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If you want to see President Barack Obama鈥檚 approach to reimagining K-12 education in full force, take a road trip down I-40, through two North Carolina school districts that have used a patchwork of one-time federal grants to spur big change.

Talk to 4th graders in the Iredell-Statesville district about how strategies financed by an Investing in Innovation grant have improved their reading.

Watch a veteran high school teacher make 鈥淩omeo and Juliet鈥� relevant for students using 1-to-1 laptops and personalized learning, hallmarks of the administration鈥檚 district-level Race to the Top grants.

Then drive about an hour to Guilford County, where Parkview Village Elementary Expressive Arts Magnet School is in the midst of a turnaround effort fueled by a School Improvement Grant. Chat with a 5th grade math teacher who has moved students鈥� test scores so far and so fast she鈥檚 received a $20,000 bonus, thanks to a program that鈥檚 been financed with help from the Teacher Incentive Fund.

But you鈥檒l have to make the trip soon: The districts鈥� federal grants are waning fast, the last of them set to wind down in December 2016.

Both districts, which form an epicenter of sorts of the Obama administration鈥檚 marquee education programs, are taking a hard look at their ledgers to figure out what they can continue to pay for and where they can skimp if they want to sustain the progress they鈥檝e made.

鈥淲e aggressively went after the grants thinking when the economy bounced back, the [state and local] funding would be back,鈥� said Melanie Taylor, the deputy superintendent for curriculum and instruction in the 20,000-student Iredell-Statesville district, which cuts through a largely suburban and rural swath of the Tarheel State, near Charlotte.

But as the extra federal aid dries up, the district is braced for cuts, in part because state per-pupil aid hasn鈥檛 yet rebounded to prerecession levels.

The programs that the federal money has paid for 鈥渁re really meeting the needs of students, ... and we need to ensure [students] keep growing toward being ready for college and career,鈥� Ms. Taylor said.

The story is similar in Guilford County.

鈥淓very day, we are talking about what we鈥檒l no longer be able to do,鈥� said Nora Carr, the chief of staff for the 72,200-student district, which includes the city of Greensboro.

Spigot Running Dry

Since the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which provided some $100 billion for education, Mr. Obama and his education secretary, Arne Duncan, have used a parade of highly sought-after competitive grants to reward states and districts willing to embrace the administration鈥檚 education redesign priorities, including college- and career-ready standards and teacher evaluation tied in part to student test scores.

But it鈥檚 unclear just how much lasting change those competitive-grant dollars鈥攁bout $20 billion over the past six years, including more than $14 billion for the administration鈥檚 signature programs鈥攈ave wrought.

Case in point: Back in 2010, North Carolina won a coveted, $400 million slice of the Race to the Top program, in part because of its commitment to the Common Core State Standards initiative. And, as a member of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, the state also benefited indirectly from the roughly $160 million Race to the Top assessment grant for the design of common-core-aligned tests.

Now, with those grants on their last legs, North Carolina is reviewing the standards. So far, it hasn鈥檛 gone ahead with its plan of using the SBAC tests, and some teachers privately doubt it ever will.

Guilford County and Iredell-Statesville won their competitive federal grants in part because they had laid out smart sustainability plans, according to the Department of Education鈥檚 peer reviewers. Neither expected the money to be around forever.

The districts also were in a strong position to take advantage of the new dollars. Each has already made progress on policy prescriptions close to Mr. Duncan鈥檚 heart, including using student data to inform instruction and experimenting with alternative systems of teacher pay.

And both have seen a succession of superstar superintendents. Guilford is now led by Mo Green, who came from the state鈥檚 Charlotte-Mecklenberg schools, a system nationally known as an innovator on teacher quality.

Guilford County鈥檚 previous chiefs include Jerry D. Weast, whose district was a finalist for the Broad Prize for urban education when he later led the Montgomery County, Md., system, and Terry B. Grier, now the chief in Houston, which won its second Broad Prize on his watch. Both were the state superintendent of the year while in Guilford. (Mr. Weast is a trustee of 澳门跑狗论坛鈥榮 nonprofit parent company.)

