The Obama administration delivered a jolt to U.S. public education Monday by selecting just two states, Delaware and Tennessee, to receive $600 million in hard-fought grants designed to help districts overhaul their programs.
The awards are part of the administration's $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, which has sparked a nationwide scramble among states to prove which of them is championing the most robust changes. Forty states and the District of Columbia applied for the grants.
Tennessee will receive $500 million, and Delaware gets $100 million.
In selecting winners, the education department used a complicated scoring system that weighted everything from states' willingness to track student and teacher performance, adopt uniform standards, and turn around or close their worst schools. Delaware garnered 454 out of a possible 500 points, while Tennessee accrued 444.
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