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The 12 winners of the federal Race to the Top competition have experienced near-universal challenges in turning their sweeping, multifaceted proposals into reality, among them a limited state capacity to execute fast, dramatic change and deeply rooted teacher-evaluation systems that have proved hard to transform.

unveiled last week by the U.S. Department of Education detail for the first time where the 11 states and the District of Columbia are hitting their targets, and where they鈥檙e falling short, as they carry out the plans that earned them grants under President Barack Obama鈥檚 high-profile $4 billion education initiative.

Even the states that are living up to their promises best鈥擬aryland, Massachusetts, and Ohio, according to the department鈥攈ave suffered setbacks as they struggle to find high-quality staff members and contractors to do the work, whether it鈥檚 overseeing implementation of common academic standards or constructing new data systems.

鈥淚t was very clear that this is going to be really demanding stuff,鈥� said Paul Manna, an associate professor of government and public policy at the College of William and Mary, in Williamsburg, Va. 鈥淲hen you submit a 1,000-page plan that says you鈥檙e going to do a bunch of things, you need a lot of capacity.鈥�

Nearly all states have also struggled, in some way, to build or complete sophisticated data systems that not only can track students鈥� performance from early education through college, but also link the data to individual teachers and programs and make the information available and easily understood by educators and other stakeholders.

But there are bright spots, too, in the reports. States generally were praised for the progress they are making in implementing common-core standards at the classroom level. (A separate study released last week finds states overall lagging in their plans to implement the standards in their classrooms. 鈥淔ew States Cite Full Plans to Carry Out Standards,鈥� Jan. 18, 2012.) And they鈥檙e making significant headway in their plans to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM, education.

鈥淭hese 12 states created aggressive plans that set a high bar for reform,鈥� U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said in a statement accompanying the release of the reports. 鈥淲e are supporting states to help them achieve their goals. At the same time, we will hold them accountable for those commitments.鈥�

Contracts Stalled

The Race to the Top grants, funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act passed by Congress in 2009, ranged from $75 million in the smallest states to $700 million in the largest鈥攁nd are governed by specific promises and deadlines agreed to by the states themselves.

The federal Education Department singled out three states for falling far short of their first-year goals: Florida, Hawaii, and New York. All of them experienced big problems in finding people and companies to oversee and implement the work, or, in New York鈥檚 case, figuring out how to communicate with 715 participating districts鈥攖he most of any Race to the Top state.

But every state had trouble in that area, a task made worse, in part, by capacity issues in state departments of education that have suffered significant budget cuts in recent years.

In Maryland, slow hiring for data-system project managers led to costly delays in piloting a new curriculum-management system. D.C. had so much turnover in the position that oversees its Race to the Top plan that no one person served more than six months since the grant was won in 2010, according to the reports.

And in North Carolina, the federal Education Department says, projects and hiring were delayed because 鈥渋n several of the Race to the Top initiatives, the state underestimated the time necessary to move from planning to implementation.鈥�

Complicating matters, at least in five states, were high-level leadership changes. Florida, Georgia Hawaii, Ohio, and Tennessee now have either a different governor or chief state school officer鈥攐r both鈥攕ince the grants were awarded in 2010.

Florida experienced some of the biggest administrative issues.

鈥淚n year one, Florida made a great deal of progress but also experienced some serious setbacks,鈥� Mr. Duncan said in his statement last week. 鈥淎s Florida moves further into year two, we will be looking to them to demonstrate unwavering commitment and continued collaboration to ensure that their work gets back on track.鈥�

Those setbacks revolved almost exclusively around significant delays in issuing contracts鈥攁 big part of Florida鈥檚 implementation plan since 98 percent of the state鈥檚 share of its award is to be spent with outside vendors. The delays pushed many projects back by several months, and sometimes more than a year.

Florida officials, however, don鈥檛 characterize their setbacks as serious, and they say they have met new contracting deadlines.

Pam Stewart, the K-12 chancellor for the Florida education department, said in an interview she鈥檚 confident the state can still meet its ambitious goals by the time the four-year grant runs out鈥攁nd points to the good work she says the state has accomplished so far, such as in implementing new teacher evaluations.

