District level Race to the Top

It's heeerreee....

There's $400 million on the table for districts of 2000 students and up. Districts have to notify the fed that they plan to apply by the end of August, with applications due in October, and awards being announced in December. As EdWeek posts

In addition to meeting the 2,000-student threshold, to be eligible to compete a district must also implement evaluation systems for teachers, principals, and superintendents by the 2014-15 school year.Districts must also address how they will improve teaching and learning using personalized "strategies, tools, and supports."In fact, this personalized learning component makes up 40 points on the 200-point grading scale. The rest of the grading scale is:

• Prior academic track record and how transparent the district is (such as if it makes school-level expenditures readily available to the public), 45 points;

• "Vision" for reform, 40 points;

• Continuous improvement (having a strategy and performance measures for long-term improvement), 30 points;

• District policy and infrastructure (such as giving building leaders more autonomy), 25 points;

• Budget and sustainability, 20 points.

Ten bonus points are available for districts that collaborate with public and private partners to help improve the social, emotional and behavioral needs of students.After districts firm up their applications, states and mayors must be given 10 business days (up from 5 days in the proposed rules) to comment on the proposals. However, the contest rules don't require districts to make any changes with the feedback they're given.

Yes. Really.
It's been said before that they're asking a lot for very little money, not to mention that this is all rather vague and has all the same problems that the state RTTT did--namely, has anyone read a lick of research on what works and what doesn't?