CDE Update - Strategic Priorities

We have conducted principal and assistant principal evaluation trainings in the following districts: Del Norte, Center, Centennial, Salida, Crowley, Miami-Yoder, Thompson, Wray, Valley RE-1, Platte Canyon and St. Vrain.  These trainings are 2-day sessions that cover the purpose and effects of S.B. 191, the philosophy of evaluations, the content and scoring of the state-developed principal evaluation rubric and a session on how to roll out the system in your district (considering the best practices in change management).  The trainings are going well and the Department is gaining valuable feedback from the pilots as we consider the scale-up of S.B. 191 in 2013. 

Once the pilot trainings are complete, the CDE team will focus on the development of a series of supports for both the pilot districts and other districts that want to start exploring the state-developed evaluation system.  These supports will include web-based training modules for each element of the system and an electronic rubric for use by the pilots in the roll out of their principal evaluations.  Elements and tools for the statewide S.B. 191 resource bank will be determined and a process to deliver those resources will be articulated.

All of pilot site staff will be trained by Nov. 8 and the S.B. 191 rules will be voted on by the State Board on Nov. 9 or 10.  At that point there will be clearer guidance on other elements of the system to continue to develop – such as the decision model for determining final educator evaluation ratings.  Our pilot districts have a deadline of Nov. 10 to send CDE their first set of data relating to the principal’s self assessment scores.

• CDE has successfully concluded a10-city training tour on the Colorado English Language Proficiency (CELP) Standards to support all students in attaining the new Colorado Academic Standards. The training not only supports teachers in assisting English language learners to access the academic standards, but it also emphasizes how attention to academic language in learning assists all children with mastery of literacy skills.
• CDE is collaborating on the development of the Early Learning Development Guidelines to provide a seamless preschool through grade 3 set of learning and development expectations.
• CDE, in partnership with the Department of Higher Education (DHE), is continuing to develop an outreach campaign to institutions of higher education related to Colorado’s new standards.  The partnership between CDE and DHE illustrates the enactment of the principles within S.B. 08-212, Colorado’s Achievement Plan for Kids.
• Regular outreach and communication continues through bi-monthly online office hours and eUpdates from the CDE Academic and Instructional Support Office.

• In November, CDE will release a new addition to the Standards Implementation Toolkit (http://www.cde.state.co.us/sitoolkit/), a transition planning resource for district leaders.
• Colorado is a pilot state, along with Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, New York and North Carolina, for the Strategic Learning Initiative (SLI), a project of the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation.  The SLI, when fully developed, will provide teachers with instructional and assessment tools, and content to differentiate instructional approaches based on individual students’ needs in order to meet the CCSS.

CAP4K [CRS 22-7-1013(1)] requires each district to review its standards in comparison with the standards adopted by the State Board by Dec. 15, 2011 and revise its standards as necessary.

Currently, Student Assessment has two main focus areas: 1) ensuring that Colorado has high quality valid assessments to administer in spring of 2012 and 2) finalizing the request for proposal for the new assessments to be administered in 2014.

TCAP: In October a joint webinar with the curriculum specialists was held to review and answer questions related to the new TCAP frameworks which were released earlier this fall. Based on those frameworks, the 2012 TCAP test forms have been finalized. The next phase in development relates to the accommodated forms, specifically the oral scripts. In addition, the 2012 Test Proctor’s Manual was released.

CoAlt: On-line enrollment for 2012 CoAlt is now occurring, closing the Nov. 28.
CELA: On-line enrollment for 2012 CELA has been completed.

Coming in November are the CoAlt and CELA administration trainings, as well as the District Assessment Coordinator training for the 2012 administration of TCAP. In addition, on-line enrollment for 2012 TCAP accommodated forms will occur in November, closing on Nov. 23.

The Request for Proposal for the new assessments as approved by the State Board is scheduled for release in November.

In relation to the new assessment system, the State Board of Education will present its budget request for the new state assessments to the legislature which will incorporate that request into its budget process.

Districts and schools are currently updating and modifying last year’s unified improvement plans (UIPs) using the revised 2011-12 unified improvement plan template. To support this, CDE has pre-populated the UIP template with preliminary state and federal data and emailed the reports to districts. The reports are also available through CEDAR.  Districts and schools must submit plans by January 2012 or April 2012 depending on their accreditation rating or plan type and improvement designations under ESEA (i.e., Titles IA, IIA, III). 

Please note: If you downloaded SPF reports or pre-populated UIP reports in CEDAR between Oct. 6 and Oct 11, you may have reports containing errors. The reports were not displaying growth data, and thus would have shown no growth or growth gaps ratings. This may have impacted which year on your SPF/UIP you are officially accountable for (displaying 3-year rather than 1-year) and your plan type.  The reports currently in CEDAR have been corrected.

To submit plans in 2011-12, districts will use the online Tracker System as they did in 2010-11. Each district must identify a Tracker Contact who will be responsible for submitting their improvement plans to CDE. The Tracker Contact will receive all Tracker-related communications for the district. Districts should complete the online Tracker Contact Form by Nov. 1, 2011 at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=tWcsz9TIIlAy4CdUg5CKIQkDZf13theXiCRQkbBgqzo%3d#q3.

