The U.S. Education Department has chosen 62 applicants as winners of its Teacher Incentive Fund grant competition. The winning school districts, nonprofit groups, and state education organizations get a combined total of $442 million. That represents the first two years of funding in the five-year, $1.2 billion program. You probably recall that the TIF program supports performance-pay plans for teachers and principals in high-need schools.

Click here for the list of winners, and here for the department’s press release. (There is also a score sheet here that shows you how the various applicants stacked up in the judging by a peer review panel.)

Our intrepid Teacher Beat colleague, Stephen Sawchuk, has written boatloads about TIF. For a refresher, start with his recent stories here and here.