The Illinois State Board of Education is announcing 37 school districts will share in nearly $43 million in federal "Race to the Top" school improvement grants.

The money will go toward improving achievement in science, technology, engineering and math education and building better connections to post-secondary education and training.

Among reforms is that districts will use more comprehensive principal and teacher evaluations that tie student growth to educators' reviews.

All districts must have such evaluations by 2016.

Illinois got third-round "Race to the Top" funding after it was a finalist in the first two. The State Board of Education keeps half the grant to implement statewide reforms and shares the rest based on a formula that measures school-district poverty levels.