Iredell-Statesville鈥檚 superintendent, Brady Johnson, was named the state superintendent of the year in 2014. Before he took over, the district was led by another North Carolina superintendent of the year, Terry K. Holliday, now the commissioner of education in Kentucky.

But there have been widespread complaints that high-flying districts with experienced grant-proposal writers on staff鈥攄istricts like Guilford and Iredell-Statesville鈥攈ave had a big advantage over other applicants, particularly smaller school systems in rural areas. That perception has made the Obama administration鈥檚 competitive grants unpopular in Congress, and it鈥檚 possible many of the programs won鈥檛 survive the president鈥檚 tenure.

Innovation at Work

In 2010, Iredell-Statesville was one of 49 winners that beat out more than 1,600 other applicants for a slice of the $650 million first round of the Investing in Innovation, or i3, grant program, which helps test-run promising projects at the district and nonprofit level. It triumphed over more than 350 other applicants to become one of 16 winners of the first round of the Race to the Top grants for districts. Only a few other districts in the country secured funding from both programs.

Iredell-Statesville has been able to braid the two funding streams to accelerate a districtwide push to instruction tailored to students鈥� individual needs.

Specifically, the i3 money has fueled a response-to-intervention, or RTI, program, which uses data and formative assessments to identify children鈥檚 strengths and weaknesses. It鈥檚 aimed primarily at students in special education, those with limited English proficiency, and those with other challenges.

Janna Sells, the instructional facilitator at East Iredell Elementary, who taught in the district before the i3 grant, said she previously would have been able to tell that one of her students had difficulty reading. But she wouldn鈥檛 have been sure of the root cause or how to fix it.

Now, thanks to the district鈥檚 RTI focus, she can take a look at the student鈥檚 outcomes on a series of assessments, say with certainty what the issue is鈥攄ecoding, maybe鈥攁nd pinpoint the right fix.

鈥淚 can say, 鈥榊our kid is struggling, but I know why,鈥� 鈥� Ms. Sells said. 鈥渋3 taught us how to have that conversation.鈥�

The results have been striking: Iredell-Statesville students in grades K-8 have leapt more than 20 percentage points as measured by a dibels oral-fluency test, for example.

The aid from the Race to the Top program for districts, meanwhile, has ensured that nearly every middle and high school student in Iredell-Statesville has access to a laptop computer. Teachers can use the devices to link students with programs that help them bridge gaps in their skills. Sometimes those gaps are identified by the diagnostic tools funded with help from the i3 grant.

Iredell-Statesville relies on 鈥渂lended-learning coaches鈥� stationed at its schools to help teachers become familiar with the new approach. These coaches often collaborate with their school鈥檚 鈥渋nstructional facilitator,鈥� who may be the on-site point person on i3. The district is planning to create a new hybrid position at many of its middle and high schools when the grant money runs dry.

But helping a teacher use and program state-of-the-art devices, while serving as an instructional-data coach and, sometimes, as the resident response-to-intervention guru, is a lot to ask of one person, said Barbara Hill, the instructional facilitator at North Iredell Middle School.

鈥淚 feel like something is going to go by the wayside,鈥� she said.

Once the federal money is gone, the district could hang on to the laptops鈥攚hich it leases, but will own after three years鈥攁nd hopes to continue with the processes, procedures, and new culture the grants have helped put in place.

A bigger challenge may be finding the money to continue with the thrice-yearly 鈥渄ata days鈥� that are a hallmark of Iredell-Statesville鈥檚 i3 program, in which groups of teachers spend hours unpacking and analyzing student outcomes. And the three i3 coaches who operate out of the district office will likely have to find jobs elsewhere in the system.

Turnaround Challenges

Sheila Gorham, the principal of Guilford County鈥檚 Allen Middle School, knows a thing or two about trying to implement big changes with鈥攁nd without鈥攆ederal largess.

Ms. Gorham served as the principal of Wiley Elementary School as it was going through a transformation made possible by nearly $2.5 million in federal School Improvement Grant money. The school, like Guilford鈥檚 other SIG schools, made gains on state tests, growing faster than North Carolina鈥檚 average.

Now, Ms. Gorham, who was named Guilford County鈥檚 principal of the year in 2014-15, is trying to replicate that success at Allen Middle, using some of the same strategies, but without the federal dollars.

