Message from Commissioner Mitchell Chester on RTTT

Dear Superintendents and Charter School Leaders,

As you may have already seen on the news, the USED will publicly announce later this afternoon that Tennessee and Delaware are the only two states that will receive funding in the first round of Race to the Top. The fact that only two grants were awarded means there will be plenty of funding left over for Round 2, so we are committed to revising and strengthening our application to reapply. The deadline for the next round is June 1, so we will begin revising our application and planning next steps immediately.

As we begin our revisions, we will consider whether to reopen the Memorandum of Understanding process to allow districts that did not sign up the first time an additional opportunity to commit to participating. We will make these decisions early in our revision process and will update you with new guidance in April.

My thanks to you all for your support in and enthusiasm for our application. This news is obviously disappointing, but not altogether surprising - we knew all along that this was an extremely competitive process and that Massachusetts was not the only state that submitted a strong application. I am happy for my colleagues in Tennessee and Delaware, and committed to ensuring that Massachusetts makes a strong enough showing to emerge victorious in Round 2.

My best,

Mitchell Chester