The Colorado Department of Education

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Fact Sheets

These short documents provide a high level understanding on many hot topics (educator effectiveness and otherwise). You may download the PDF, save it to your computer or print them off and share with colleagues.

Note: To view all CDE produced fact sheets, including fact sheets on other topics like accountability, assessment, innovation and chioce, teaching and learning, and competitive grants and awards, visit the CDE Communications Fact Sheet page.

Supporting Success for All Students: Colorado's Education Improvement Efforts "101"

Colorado has a comprehensive education improvement agenda which over the past few years has been encoded into state law. This fact sheet provides an overview, implementation progress and next steps for Colorado's Achievement Plan for Kids (Senate Bill 08-212), the Education Accountability Act (Senate Bill 09-163) and the Great Teachers and Leaders Act (Senate Bill 10-191).

Supporting Great Teachers and Leaders: What is Senate Bill 10-191?

This answers the question "What is Senate Bill 10-191" and provides a high level overview of the bill that was passed in 2010 with the idea that every child in every community deserves excellent classroom teachers and building leaders who are supported in their professional growth. This provides great foundational information on educator effectiveness and S.B. 10-191.

Supporting Improved Educator Evaluations: What is the Colorado State Model Evaluation System?

Senate Bill 10-191 is improving the way Colorado principals and teachers are evaluated and supported in their professional growth. To support school districts in the implementing the new law, CDE is developing a model evaluation system that districts may choose to use for their teacher and/or principal evaluations. This fact sheet provides an overview on the model system and the Quality Standards that educators will be evaluated on.

Connecting Evaluators to Training Programs: Evaluator Training Requirements for Educator Evaluations

Any person who conducts an evaluation of school licensed personnel must hold an administrator's license or go through a state approved training program. This fact sheet outlines the available evaluator training programs.

Connecting Educators with Tools and Resources: Overview of the Colorado Content Collaboratives

The Colorado Content Collaboratives are a group of P-12 educators from around the state coming together to identify and create high-quality assessments, which are aligned to the new Colorado Academic Standards and may be used in the context of educator evaluations. This fact sheet provides an overview on their work and timeline.

Supporting all Students: Introduction to the Colorado Academic Standards

The Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) are the expectations of what students need to know and be able to do at the end of each grade. They also stand as the values and content organizers of what Colorado sees as the future skills and essential knowledge for our next generation to be more successful. Read this fact sheet for an introduction to the CAS.

Supporting Improved Evaluations for All Educators: Overview of Evaluation Requirements and Timeline for Specialized Service Professionals

To ensure every child in Colorado has access to great educators who are supported in their professional growth; new evaluation requirements under Senate Bill 10-191 are intended to provide meaningful, annual evaluations for all licensed personnel including principals, teachers and other education professionals who are licensed by the state. This fact sheet explains the work that is being done to provide evaluation tools for licensed personnel that don't fall under the teacher or principal category.

Supporting Early Childhood Educator Evaluations: Overview of Senate Bill 10-191 Requirements for Early Childhood Professionals

High quality early childhood education plays a crucial role in the foundation for school readiness for Colorado’s young children. A key component of quality programming is the assurance that every child in Colorado has access to great educators who are supported in their professional growth. The new evaluation requirements under Senate Bill 10-191 are intended to provide meaningful evaluations for all education professionals who are licensed by the state. CDE is incorporating early childhood educators into the scope and intent of S.B. 10-191 to ensure that they, too, benefit from opportunities for meaningful feedback and professional development. This fact sheet explains how S.B. 10-191 requirements apply to early childhood educators.

S.B. 10-191 Implementation Strategies Brief: January 2013


The Educator Effectiveness team is continuing to use pilot experiences and feedback to inform strategies for statewide implementation of Senate Bill 10-191. To begin sharing pilot experiences and strategies, CDE brought together a panel of early implementers in January to discuss their preliminary experiences with the new evaluation requirements and the Colorado State Model Evaluation System. This implementation brief highlights key strategies and insights from the panel discussion

S.B. 10-191 Frequently Asked Questions

Access a basic, high-level frequently asked questions handout. This is a great tool when introducing your audience to S.B. 10-191. To access more detailed frequently asked questions, visit the Educator Effectiveness FAQ page.

Supporting a Fair & Consistent Evaluation System: Overview of the Online Inter-rater Agreement Training System

To support a fair and consistent educator evaluation system, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) is developing tools to promote common interpretations of teacher quality and help evaluators provide useful and actionable feedback to educators. One such tool is an online inter-rater agreement training system that is being developed in partnership with My Learning Plan.