To emphasize its bottom-up, district-led approach, California will send three superintendents to Washington next week to lead its five-person delegation that will make the final pitch for the state’s Race to the Top application.

Superintendents Ramon Cortines of Los Angeles Unified, Mike Hanson of Fresno Unified and Christopher Steinhauser of Long Beach Unified will be joined by a representative of the Department of Education — probably Chief Deputy Supt. Geno Flores — and the governor’s office. Might that be Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger himself? The office isn’t committing. If not the Sun King, then Education Secretary Bonnie Reiss or, perhaps more likely, Kathy Gaither, the undersecretary who has been in on planning for Race to the Top since day one.

California is one of 18 states and the District of Columbia names finalists in the second round of competition for a share of the remaining $3.4 billion. The feds won’t release the scores to this point. But a good sales job before Race to the Top judges could raise a state’s score by 10-15 points out of 500, enough to secure it some money.

California’s approach in the second round is distinct, in that seven unified districts — LA Unified, Fresno, Long Beach, San Francisco, Sanger, Clovis and Sacramento City — and not the state, led the application process. Eventually, 100 districts and 200 charter schools signed on, too.

Adding to Los Angeles Unified’s bona fides as an emerging reformer, the federal Department of Education announced Wednesday that the district, together with 18 partners, was one of 49 applicants, out of 1,698, to win the federal government’s Invest in Innovation  or I3 competition. LA Unified will get up to $5 million for its “Bold Competition” proposal to strengthen and build community support for its school choice program, which creates new structures and operators for its lowest performing schools. Although United Teachers Los Angeles didn’t sign on to the district’s Race to the Top application, the teachers union backed the I3 grant, along with the city, the University of Southern California, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and the United Way of Los Angeles.

Also winning an I3 development grant is the Los Angeles based charter management organization Alliance for College-Ready Public Schools for its CollegeYes program to prepare middle and high school students for college.