Race to the Top

Implemented from 2010 to 2015, Race to the Top was an application-based federal program that sought to increase states’ usage of standards and accountability measures in education. Previous research has shown that states that won Race to the Top grants went on to increase their use of standards and accountability measures more than non-winning states, but no study has estimated the program’s effects on student outcomes. In this thesis I fill this gap in the literature by using econometric analyses to calculate the program’s effects on Math scores, Reading scores, and high school graduation rates. I find that states who won grants in 2010 improved their test scores by about 0.6 standard deviations, but that states who won grants in 2011 only improved their test scores by about 0.3 standard deviations. I also find that 2010 winners increased their high school graduation rates by 2%, whereas 2011 winners did not see improvements in this measure. Thus, in both test scores and high school graduation rates, Race to the Top had a larger positive impact on the 2010 winners than on the 2011 winners. The 2010 grants were about ten times as large as the 2011 grants, and I ultimately conclude that this difference in funding explains the disparity in gains between the 2010 winners and 2011 winners. Overall, my findings provide evidence that standards, accountability measures, and application-based programs can be used to improve student outcomes, and I recommend for the federal government to implement more standardization programs in the future.