Guilford has used SIG funding, which requires districts to choose from a menu of intensive turnaround strategies, at four schools. The district borrowed some of those ideas for its own locally financed turnaround efforts at a few schools, including Allen Middle, now in its second year of the district鈥檚 improvement program.

Like one of the federal options, Guilford鈥檚 homegrown approach calls for getting rid of a school鈥檚 principal, if that person has been on the job for more than a year without progress; extending instructional time; and replacing at least half the staff.

At Wiley Elementary, those dramatic, politically prickly strategies came with a sweetener: three years of robust federal funding. Ms. Gorham was able to bring in consultants to help her teachers with classroom management and student behavior, and give the school a hand in implementing single-gender classes.

But, when Ms. Gorham got to Allen, she had a much smaller pot of money, about $450,000 in extra funds under a special local program. That meant she had to make some difficult choices, including scaling back the school鈥檚 social worker from full- to part-time, to pay for additional instructional coaches.

Allen Middle School did, however, take advantage of another major federal funding stream. Like Iredell-Statesville, Guilford got a $30 million grant under Race to the Top for districts, which was used to buy 1-to-1 tablets and better customize instruction to individual students. Now, the program is at every middle school in the district.

The initiative hasn鈥檛 been without its problems. After a fast, aggressive rollout, Guilford temporarily halted the program, amid hardware challenges. The early days were particularly tough on turnaround schools like Allen Middle.

鈥淲e were trying to reculture the school, and it was too much,鈥� Ms. Gorham said. 鈥淚t created more time away from instruction, 鈥� and we needed to be able to focus on the essential instruction that we needed.鈥�

She was grateful that the district hit the pause button and restarted the 1-to-1 initiative, with the help of its vendor, Amplify. It鈥檚 operated much more smoothly this time around, she said. (Larry Berger, the president of Amplify Learning, is a trustee of 澳门跑狗论坛鈥榮 parent company.)

And overall, Ms. Gorham sees the tablets as a net positive and a huge motivating tool for her students. But learning to teach with the new devices鈥攚hich are leased and may or may not be around when the grant ends鈥攚hile managing a turnaround and a still-in-question transition to the common core is a lot for teachers to juggle, she said.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to talk about what we鈥檙e going to do for the curriculum when we don鈥檛 know what standards we鈥檙e going to use to drive the curriculum,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 really need that uncertainty, when we鈥檙e trying to deal with what else is going on.鈥�

Second Shot

John King, who is filling the role of the deputy secretary of education, said the Obama administration鈥檚 competitive grants have brought about 鈥渓arge-scale systemic鈥� change, including more rigorous standards in more than 40 states.

鈥淭hose are upfront investments that will continue to pay dividends over time even after the initial federal investment ends,鈥� said Mr. King, who previously was the state schools chief in New York.

When districts like Guilford and Iredell-Statesville test-drive new approaches to improving instruction, everyone can benefit, he said.

鈥淲e also hope that lessons learned from these grantees will influence how other districts use their formula dollars,鈥� Mr. King said, such as Title I aid for disadvantaged students.

But Paul Manna, an associate professor of government at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va., who has studied the administration鈥檚 competitive initiatives, said that 鈥渢here鈥檚 no doubt that some of these activities will just shut down鈥� when the money runs out, despite the best efforts of districts and states.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not that places will just drop this stuff, drop it cold鈥攖hey鈥檒l think about how to sustain things; it becomes this search for other sources of funding,鈥� he said.

With North Carolina aiding K-12 at lower levels per pupil than it did before the recession hit in 2008-09, the Guilford and Iredell-Statesville districts are planning to continue to go after federal dollars.

But even if the Obama administration ends up having more competitive-grant money to spread around, there are no guarantees that either of those districts will outshine hundreds of other applicants to win again. So, both North Carolina districts are looking for alternative sources of funding.

鈥淲e鈥檝e kind of had this rising tide of poverty mapped against this rapidly shrinking resource base,鈥� Guilford County鈥檚 Ms. Carr said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 two runaway trains headed for a collision. So sustainability is more in question than it was.鈥