Disparities in the scoring of Race to the Top finalists raise red flags about the objectivity of the process, and that scoring may have been affected by political influences.

The goal of this paper is to analyze Race to the Top to identify the program's strengths and weaknesses and to suggest what it can teach future designers and implementers of federal education policy.

Race to the Top is fundamentally about two things: creating political cover for state education reformers to innovate and helping states construct the administrative capacity to implement these innovations effectively.

States of greater interest to the White House may have received preferential grades on their Race to the Top applications.

The Department of Education's "Race to the Top" program has distracted attention from the need to address unsustainable state budgets; meanwhile the president says he wants to "only invest in reform" rather than funding the status quo.

Funded with $4.35 billion in stimulus dollars, the competitive grant program "Race to the Top" urged states to comply with nineteen federal priorities and to dramatically expand Uncle Sam's role in school reform.

The Obama administration has selected fifty-eight unknown reviewers to handle state applications for Race to the Top funds.

The disheartening close of its prized program is bad news for the Obama administration and probably signals rough seas ahead for its education agenda in 2011.