the application process itself
has been extremely competitive, it is only
the beginning of a long road of reform,
as Delaware and Tennessee have seen
first-hand.
As soon as a state wins Race to the Top,
it must quickly decide how it will prioritize
implementing the grant’s many projects.
While there’s no “best” way, Delaware and
Tennessee’s experiences suggest there are
at least four areas that states are likely
to focus on within the first one hundred
days of winning Race to the Top. Each of
these areas is outlined below, and memos
describing the experiences and lessons
learned from Delaware and Tennessee
around the first three areas are available at
www.tnscore.org/rttt.
Developing Short- and Long-Term Project
Management Capacity: One of the most
critical tasks to successfully implementing
Race to the Top is building the necessary
project management capacity. In the
short-term, both Delaware and Tennessee
built this capacity by reassigning existing
staff to oversee the grant and bringing
in outside consultants to provide shortterm project management support. Both
states are now beginning to build longterm capacity by developing an oversight
structure to monitor the grant, recruiting
and hiring new staff, reexamining the
structure of their state education agencies
SCORE
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immediately began revising their teacher
and principal evaluations to include student
growth measures, and Tennessee launched
a series of professional development
activities focused on how to use the state’s
value-added data to improve instruction.
While every state may choose different
projects, it seems likely most states
will begin working on a small number of
additional high-priority projects within the
first hundred days.
(SEAs), and bringing in state and national
partners to provide long-term technical
assistance on specific RTTT projects.
Communicating
and
Engaging
Key
Stakeholders: As part of the application
process, states were required to obtain
letters of support from key stakeholders.
However, both Delaware and Tennessee
found that building a deeper level of
support and communications was critical to
early Race to the Top implementation. To
that end, both states have either launched
or are working to launch communication
campaigns targeting key stakeholders
including superintendents, principals,
teachers, political leaders, parents, and
the general public.
To see Race to the Top documents from
Delaware and Tennessee (including scope
of work templates and RTTT-related RFIs
and RFPs), please visit www.tnscore.org/
rttt.
Supporting LEAs in Writing Scopes of Work:
Within 90 days of being awarded RTTT,
states must submit scopes of work to the
U.S. Department of Education outlining
specifically how local education agencies
(LEAs) will spend their portion of RTTT
funds over the next four years. Neither
Delaware nor Tennessee outlined detailed
plans for this scope of work process in their
RTTT application. However, both states
found the process to be incredibly intensive,
requiring the development of a scope of
work template and rubric, communicating
those rubrics and templates to districts,
providing technical assistance to districts
as they drafted their scopes of work, and
establishing a process for reviewing and
approving scopes of work.
About SCORE
• Founded in 2008 by former
U.S. Senate Majority Leader
Bill Frist
• In 2009, SCORE brought
stakeholders from across
Tennessee together to
develop a common vision for
improving education in the
state
• In 2010, SCORE has
been deeply involved in
Tennessee’s Race to the Top
implementation efforts
• SCORE is now focused on
gathering lessons learned
during Race to the Top
implementation to assist with
implementation efforts in
Tennessee and around the
country
Launching One to Two Other High-Priority
Projects: While the above activities could
easily fill the first hundred days, both
Delaware and Tennessee also launched
one to two other high-priority projects.
Specifically, both Delaware and Tennessee
1207 18th Avenue South, Suite 326, Nashville, TN 37212
•
tel 615.727.1545
•
fax 615.727.1569
•
www.tnscore.org/rttt