Photo by dcJohn The Post reports today that both D.C. and Maryland are prepared to apply for the next round of grants from President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative. The competition started last summer, with public schools across the nation applying for over $4 billion in federal funding by showing they would raise standards and would properly monitor those changes. Delaware and Tennessee came out the big winners in the first round, taking…

The District of Columbia was named as a finalist this morning in the U.S. Dept. of Education’s Race to the Top contest, an Obama administration program aimed at spurring school reform through enormous financial incentives. The lengthy Race to the Top application process required the submission of a reform plan that included rigorous academic standards, data systems that measure student achievement and growth, strategies that recruit, develop, reward, and retain effective educators, and proposals for…