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Carbondale Middle School in top 3 for prestigious Colorado Succeeds Prize

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Carbondale Middle School sixth grade "read-and-sip" winter reading program.
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Carbondale Middle School is one of only three middle schools in Colorado to be named a finalist for the 2018 Colorado Succeeds’ Transformational School award.

The Succeeds prize is the state’s most prestigious award and is designed to recognize and honor transformational public schools and educators. Finalists for the Succeeds Prize are chosen by a selection committee through a data-driven process that utilizes publicly available performance data.

“Our students work really hard and it shows,” said Carbondale Middle School principal Jennifer Lamont. “Our English Learners surpassed the state’s growth by 13 percent on Math PARCC in 2017, and our non-English Learners by 16 percent.



“In terms of achievement, the percent of students who were proficient and advanced on PARCC English Language Arts in 2017 was almost 43 percent,” she said. “That’s an increase of more than 10.75 percent in two years.”

If selected the school’s innovative practices will be shared statewide. The Succeeds Prize not only awards schools for excellent performance, but as Scott Laband, president of Colorado Succeeds, said, “The Succeeds Prize … shares these effective and scalable practices so educators statewide can benefit.”



“The Carbondale Middle school staff continue to demonstrate their ability to innovate and continuously improve. We are both proud and inspired by their pursuit of success for all students,” said Rick Holt, the chief academic officer for Roaring Fork Schools.

Selection committee members will visit all finalist schools to observe practices, and winners will be announced at a live reveal celebration on Sept. 18 in Denver.

Regardless of what happens in September, to be named a top three finalist out of the approximately 500 middle schools is a huge honor, Lamont said.

“Our teachers work really hard to ensure that every student every day not only has high-quality learning experiences in the classroom, but also feels like they are a valued member of CMS,” she said.


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