AUBURN — The School Department is applying for a four-year $7.2 million federal grant to do a host of things to improve student learning.

If Auburn gets the Race to the Top grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the district would get on average $1.8 million a year. Auburn curriculum director Shelly Mogul said Tuesday that the money would be used to:

* Give each student in grades 3 to 6 iPad tablet computers; those grades don’t have any now.

* Expand summer learning at the elementary, middle and high school levels to prevent summer learning loss and help students accelerate their educations.

* Provide each school with a coach for teachers and provide more professional development to help implement “mass customized” learning, or provide students with individualized lessons.

* Hire a college and career coordinator to help students experience work and college before graduating from Edward Little High School.

* Hire a family liaison to work with low-income families.

In all, 12 people would be hired to get new initiatives up and running, Mogul said. Once the programs are built, they could be sustained with existing staff since the positions would go away at the end of the four years, Mogul said.

The big goals of the Race to the Top money is to boost the number of high school graduates who are college- and career-ready, personalize education for each student and help vulnerable or poor students.

No school in Maine has won a Race to the Top grant, Mogul said.

“It is very daunting,” she said. But she said she is cautiously optimistic.

Auburn’s proposal is “strong” and well thought out, Mogul said. The budget behind the application “has the right things in it.”

As proposed, Auburn would spend about $200,000 a year to expand the iPad program one grade per year. One common criticism from taxpayers is that the school department said it would use grants to pay for iPads, and so far, it has not.

“Here’s an example of us looking for grant funding,” Mogul said.

Grant reviewers want programs that are big on equity of access for all students. The iPad expansion meets that criteria.

Summer school programs would be greatly expanded. Auburn would follow Lewiston’s lead in offering programs for about 100 elementary students in need. The programs would include field trips tied to classroom lessons.

During the long summer, students, especially those from poor families, lose what they’ve learned.

“It’s disheartening to look at the spring test data and then look at the fall,” Mogul said. “Our growth is strong during the year, but they lose so much during the summer.”

As in Lewiston, incoming seventh-graders would be helped by summer programs that prepare them for middle school. And more high school students could go to summer school — not just to make up for lost credit, but to accelerate learning. For instance, a student could take an extra math course to be ready for calculus.

The seven instructional coaches would observe teachers in classrooms and offer feedback and ways to improve teaching. The coaches could support teachers in developing customized learning skills or methods of offering individualized teaching to every student.

The college and career coordinator would create agreements with local businesses to allow student internships.

It’s a program that wouldn’t cost a lot, but the district has no one to build and coordinate partnerships, Mogul said.

Early college experiences would be offered for students of all ages.

“A cool idea from Washburn Elementary School Principal Holly Couturier was to have fourth-graders go to college for a day,” Mogul said. “Maybe they’d go to Bates, eat lunch there, have their regular class there” to plant aspirations.

A community engagement coordinator would build capacity to better connect the community and spread word of what’s going on in schools, Mogul said.

“How do you get people to come to meetings and engage other than when they’re mad?” she asked.

A family liaison would help get low-income parents, who may not have had positive experiences in school themselves, more involved in their children’s schooling.

Grant winners are expected to be announced in December, Mogul said.