ABSTRACT
On November 18, 2009, the administration of President Barack Obama created an educational initiative program known as the Race to the Top Fund. Like its national policy predecessors, Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the Race to the Top proposed an overhaul of the educational system in order to benefit underserved students within it. However, rather than formally mandating a change in current educational policy, including assessment, public school choice, teacher education, and student preparedness, the president and his administration implemented a contest and used the promise of funding to motivate states to make changes in the structure of their educational systems with the hope that this would provide better-quality schools. Like other educational reforms at the national level, the initiative grew out of the best of intentions. Yet the push to win Race to the Top funding in states such as New York pitted traditional large schools against charters, politicians against teachers’ unions, and parents against teachers-leaving students in the middle.
