States are pushing ahead with efforts to make sweeping changes to education policy through the Race to the Top program, despite some of them having seen individual schools and districts back out of the process because of concerns over the time and money required to make those plans a reality. The Obama administration has envisioned Race to the Top, a $4 billion competitive grant program, as driving innovation in education across the country by supporting new approaches to turning around struggling schools, paying and evaluating teachers and administrators, and crafting better and more uniform academic standards and tests across states, among other policies. In total, 12 winners were named in the two rounds of the competition, out of 46 states that submitted bids. While some of the winning states in the $4 billion competition were able to keep all their local participants on board, others, such as Ohio and Massachusetts, have seen schools and districts peel off and give up their right to a slice of federal cash. All of the winners in the second round of the federal competition--nine states and the District of Columbia--were required to turn in detailed blueprints explaining how they will carry out their plans to the U.S. Department of Education by Nov. 22. Those plans include "scope of work" documents from local participants. Most states said their local commitments had held firm. But some saw schools and districts back away, as local officials questioned whether they could carry out state plans, or objected to core elements of those plans.