Ambitious student-achievement targets turn up the heat, as winners of the $4 billion federal grant effort push to deliver. Winners of the $4 billion Race to the Top jackpot committed to grand goals in using the federal grants to raise student achievement, as measured by higher test scores, narrowed achievement gaps, and increased graduation and college-going rates--all in four years. Now comes the hard part: With the money in hand, the 11 states and the District of Columbia must deliver on those goals, which often involve making leaps in student achievement at a record-setting pace. For most states, that amounts to a long shot. From the U.S. Department of Education's perspective, that may not be a bad thing. The winners' success in meeting their goals--which earned them a certain number of points in the hard-fought grant competition last year--will offer a report card, of sorts, on the aggressive, multistate education improvement initiative launched as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Most of the winners aimed high as they sought to woo the competition's judges, even though the goals they set to improve student achievement carried limited weight in the scoring system.