Political Problem and Solution The United States now faces a problem that affects children today and in the future. These children are the future of the United States, so shouldn't they all have the highest quality education possible? Through new policies implemented by the Board of Education, education has become a competition for schools to obtain their funding. The Race to the top is a mandate (p.81) that is a formal order from the national government for states to implement certain policies, it should create incentives to improve and reform schools (ESEA Blueprint for Reform, 2009), through requiring systems of teacher evaluation to compete with other schools (A. Levine and M. Levine, 2012). The race to the top has created pressure on states, districts and teachers to improve test scores as a means of earning or retaining funds. The law also rewards districts and teachers who show improvement based on students' standardized test scores and forces reform on schools that do not improve or meet requirements (ESEA Blueprint for Reform, 2009). Pressure can lead districts, principals, or teachers to cheat so they can keep their jobs or their funding (A. Levine & M. Levine, 2012). Teacher, principal and district salaries are based on rigorous trends based on students' standardized test scores. This can also determine who gets hired and fired, which schools receive funding, and how much funding they receive (A. Levine and M. Levine, 2012). The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), a conditional grant (p. 81) defined as federal grants with provisions requiring state and local governments to follow certain policies to obtain funds, implemented to high standards in 2001 by the Bush administration. The requirement requested by NCL...... middle of the document ......uchico.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=88915b21-2471-4fbe-b4ef-e2ff4647ea69%40sessionmgr4002&vid=3&hid=4213 . March 3, 2014. Pianta, Robert C. and Progress Center for American. “Implementing Observation Protocols: Lessons for K-12 Education from the Early Childhood Field.” Center for American Progress (2012): ERIC. http://www.eric.ed.gov.mantis.csuchico.edu/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED535604. May 4, 2014.Shelly, Bryan. “Flexible Response: Executive Federalism and the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.” Educational Policy 26.1 (2012): 117-135. ERIC. http://epx.sagepub.com.mantis.csuchico.edu/content/26/1/117.full.pdf+html . March 3, 2014. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Planning, Evaluation, and Policy Development, ESEA Blueprint for Reform, Washington DC, 2010. http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg /blueprint/blueprint.pdf . March 29. 2014.