Race to Top Winners Embed STEM Projects in Plans

States are expected to integrate subjects in their overall reform agendas.

Fueled by funding from the federal Race to the Top competition , winning states plan to pursue a variety of efforts to advance education in the STEM fields, from building a set of “exemplary” high schools in North Carolina to launching a statewide “innovation network” in Tennessee to designing a program in Florida targeting gifted and talented students from rural areas.

The U.S. Department of Education late last month announced the second round of winners in the $4 billion federal competition, for a total of 11 states plus the District of Columbia. The Race to the Top aims to promote what the federal agency calls “comprehensive, coherent, statewide education reform” across four key areas: standards and assessments, teacher quality, data systems, and turning around low-performing schools.

In addition, the department included STEM—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—education as a “competitive preference priority” in evaluating state applications, with an emphasis on ensuring the topic was integrated...

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Correction: 
An earlier version of this story provided an incorrect number of grants that Florida will award to rural consortia of school districts for STEM programs targeting gifted and talented students. Up to two grants will be awarded.

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