LEA Grant Programs

The District of Columbia intends to accelerate its strategy to turnaround DC’s lowest-achieving schools, improve the effectiveness of teachers and leaders and of all schools, and expand the reach of high-achieving schools through use of its $75 million Race to the Top funds. The pace and breadth of reform in the District is greater than that of most other states – DC is reform-rich in that every LEA is engaged in reform at some level, and LEA participation in Race to the Top covers 91% of public school students in the District.  Thus, the District is primed for an infusion of investment such as Race to the Top.  DC’s strong track record of innovation that occurs at the LEA level allows for much of its proposed RTTT funding – 85 percent – to be directed to LEAs either by formula sub-grant or specific supplemental funding programs.

Charter School Teacher Pipelines Grant

As part of the Race to the Top grant, public charter school local education agencies (LEAs) who signed on to participate in Race to the Top (participating LEAs) are eligible to compete for the Charter School Teacher Pipelines grant (CSTP).  The CSTP is designed for participating LEAs to submit proposals demonstrating the ability to recruit, train, evaluate, and retain new, effective, and highly-effective teachers to increase the number and quality of teachers available to public charter and public schools throughout the District of Columbia.  The successful applicant(s) will be able to demonstrate how this will assist in closing and eliminating the achievement gap in the District of Columbia.

Expanded Growth Assessments Competitive Grant

The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) has issued a Request for Applications (RFA) as part of the Race to the Top grant to support local education agencies (LEAs) participating in Race to the Top in developing assessments that will be used to measure growth or in developing growth measures from existing assessments for use in teacher and leader evaluations. The assessments must be aligned to common core or next generation science standards where applicable and must address a priority grade or subject (see the attached list in the RFA).