Colorado Evaluation Systems

Legislative Overview and Statutory Requirements

Passed in 2010, Senate Bill 10-191 created the statutory requirement that all licensed personnel (teacher, special services providers, and principals/assistant principals) must be evaluated in Colorado every year. The ultimate goal of the Colorado educator evaluation system is to continuously support educators' professional growth and, in turn, increase student achievement. To support school districts and BOCES in implementing an educator evaluation system, the Educator Effectiveness Office at the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) created the State Model Evaluation System (SMES). This evaluation system encompasses and utilizes a variety of materials and supports, including:

A variety of rubrics to reflect the observable work of teachers, special services providers, and principals.
The Colorado Performance Management System (COPMS), which is an online tool to collect and house observation and MSL/MSO data.
The CDE Educator Effectiveness Regional Specialist team, who provide side-by-side support to all school districts and BOCES in their work around educator evaluation.

Colorado is a local control state. For that reason, school districts and BOCES are also welcome to create their own locally created evaluation system. This process requires the school district/BOCES to design an evaluation system which meets or exceeds the parameters of the State Model Evaluation System, as well as engaging in ongoing crosswalk conversations with their designated Regional Specialist to ensure their system is high quality. To learn more about locally created systems, click on the button below.