The U.S. Department of Education's proposed guidelines for awarding $4 billion in Race to the Top Fund money send a strong message that any state hoping to land a competitive grant should expect to allow student test scores to be used in decisions about teacher compensation and evaluation. The draft plans outlined by department officials last month call for states to be judged on 19 education reform criteria, including how friendly they are to charter schools and whether they cut state K-12 funding this year. In addition, the department is setting two absolute preconditions: States must have been approved by the Education Department as eligible to receive fiscal-stabilization funds under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (most already have been), and states must not have any laws in place barring the use of student-achievement data for evaluating teachers and principals. States not meeting those two absolutes would be ineligible to compete for aid from the Race to the Top Fund, a comparatively small--but highly coveted--slice of some $100 billion in federal economic-stimulus aid for education. And while states would be judged heavily on their plans for the Race to the Top money, it is still unresolved how Education Department officials would balance a state proposed reform plan and the policies the state already has in place. This article includes a draft of the proposed 19 criteria in awarding Race to the Top Fund grants, where each category mirrors areas outlined in the federal stimulus law in which states must "assure" that steps are being taken toward improvement.