Since the last communication, CDE has posted UIP addenda forms to supplement district (e.g., districts identified under ESEA Title IIA 2141c) and school (e.g., Title I schoolwide program) improvement plans.  The forms are available at:  http://www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/UnifiedImprovementPlanningTemplates.asp

State Review Panel.  The Commissioner is seeking nominations for field experts to serve on a panel of educators to review district and school turnaround plans.  Nominations must be received by Nov. 4, 2011.  Panelists will begin training and reviews in Jan. 2012.  For more information, go to: http://www.cde.state.co.us/Accountability/Downloads/RequestForStateReviewPanelNominees2011.pdf

Superintendents Advisory Panel for Senate Bill 163. The Commissioner is moving forward with scheduling a representative group of field experts to consider the current system, including, but not limited to, the comments and proposed changes already received. The panel’s task will be to provide feedback and recommendations (in addition to any recommendations from the Technical Advisory Panel) to the Commissioner on what changes, if any, should be made to the way S.B. 09-163 has been implemented, particularly with regard to the state performance frameworks.

Rural Education Council. The Commissioner is seeking nominations, at the recommendation of the rural needs study that the Colorado Department of Education commissioned last spring, to develop a council to support the work outlined in the report (http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdegen/downloads/ARuralNeedsStudy.pdf).  In addition, we will ask the Rural Education Council to provide ongoing feedback to the Commissioner and the Department about the unique needs of rural communities and school districts throughout the state and how those needs can be supported by the Department.

Grant Opportunities.  CDE will release two Title I School/District Improvement RFPs in mid November.

1. Diagnostic Review RFP: The Colorado Department of Education has funds to provide planning and appraisal services to eligible Title I schools and districts. Through the grant funds each eligible school/district receives money for a facilitated data review, a school or district diagnostic team review (e.g., CADI, SST) and assistance with aligning findings to inform UIP development.
2. Improvement Support Partnership RFP: The purpose of this grant is to provide funds to eligible Title I schools and districts to support a focused approach to improvement in the following areas:

Option 1:  Conduct a Facilitated Data Analysis (student performance data)
Or
Option 2:  (For schools or districts that have already conducted, and can provide evidence of a facilitated data review) Initiatives that address: Best First Instruction; Leadership; and/or Positive Climate and Culture.

Data Reporting.  Enhanced SchoolView data reporting continues to be a priority within Accountability and Improvement. 2010-2011 AYP and Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAO) data will be live by next week. The Department is enhancing the SchoolView data center to include additional public data on district/school postsecondary readiness, staff/HR, finance, health and programs. An updated version of the Colorado Growth Model web application should be in place in early spring 2012. 

ESEA Waiver.  To align Colorado’s systems of accountability, CDE is taking advantage of Secretary of Education Duncan’s offer to waive certain provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).  An initial draft of CDE’s waiver proposal is nearly complete and will be posted on CDE’s website when ready. CDE will send a team to Chicago in November to meet with the Council of Chief State School Officers and participate in peer reviews of ESEA waiver draft applications. Notices inviting public comment regarding the waiver proposal are being disseminated to superintendents, local federal program directors and professional organizations. CDE is also soliciting input through the Scoop newsletter and meetings with constituent groups. CDE will be included among the first round of states to submit a request on Nov. 14.

• Nov. 1: Deadline for districts to update Tracker Contact to access the Tracker System via Tracker Contact Form.
• Nov. 4: Deadline for nominations for the State Review Panel.
• Nov. 14.Deadline for states to submit ESEA waiver requests to the U.S. Department of Education.
• Nov. 15: CDE finalizes district accreditation ratings and recommends school plan type assignments to the State Board of Education.
• November: CDE updates and re-releases pre-populated UIP templates with final accountability results.
• December: State Board of Education finalizes school plan type assignments; CDE publishes final DPF and SPF reports on SchoolView.
• Jan. 17: Deadline for districts to submit district and school UIPs to CDE for: Districts on Priority Improvement or Turnaround; Districts on Dropout/Reengagement designation; Districts identified for improvement through ESEA Title I, IIA and/or III; Schools on Priority Improvement or Turnaround via Tracker System.
• March 30: Deadline for districts to submit revised district UIPs to CDE for plans submitted in January via Tracker System.
• April 15: Deadline for districts to submit/re-submit all district and school UIPs to CDE via Tracker System.
• Summer 2012: CDE publishes final district and school UIPs on SchoolView.

We are partnering with The Colorado Legacy Foundation (CLF) to create a strategic plan to guide the rollout of the Expanded Learning Opportunities recommendations. We will be working with Rebound Solutions and The Parthenon Group to identify the scope of work and the role that CDE, CLF and other partners will play in this process.

We will be posting a position soon to fill the role of director of schools of choice. Denise Mund held this position for the past 12 years and resigned effective Nov 4.

The state board will adopt the online rule changes and those related to standards for charter schools and charter school authorizers by January 2012.

From June 2011 through November 2011, CDE is piloting the Standard Course Code System.  The pilot allows districts to get a jump start on mapping their course codes before the system is required in Spring 2012. There are currently 15 districts participating in this pilot and the feedback received is that this is an easy to use system.

Full Implementation
In Spring 2012, the Standard Course Codes system will be open to all districts to map their local course codes in preparation for full implementation by September 2012, by which all districts must have their local course codes mapped to the state standard codes.

• April 2012 – CDE to receive Education Data Advisory Committee approval for the final Statewide Standard Course Codes system
• May 2012 – The Standard Course Codes system will be open to all districts to map their local course codes.
• September 2012 – All districts must have their local course codes mapped to the state standard codes.

CDE is preparing a draft concept paper for its application.  During the month of November, CDE will be hosting meetings with a range of constituents and sharing the concept paper with districts for review and comment.

CDE anticipates final guidance on the grant application in mid November and will be working closely with districts following the release of the guidance to discuss district participation in the grant.

• Mid November – Final guidance expected from USDOE
• Late November – Part 1 applications due
• Mid December – Part 2 applications due
• By December 31 – Awards announced and funds disbursed