Racing to the Top
with Personalized Learning
VOICES CARRY
By Hilary Goldmann
Hilary Goldmann,
ISTE’s senior government affairs officer, has
more than 20 years of
experience in public
policy and advocacy.
Her column appears in
every other issue of L&L.
Several months ago, the U.S. Depart- ment of Education released the pro- posed guidelines for a new Race to the
Top (RTT) program that would award grants
at the district level (RTT-D). Until now, the
government awarded all RTT grants to states.
The proposed competition would award $400
million to 15–20 school districts in an effort to
continue the Obama administration’s focus on
ensuring students are college and career ready
upon high school graduation. The new program
requires applicants to focus on personalized
learning environments. In an unusual move, the
department requested public comment. When
announcing RTT-D, U.S. Education Secretary
Arne Duncan said this competition asks districts
“to show us how they can personalize and indi-
vidualize education for a set of students in their
schools…. We need to take classroom learning
beyond a one-size-fits-all model and bring it
into the 21st century.”
ISTE provided input and comments to the
Department of Education by leveraging the
expertise of its members. Comments addressed
a broad range of components of the proposal
with a special focus on the integration of digital
learning into the grant to achieve the adminis-
tration’s goals.
In ISTE’s comments, outgoing CEO Don Kne-
zek wrote:
We are concerned that the RTT-D program,
as currently written, too narrowly defines
personalized learning and thus limits the
potential for students to truly experience a
personalized learning environment.
