The Colorado Department of Education

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Colorado's Race to the Top Phase 3 Grant Program

Advancing the State's Reform Agenda

In December 2011, Colorado was one of seven states to receive a Race to the Top Phase 3 grant award from the United States Department of Education.  The award will advance targeted K-12 reforms aimed at improving student achievement. Click here to read the news release.

Focus of the Grant

The state's $17.9 million grant, disbursed over four years, is focused on four major areas designed to advance the state's education reforms:

  1. Leveraging and expanding the state's capacity to support district implementation of the state's reforms;
  2. Implementing the Colorado Academic Standards through the work of Content Collaboratives (teams of educators with content and assessment expertise who will develop tools and assessments to assist educators in implementing the new standards and with accessing multiple measures of student learning for use in educator evaluations);
  3. Supporting district implementation of the state's educator effectiveness law (S.B. 10-191); and
  4. Increasing access to STEM education across the state.

Click here to access Colorado's submitted application.
(Updated February 9, 2012 - updates reflect refinements to performance measures and budget items; this document is the final submission to USED)

Race to the Top Components

High Quality Assessment and Instruction
This work will focus on the creation of Content Collaboratives that engage educators in the identification of instructional materials and classroom-level assessments.

Effective, Supported Educators
Race to the Top funds will augment work already underway and provide support, information and tools to districts as they work to implement comprehensive educator evaluation systems.

Embedded, Innovative STEM Content
Colorado plans to use Race to the Top funds to ensure STEM is integrated and embedded across all content areas and through teacher instruction and evaluation. RTTT funds will also be used to create a STEM in Action program that will connect educators and students to the everyday work of scientists, engineers, high-tech workers, and researchers in Colorado's labs, universities, museums and companies.

Strategic State Action and Support
The focus of the Race to the Top efforts will be to ensure the grant's reform initiatives are integrated and coordinated with other reform efforts. CDE will also create a Resource Bank containing assessment and instructional tools, and evaluation resources and available to districts and schools.

Race to the Top - District Competition

The US Department of Education has released applications for the Race to the Top-District (RTT-D) competition. This competition is separate from the state Race to the Top program and is the sole responsibility of the districts applying for the grant.

The focus of the RTT-D competition is on the creation and implementation of personalized learning environments that are designed to significantly improve teaching and learning through the personalization of strategies, tools and supports for students and educators.

Awards will range from $5 million to $40 million depending on the number of participating students served by the applicant. Applications are due October 30, 2012. Awards will be announced in December 2012.

As part of the application process, each LEA included in an application must provide the State at least 10 business days to comment on the application. All districts applying for the RTT-D should submit their application to CDE by October 8, 2012. CDE will return comments by October 22, 2012. Please send applications to Tricia Miller, Race to the Top Director at miller_t@cde.state.co.us.

Expanding Student Learning

When we intentionally integrate...

We can personalize learning and ignite the potential of every student.

 


For a summary on the RTT-D program, click here.

To access the US Department of Education RTT-D website, click here.