If you’re a finalist for a Race to the Top grant in Round 1 of the competition, then the week of March 15 is when your state team will have to come to Washington, D.C. and make your in-person pitch to the peer reviewers.
This nugget of information, plus more on the Race to the Top timeline, is contained in a new FAQs document released by the U.S. Department of Education today.
Those who are finalists will be notified around March 1, which leaves about two weeks for states to prepare their Olympic-sized sales pitches. It’s unclear if those who do not make it to the interview round of this education reform pageant will be informed then as well.
Round 1 winners are expected to be announced in early April. (And losers will have until June 1 to get their Round 2 applications in.)