Periodic Data Collection: Alternative Education Campus (AEC) Collections

Overview

Notes: Before proceeding with the data upload for either collection, please carefully review the file layout requirements. It may also be helpful to download and have handy the relevant code books linked in the Additional Resources section.

Alternative Education Application/Renewal Collection

Pursuant to Colorado Revised Statute 22-7-604.5 (2) (a), the Colorado Department of Education is directed to aid in the collection of data to all district school boards to file requests for public schools which desire to be considered alternative education campuses. This website contains resources concerning the data collection for the eligibility criteria for alternative education campus designation.

This collection is an annual required collection for any school wishing to be designated as an Alternative Education Campus (AEC).

Alternative Education Campus Selection of Measures Collection

Alternative Education Campuses (AECs) have a specialized School Performance Framework (SPF). As part of this specialized SPF, AECs are allowed to submit optional measures based on local data. This collection is the method by which AECs can submit their approved optional measure data to be reported in their AEC SPF (see State Board of Education Rules 1 CCR 301-57 for specific guidance on this policy).

Planned Measures

During the planned measures collection, AECs will submit the measures they are proposing to submit for an upcoming AEC SPF cycle. In this stage of the collection, only the measure names are submitted. No data is submitted at this time. This collection is voluntary for all AEC schools.

Example: if the next AEC SPF cycle is the 2025 AEC SPF, then LEAs will submit planned measures for the 2026 AEC SPF, but will not yet have data for the 2026 AEC SPF.

Actual Measures

During the actual measures data collection, AECs will submit the measures and data they intend to include in the next AEC SPF cycle. In this stage of the collection, both the measure names and aggregated data for those measures are submitted. This collection is voluntary for all AEC schools.

Example: if the next AEC SPF cycle is the 2025 AEC SPF, then LEAs will submit actual measures and data for the 2025 AEC SPF collected over the course of the 2024-2025 school year (or aggregated over the last three school years).

Deadlines

CDE requests that LEAs submit data on:

The Alternative Education Campus Application/Renewal Collection for the 2026 AEC SPF opens 3/19/2025 and closes 4/25/2025.
The Planned Measures Collection for the 2026 AEC SPF opens 3/19/2025 and closes 6/27/2025.
The Actual Measures and Data Collection for the 2025 AEC SPF opens 5/14/2025 and closes 6/27/2025.

File Layouts and Definitions

The file layout and definitions for the 2024-2025 collections are as follows:

Business Rules

2024-2025

Coming Soon

2023-24

Trainings

Office Hours

Weekly office hours for the AEC collections take place on Thursday afternoons. You can sign up for a half-hour conversation with B Sanders/April Thompson 1:00-3:00pm to get your questions answered about the AEC Collections. Sign up for AEC Office Hours here.

Training Materials

The training PowerPoints below capture any changes to the AEC data collections for the 2024-2025 school year.

Additional Resources

The following resources may be useful as you navigate the AEC Application/Renewal collection:

The following resources may be useful as you navigate the AEC Selection of Measures collection:

Contacts

Email: B Sanders

Email: April Thompson, Phone: 303-358-7363