On May 22nd the US Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan announced a new Race to the Top competition aimed at providing resources to school districts to support an increased emphasis on personalized education.  The announcement specifically outlined the draft criteria for this program and invited comments to be filed with US ED by June 8th. 

In summary this is a $400 million competition that will make awards to 15 to 20 school districts (or groups of school districts).  Each application will need to reflect their program's emphasis (or some say acceptance) of the prinicipals of school system reform reflective in the administration's other initiatives (teacher and principal evaluation, use of data, college and career ready standards, etc.) and increase attention on personalized education. 

From the USED's handout "Fast Facts" the absolute Priority 1, Persoanlized Learning Environment(s) includes this definition.  The environments are "designed to significantly;

improve teaching and learning through the persoanlization of strategies;

tools and supports for teachers and students that are aligned with college- andcareer-ready standards; 

increase the effectiveness of educators, and

expand student access to the most effective educators inorder to raise student achievement; decrease the achievement gap across student groups; and increase the rates at which students graduate from high school prepared for college and careers."

For more information to to: www.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop-district