This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Maryland's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Maryland will implement to address those challenges. Maryland has received one of twenty "Race to the Top Early Learning Challenge Fund Grant" (RTTT-ELC) awards of a total of $50 million over four years. The Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) has been designated as the lead agency to coordinate a multi-agency approach to submitting Maryland's state plan. The current Governor's State Advisory Council on Early Care and Education, working with the Division of Early Childhood Development (DECD) and the Division of Special Education/Early Intervention Services (DSE/EIS) staff, implemented the ELC projects in years 1, 2 and 3. This team will continue to supervise and monitor the progress of the ELC projects through year 4. Maryland's spotlight projects are the Maryland EXCELS quality rating and improvement system (from here on "EXCELS") and the Ready for Kindergarten (R4K) Early Childhood - Comprehensive Assessment System (from here on "R4K"). The progress made in increasing access to quality care for at-risk children through EXCELS and measuring student growth through the R4K could not have been accomplished without the RTT-ELC grant. As programs enter EXCELS, they have received technical assistance and most have "stepped up" the quality of early childhood services for young children and their families. Developing the R4K will allow Maryland to measure the skills and abilities of incoming kindergarteners against the new Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards by administering the R4K's Kindergarten Readiness Assessment during the first few weeks of kindergarten. Teachers and principals will be able to identify early gaps in achievement as a means for intervention and targeted early learning support. Children with special needs will be identified earlier through the Early Learning Assessment (ELA)--the formative assessment component of the R4K. Maryland's application included 10 thematic projects, designed to improve the school readiness results from 81 percent in 2010 to 92 percent in 2015, the last year of the grant. The ten projects also strive to reduce to the readiness gap for low-income children, English language learners, and young children with disabilities through various strategies. Maryland's RTT-ELC has been designed to address these gaps by targeting supports mainly to early childhood programs in low-income neighborhoods and Title 1 attendance areas. The grant's approach presumes that early interventions prior to school entry boost the chances for student groups that traditionally have had experienced an ever-widening gap between the school's academic expectations and the students' abilities to meet them. Highlights of the project successes are presented in this report. [For "At a Glance: The Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Year 2014 Progress Report," see ED583096.]