Pagosa Springs Daily News

Pagosa Springs News Summaries Monday, September 6, 2010 Local News - Opinions & Editorials - Business & Real Estate - Friends & Neighbors - Arts & Entertainment - Sports & Recreation - Humor, Fiction, Poetry - Health & Environment - Religion & Philosophy  Colorado Tapped for 'Race to the Top' Award Special to the Post | 3/9/10 Back to the News Summaries The Archuleta School District announced last week that the state of Colorado had been selected as a recipient of the federal "Race to the Top" funding.  That grant competition is part of the ongoing federal stimulus efforts. The announcement included a link to a statement by Colorado's Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones. "Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones today issued the following statement after Colorado was named as a finalist in the federal Race to the Top grant competition. "In all, only 15 states and the District of Columbia were named as finalists; 41 applications had been received. Colorado was the only western state among the finalists. “We are thrilled to be invited to Washington to share our vision in person,” said Commissioner Jones. “We are equally confident about the next step in this process. No matter what happens, however, we will not give up our work. Our mission will not waver. Our mission was the same before Race to the Top and it won’t change going forward. "We are working to turnaround chronically under-performing schools. We are working to improve our data systems so they produce the most accurate and relevant detail about all aspects of school performance. We are working to implement our recently-adopted, internationally benchmarked standards and we are working to install the right tools to identify and improve teacher effectiveness.  “We fully expect to be successful in the next round and to continue to bear down on this urgent work,” he added. More information on Colorado’s Race to the Top proposal, including a link to the entire application, is available on the CDE website. For more information, contact Mark Stevens, 303-866-3898, or Megan McDermott, 303-866-2334, in the CDE Office of Communications. To sign up for the CDE e-mail news service, please visit the CDE website. Visit the Pagosa Daily Post