'Race to the Top' Education Funds Awarded to 9 States and D.C.

EDUCATION -- August 24, 2010 at 2:26 PM EDT

The results are in for the second round of "Race to the Top" education funding, a competition among states for a piece of more than $4 billion set aside by Congress and the Obama administration as part of the $787 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus program.

Nine states and Washington, D.C., each won a share of the remaining $3.4 billion by proposing unique approaches to improving the quality of education in their jurisdictions.

There was mixed reaction to the announcement, as reported by Education Week, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

For background on the Race to the Top initiative, check out NewsHour Education Correspondent John Merrow's coverage as well as NewsHour Extra's story .

Here's the final, confirmed list of winners. The Department of Education also released the dollar amount each state is slated to receive, and their point score:

District of Columbia: $75 million. Score: 450.0
Florida: $700 million. Score: 452.4
Georgia: $400 million. Score: 446.4
Hawaii: $75 million. Score: 462.4
Maryland: $250 million. Score: 450.0
Massachusetts: $250 million. Score: 471.0
New York: $700 million. Score: 464.8
North Carolina: $400 million. Score: 441.6
Ohio: $400 million. Score: 440.8
Rhode Island: $75 million. Score: 451.2

The round two winners join Delaware and Tennessee, who won first-round funding.

Although the second-round winners' grant applications varied considerably in focus and content, all of them emphasized "bold approaches" to evaluating teachers and reforming low-performance schools. Washington, D.C.'s application included funding for the controversial IMPACT teacher evaluation system, while New York and Florida's $700 million winning bids contained aggressive measures to evaluate and restructure failing schools.

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