Rich Prize, Restrictive Guidelines.

The article discusses criteria for the U.S. Department of Education awards of Race to the Top Fund money from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. States must have no laws barring use of student-achievement data for evaluation of teachers and principals, must be friendly to charter schools and cannot cut state K-12 funding in 2009-2010. Mitchell Chester, Commissioner of Education for Massachusetts, an education-reform exemplar, is quoted saying the standards will be a challenge.