The U.S. Department of Education released the list of 61 finalists for the Race to the Top District (RTT-D) finalists, which included six charter local education agencies (LEAs). The RTT-D competition expects to award 15-25 grants to LEAs to build on the lessons learned from the State RTT competitions, to support locally directed improvements in learning and teaching that will directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness. Of the nearly 80 charter LEA applicants, six were selected as finalists, including the Green Dot schools of California, the KIPP DC schools, and three charter management organizations in Texas: Harmony Public Schools, Idea Public Schools, and Uplift Education. The sixth charter finalist is the Morgan County Charter School System, a traditional district in which all of the schools converted to public charter status in 2011. In addition to these six applicants, there may be charter schools without LEA status participating in their LEAs application—this information will be available following the announcement of the winning applications.
NAPCS congratulates these six LEAs and all of the finalists for the RTT-D competition. For more information on the RTT-D program, and all of the finalists, visit the Department of Education’s website.
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