Reading, Writing, and Communicating

CDE Position Statement: RWC Standards & English Language Learners

The Colorado Academic Standards in Reading, Writing, and Communicating were written for all students using the content, concepts, skills, and language conventions and structures found within the English language. This does not mean students must be native English speakers, nor fluent English proficient, but by utilizing the Colorado English Language Proficiency standards (Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education) in tandem with the Colorado Academic Standards, qualified and well prepared educators can ensure that all English learners receive appropriate support to ensure all students successfully meet the expectations in the standards.

READ Act Questions

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Academic Standards

The reading, writing, and communicating standards invite students to use texts to better understand others' experiences in the world and to command language in order to articulate their own perspective on the human experience. The standards intentionally reflect the read-write connection and the relationship between critically consuming text to build knowledge and producing texts to convey knowledge.

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Curriculum Support

Article IX, Section 16 of Colorado's constitution states, "Neither the general assembly nor the state board of education shall have power to prescribe textbooks to be used in the public schools." However, CDE can still serve as an advisor to help districts and schools adopt, adapt, develop, or use the materials of their choice.

2020 RWC Grad Level Expectation (GLE) Vertical Progression At-A-Glance
2020 READ Act Advisory List of Instructional Programming
Monthly READ Act Informational Webinars: In order to keep educators and other stakeholders informed of the changes in the READ Act brought about by SB 19-199, CDE hosts monthly informational webinars.
- Register for the September 24 webinar
- View previous SB 19-199 webinars
District Curriculum Sample

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Instructional Support

Instructional support is grounded in CDE's shared approach to Best, First Instruction as well as practices and strategies supported by professional organizations and scholars at the leading edge of reading, writing, and communicating education.

2020 READ Act Approved Professional Development: The professional development programs listed have been reviewed and approved to meet the criteria for the evidence-based training in teaching reading requirement for kindergarten through third grade teachers as defined by the Colorado READ Act.
Anti-Racism Education: This list of resources centers around raising the critical consciousness of both students and educators through closely reading, writing, and communicating about the inequities in everyday social, environmental, economic, and political situations.
Disciplinary Literacy: Disciplinary literacy is the fundamental element found in all disciplines of the revised 2020 Colorado Academic Standards. As such, understanding disciplinary literacy is critical to being standards literate.
High Impact Instruction in Diverse Settings: While some compromises are inevitable when shifting instruction to non-traditional settings, maintaining high-impact instruction (or the highest-impact instruction under the circumstances) requires adherence to certain principles, practices, and strategies. This page provides a variety of resources and recommendations for providing instruction in diverse learning settings.
High Impact Instructional Strategies: This chart aligns high impact instructional strategies with desired student skills for reading, writing, and communicating.
K-3 Evidenced-Based Reading Training Requirements: Colorado school districts are required to ensure all kindergarten through 3rd grade teachers complete evidence-based training in teaching reading by the 2021-22 school year, as a result of changes to the Colorado READ Act in SB 19-199 (PDF). in subsequent years, districts will need to ensure that teachers new to teaching K-3rd grade also meet this requirement.

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Community

There are many opportunities to connect and grow as a professional educator with the larger reading, writing, and communicating education community, including mail lists, professional organizations, and events.

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE): For more than 100 years, NCTE has worked with its members to offer journals, publications, and resources; to further the voice and expertise of educators as advocates for their students at the local and federal levels; and to share lesson ideas, research, and teaching strategies through its Annual Convention and other professional learning events throughout the year.
Conference on English Leadership (CEL): The Conference on English Leadership offers a collaborative, dynamic, discussion-based forum for literacy leaders to explore current and emerging issues.
Colorado Language Arts Society (CLAS): The Colorado Language Arts Society is the state affiliate of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a professional association of educators in English studies, literacy, and language arts.
Colorado Counsel International Reading Association (CCIRA): CCIRA collaboratively encourages, supports, and advances literacy through researched-based instructional practices to increase literacy access to all.
RWC e-Updates: The RWC e-Updates are designed to keep literacy educators and leaders abreast of CDE news, updates, and announcements, state and national professional learning opportunities, and high impact instructional strategies to employ in the classroom.

Important News, Announcements, and Updates

U.S. Department of Education awards Colorado a five-year, $16 million grant for literacy advancement

DENVER - The U.S. Department of Education awarded Colorado a $16 million grant to implement the Colorado Comprehensive Literacy Project, which aims to advance literacy skills for children from birth to grade 12 with special emphasis on disadvantaged children, including children living in poverty, English learners and children with disabilities.

The Comprehensive Literacy State Development Program is a competitive federal grant that seeks to improve literacy in the state by using evidence-based practices, activities and interventions, including pre-literacy skills. The grant will span five years and will provide funding to districts through a competitive grant process.

New READ Act UIP Requirements 2020-21

What are the new READ Act UIP Requirements?

Beginning in 2020-21, Colorado school districts are required to report K-3 literacy instructional programming in their district Unified Improvement Plan. Visit the Unified Improvement Planning webpage for the most up-to-date resources and information.

New READ Act UIP Requirements Webinar Recording

Audience: School and District Administrators and Staff
Description: Reporting Early Literacy Instructional Programming and READ/ELG funded teacher development in the UIP. A short Q and A was included to address questions.

*In the webinar, an updated submission template was referenced. See links below to download the updated submission template and submission guide:

CDE Statement Release Regarding Accommodations and Modifications for CMAS ELA

2020 Colorado Academic Standards and Colorado Measures of Academic Success: Students to Read and Comprehend Independently and Proficiently

The 2020 Reading Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) expect students to read (decode a printed or tactile code) and comprehend (make meaning of) literary and informational texts independently and proficiently. In accordance with the full implementation of the 2020 Reading, Writing and Communicating CAS in the 2020-2021 school year, Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) will mirror the standards’ expectation that students combine their phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary and text comprehension reading skills to demonstrate mastery of the 2020 CAS independent reading expectations. Assessment administration adjustments that change this expectation, such as reading the text from the CMAS English language arts assessment to the student, should not be used and will result in an invalid administration starting in spring 2022. Students may continue to use accommodations that do not change this expectation.

Accommodations generally refer to adjustments to standardized testing materials or procedures which allow students to demonstrate their learning without changing what the assessment intends to measure. Accommodations maintain the expectations and rigor of the content of the assessment. Scores resulting from accommodated administrations are considered valid and may be interpreted the same way as results from non-accommodated assessments. Adjustments to the administration of an assessment that change what the assessment measures are considered modifications rather than accommodations because they fundamentally change the assessment’s intended measure and therefore do not result in valid scores. Modifications produce scores that cannot be interpreted through the same lens, compared or aggregated together. Because the CMAS English language arts assessment measures the reading and writing components of the CAS, providing auditory presentation of printed text changes the assessment’s focus from reading and comprehension of text to listening and comprehension of text, which falls under different, unassessed listening standards.

Information relating to the use of accommodations during instruction is found on the CDE Office of Special Education webpage.

For further assistance, please contact:

Olivia Gillespie
RWC Content Specialist
P 303.866.6583 | C 720.930.1298
Gillespie_O@cde.state.co.us

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