President Obama has packed a number of his campaign promises related to education into his "Race to the Top" program, which seeks to encourage innovative approaches to teaching and learning by having states compete for $4.35 billion worth of grants from the Department of Education. The program was funded through the Obama-backed economic stimulus package approved by Congress in February.

The grants are designed to encourage state programs that achieve "significant improvement in student outcomes, including making substantial gains in student achievement," according to a Department of Education notice inviting applications. Later, the notice defines student achievement, which includes increasing the "percentage of students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses who take Advanced Placement exams."

Advanced Placement courses are essentially college-level courses taught in high school. Students who pass advance placement exams are eligible for college credits at most U.S. colleges.

Competition for the "Race to the Top" grants will be conducted in two rounds -- the first starting this month and the second in June of next year -- with winners announced in April and September 2010.

Whether these grants will do enough to encourage high schools to increase the number of students taking college level or AP courses by 50 percent in the coming years remains to be seen. But it's a start. And so we move this one to In the Works.