Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education

Teaching and Learning Unit, Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education office banner with woman with long hair kneeling down next to a young student.

Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education

Teaching and Learning Unit

1560 Broadway, Suite 1100 Denver, CO 80202

Phone: 303-866-6789 Fax: 303-866-6637

Contact Janet Turnmeyer to sign up for our CLDE listserv updates.

Our Mission

The Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education provides support to Colorado school districts, schools, and educational leaders in the academic, linguistic, and social-emotional challenges and opportunities of culturally and linguistically diverse students to ensure equitable access to grade level standards and ensure a well-rounded education.

The Office of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (CLDE) offers a series of professional learning opportunities, including regional professional learning, webinars, regional director networking meetings, and targeted support. The CLDE team collaborates with other Colorado Department of Education offices to deliver these supports in a unified manner to better align with districts’ local implementation of programs that support the academic, linguistic, and social-emotional needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students.

Professional Learning Opportunities

Targeted Support

Guidebook

Important Announcements

WIDA Screener for Kindergarten

WIDA has decided to retire the Kindergarten W-APT assessment at the end of school year 21-22
The W-APT training and assessment materials will be removed from the WIDA Secure Portal on June 30, 2022
Colorado will fully transition away from W-APT and begin to administer WIDA Screener for Kindergarten during SY22-23
For more information regarding Colorado Identification Procedures, please visit Identification and Placement
For more information regarding WIDA Screener for grades 1-12 and ACCESS for ELLs, please visit WIDA Screener Assessment

Designing, Delivering, and Evaluating Instruction and Services for Multilingual Learners Guidebook

The Guidebook provides assistance to Colorado educators, administrators and school board members in their continuing efforts to address the linguistic and educational needs of multilingual learners by sharing information on legislated and judicially mandated policies as well as best practices and program procedures. The Guidebook can be viewed and/or downloaded at your convenience by opening links to each chapter.

Recently Arrived English Learners Toolkit

The White House announced, “Bright Spots” for welcoming and expanding opportunities for linguistic integration and education at end of June. The announcement identified a list of resources including the introduction of the U.S. Department of Education’s Newcomer Toolkit (updated 2023) designed to help schools support immigrants, refugees, and their families with a successful integration process. This toolkit provides information, resources and examples of effective practices that educators can use to support newcomers in our schools and communities. We are pleased to share this tool with you.

Additional Resources

English Learner Access to High-Quality Education

On January 7, 2015, the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice released a Joint guidance to spell out the legal obligations of state and local education agencies to English learners. At the same time, Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) released the first chapter of an English Learners Tool Kit (on identifying all English learners), offering checklists, tools, and resources to help SEAs and LEAs in fulfilling their obligations.