In case you don't want to sift through all the Education Department guidelines for Race to the Top, you can check out an easy-to-read summary and analysis that The New Teacher Project released this month.
The national nonprofit group spells out the race guidelines, gives states and districts checklists to see whether they're meeting the criteria, and shows how competitive the states are when they're matched up the standards.
As of this month, four states are not eligible to compete. California, New York and Wisconsin do not allow teachers to be evaluated by student performance data, according to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, though the states don't agree with his assessment. Pennsylvania's not eligible either, but for a different reason: It has not been approved for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act fiscal stabilization funds.
While the other states have qualified for the race, they may not be competitive if they don't meet some of the criteria. Duncan's placed a high priority on national curriculum standards, specifically participation in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, which leaves Alaska, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas with no points for that requirement.
Charter schools have also made up a large piece of federal education policy since Duncan took over, and the states that don't have charter school legislation may not do so well. Those states include Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Washington, West Virginia and Vermont.
Overall, the only states that The New Teacher Project has marked as highly competitive are Florida and Louisiana.
