The race to change: the competition for $4.35 billion spurred legislators to make far-reaching changes in state education policy. Will they make a difference?

• Author: Weiss, Suzanne

In years to come, the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition may well be viewed as having significantly altered the landscape of public education in America.

For cash-strapped states, the prospect of winning a share of the $4.35 billion Race to the Top money compelled all but a handful to participate in one or both rounds of the hard-fought, year-long competition--and, in the process, undertake a variety of key reforms.

"With a relatively small amount of money, [the federal government] has catalyzed a large amount of worthwhile education-reform activity in a great many places," says education policy expert Chester E. "Checker" Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. And the directions in which Race to the Top compelled states to move "are important directions to move in."

Some of the reforms include:

* Thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have formally adopted rigorous new K-12 "common core" standards in English and mathematics, and an additional 14 states have committed to doing so. The new standards were created by a voluntary partnership of states, not by the federal government.

* Forty-four states are working together, in two federally funded design groups, to develop better ways of measuring the performance and progress of students. The new assessments have the potential "to turn the current testing system upside down," says Bruce Fuller, an education professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

* Since mid-2009, 15 states have lifted their caps on public charter schools. Mississippi enacted a charter school law, and efforts to pass such legislation in several other states--Alabama, Kentucky, Maine, South Dakota and West Virginia--have gained momentum.

In addition, several states have made notable legislative and regulatory changes, from the use of long-term study data to the evaluation of teachers and principals to state intervention in chronically low-performing schools.

New York, for example, plans to expand its "partnership zones" for turnaround schools. The zones include clusters of restructured and charter schools that will use a central district office for services, but have separate scheduling, curriculum and staffing controls in exchange for agreeing to make significant improvements within two years.

Hawaii recently committed to lengthening the school year to 190 days, 10 days longer than the national average. Connecticut is in the process of imposing more rigorous high school...