State Accountability - School Accreditation and Requests to Reconsider

The Education Accountability Act of 2009 aligned the state accountability measures for districts and schools. The Act requires the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) to release District and School Performance Framework reports with an initial accreditation category for each district and an initial plan type assignment for each school by no later than August 15^th of each school year. The process for determining each district’s initial accreditation category and each school’s initial plan type and the process for submitting district and school plans are outlined in the Colorado District Accountability Handbook.

No later than October 15th of each school year, districts must submit to the Department the accreditation category that the district has assigned to each school and the performance framework used by the district for that accreditation assignment, including evidence of the school’s level of attainment on the State’s four key performance indicators: Academic Achievement, Academic Growth, Academic Growth Gaps and Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness.  Districts may use the state’s SPF ratings to accredit their schools, or they may use their own local accreditation process, provided that their accreditation ratings correlate to the state’s plan type assignment. In addition, no later than October 15th, if a district disagrees with the Department’s initial assignment of an accreditation category for the district or if the district disagrees with any of the Department’s initial assignments of a school plan type for any of the district’s schools, the district may submit additional information for CDE’s consideration.

Submitting School Accreditation Forms and Requests to Reconsider

The resources below detail the process for districts to submit school accreditation categories and to submit requests for reconsideration if a district disagrees with the Department’s initial district accreditation category or initial assignment of a school plan type.

For assistance, please contact Alyssa Pearson, pearson_a@cde.state.co.us, 303-866-6855.