The Ohio Department of Education’s Administration of its Race to the Top Grant

Our audit sought to determine whether the Ohio Department of Education (the Ohio SEA) accurately and completely reported RTT grant performance data to the Department, ensured that it and its participating LEAs and charter schools would have the capacity to deliver and sustain results described in its RTT grant application after all Federal funds had been expended, and whether they spent RTT funds only on allowable activities and in accordance with program requirements and the Ohio SEA’s approved grant application. We examined two of the six educational topic areas on which the Ohio SEA spent RTT funds—data systems to support instruction and its Great Teachers and Leaders programs—and two of its LEAs—the Lorain City Schools and the Toledo Public Schools. We found that although the Ohio SEA reported all required performance data for the two areas reviewed and ensured that it and the two LEAs had the capacity to deliver and sustain results, it did not always report accurate data and did not ensure that the LEAs spent RTT funds on allowable activities and in accordance with program requirements and the Ohio SEA’s approved grant application.