As far as the contracting process, 鈥渨e did not execute everything in year one that we had hoped,鈥� Ms. Stewart said. 鈥淚t is a lengthy process; it makes it a good process.鈥�

Ohio has faced many of the same challenges鈥攁 new governor and state schools chief, staffing woes within the state agency, nearly 500 participating districts, and a considerable number of contracts to issue鈥攜et it is among the top-performing Race to the Top states, according to the federal officials.

鈥淭he secret to our success is that Race to the Top has become our entire framework for education reform. It has become the daily work of the [state] department,鈥� said Michael Sawyers, the Ohio education department鈥檚 deputy superintendent. Other states that have struggled, he said, 鈥渁re trying to maintain a dichotomy.鈥�

And it didn鈥檛 hurt that Ohio lost in the first round and was able to revise its plan to make it more focused, more deliberate, and perhaps more manageable, Mr. Sawyers said. 鈥淧art of our success is that we failed the first time.鈥�

Teacher Evaluations

Beyond inadequate capacity, the next biggest-stumbling block for nearly all states has been upending teacher-evaluation systems to factor in student growth, and eventually to use them to make personnel decisions, such as whether a teacher is granted tenure.

That鈥檚 what has landed Hawaii and New York in hot water. Secretary Duncan used the release of the reports to turn up the heat on New York, in particular. That state, which won $700 million, is embroiled in legal and district battles over how to carry out a 2010 law, enacted in the run-up to the Race to the Top, creating a new teacher-evaluation system.

鈥淣ew York has a chance to be a national leader or a laggard, and we are only interested in supporting real courage and bold leadership,鈥� Mr. Duncan said in the statement. 鈥淏acktracking on reform commitments could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars for improving New York schools.鈥�

New York education chief John B. King Jr. acknowledged the state鈥檚 precarious position in an interview with 澳门跑狗论坛 earlier this month, when he said he was 鈥渦nquestionably concerned鈥� about the fate of the Race to the Top grant. In a statement after the reports were made public, Mr. King maintained, 鈥淲e have to get this done, and we will.鈥�

Teacher-evaluation problems have gotten Hawaii into the biggest trouble of all Race to the Top winners. Already, federal officials have put the state in 鈥渉igh risk鈥� status and threatened to revoke the remaining $70 million of its $75 million Race to the Top grant.

But last week, when the progress reports came out, Mr. Duncan commended Hawaii for reaching a , likely sparked by the federal department鈥檚 threats, with its teachers鈥� union that resolves a long-running labor dispute.

Hawaii officials didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment last week. But in a statement issued last week after the reports came out, Stephen Schatz, an assistant superintendent with the Hawaii education department, said, 鈥淭his is very hard work, but we are up for the challenge.鈥�

Many other states have seen teacher-evaluation setbacks as well, though not to the degree of Hawaii鈥檚 or New York鈥檚.

Delaware had to postpone using its evaluation system to inform tenure decisions by a year. Maryland also had to push back its teacher-evaluation pilot by six months. And the District of Columbia did not meet its goal of getting all school district and charter school evaluation plans approved before the start of the 2011-12 school year.

New Hurdles Ahead

The job of putting Race to the Top plans into practice doesn鈥檛 get any easier for winners as they continue in this second year. While the first year was focused on planning, much more heavy lifting will be required across all areas as states reach the halfway point of the four-year grant period.

Georgia and Maryland must implement their pilot programs for teacher and principal evaluation. Massachusetts must establish a new performance-based licensing system for principals. North Carolina needs to figure out how it will incorporate student-growth measures into teacher evaluations and select a 鈥渧alue added鈥� model for such evaluations. Tennessee is working to launch an early-warning data system that will allow educators at the classroom level to examine students鈥� attendance, achievement, behavior, and course-completion information.

Asking states to transform their deeply entrenched K-12 systems in four years may have been a tall order, Mr. Manna, of the College of William and Mary, said.

鈥淢aybe four years is not too long to do some things, but to do everything鈥攅specially given the baseline levels of capacity for the [state education] agencies?鈥� Mr. Manna said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not just technical work, but political work. Ultimately, school districts have to make this stuff work.鈥