November 2023 Update

Accountability, Performance & Support

• November is Family and School Partnership in Education Month, a time for districts to celebrate their students’ families and work on building important connections. Districts are encouraged to share how they build connections with families and the community on social media and use the hashtags #PartnerInEd #FSCPMonth2023.
• District accreditation contracts will be sent via DocuSign to superintendents for completion once the accreditation ratings and school plan types are finalized by the State Board of Education. The contracts must be signed by both the superintendent and the local school board president by Sunday, Dec. 31.
• The ratings for sites not participating in the request to reconsider process will be finalized during the November State Board of Education meeting.
• CDE will contact the districts participating in the request to reconsider process with an update on the status of their requests prior to the December State Board of Education meeting. All sites participating in a request to reconsider will have their ratings finalized by the state board during the December meeting.
• Unified Improvement Plans from schools and districts that are on Performance Watch or Comprehensive Support under ESSA will be reviewed by CDE staff. Feedback will be made available through the UIP Online System. Staff members are also available to provide direct assistance to address any remaining issues.
• The 2024 Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado survey of all educators, special service providers, education support professionals and school leaders will be available on Jan. 24. The survey will be administered by Panorama Education. CDE will send a request to districts to update building headcounts for included participants the first week of November.
• The Accountability, Accreditation, Student Performance and Resource Inequity Task Force, has been established to study academic opportunities, inequities and promising practices in schools and improvements to the accountability and accreditation system. The 1242 Task Force began meeting in August and will present a final report in November 2024.

Assessment

• CoAlt assessment administration training sessions for District Assessment Coordinators will be in November. Specific registration details, including training dates, will be sent directly to District Assessment Coordinators.

District Operations

Finance

• View previously recorded School Finance town halls and upcoming training sessions on the School Finance Town Halls and Trainings webpage.

Data Pipeline

• As part of the standard research request process, CDE has approved a research request from Yale University for educator data. The purpose of the Yale research project is to study whether investments aimed at improving school facilities improve teacher retention and reduce turnover. The data request covers all districts in Colorado for teachers and several other educator job class codes, such as principals, and includes salary data but not educator evaluation data. This data will only be shared once a data sharing agreement is in place to ensure proper privacy and security protocols are followed by the researchers and that no identifiable data can be shared or published by the researcher. Study results will be shared in academic journals and at conferences. For questions contact Kathyrn Wright at wright_k@cde.state.co.us. 

• The Post Cross local education agency validation phase of the 2022-23 Student End of Year ends Thursday, Nov. 16. The final approval and signed Superintendent Verification form deadline is Thursday, Nov. 30.

• Data Privacy Guidelines for education statistics based upon the Student End of Year collection have been published. This includes graduation/completion rates, dropout rates, and mobility/stability rates.

• The deadline for the 2023-24 Student October snapshot approval is noon on Friday, Nov. 10, which will kick off the duplicate count procedures. Final approval is due Wednesday, Nov. 22. Board secretary sign-off sheets are due Friday, Dec. 1.

• The pre-ID extract for ACCESS for English Language Learners assessment will occur Friday, Nov. 3. Make sure that all English Learners have been identified in the district’s October count snapshot by this deadline. Pre-ID data for all other assessments will be pulled from final approved Student October count files. 

• Non-public schools’ data can be submitted through Friday, Dec. 1. 

• Newly elected school board members must be entered into Data Pipeline by Friday, Dec. 1.

• The Kindergarten School Readiness collection deadline is Tuesday, Dec. 5.

• The 2023-24 Staff interchange files may be uploaded to Data Pipeline and the Human Resources snapshot will be available on Thursday, Nov. 2. Staff interchange files are expected to be uploaded at least once on or before Friday, Nov. 17.

• The 2023-24 Educator Shortage Survey opens on Thursday, Nov. 2, in conjunction with the Human Resources snapshot. To learn more about the Educator Shortage Survey visit the Colorado's Educator Shortage Survey Results webpage. 

• The 2023-24 IEP and staff interchange files may be uploaded to Data Pipeline and the Special Education December Count snapshot will be available on Thursday, Nov. 2. All applicable interchange files are expected to be uploaded at least once on or before Friday, Nov. 17.

• The 2022-23 December Finance collection is due by Sunday, Dec. 31. 

• The 2023-24 teacher student data link interchange file is open for file submission. The snapshot will open in January 2024.

   

Educator Talent

No content for November

Federal Programs & Support

• The Stronger Connections Grant is open for a second round of applications. Local education agencies interested in applying for this funding opportunity must submit a completed application by Friday, Dec. 15. 

• An updated Equity Toolkit is available as a web-based resource. This toolkit has been designed, in partnership with WestEd, to give school leaders the tools and resources needed to capitalize on unique strengths to foster supportive and effective relationships wherein the community works together to mitigate barriers to success.

Nutrition & Health

No content for November

Postsecondary Readiness

• The Office of Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness will tour rural regions of the state through January to increase awareness of and participation in PWR programming.

• The Automatic Enrollment in Advanced Courses Grant application is open. Schools, districts and BOCES may apply for funding to help automatically enroll qualified students in grades four through 12 in advanced coursework.

• Districts planning to participate in the ASCENT or Teacher Recruitment Education and Preparation programs next year need to complete the 2024-25 Estimated Number of Program Participants Intent to Participate for each program by Monday, Nov. 13.

Teaching and Learning

READ Act

• The 2023-24 READ Act Instructional Programming Review Process began Oct. 16. The review is a two-part process for vendors to submit instructional programs, core, supplemental and intervention, to be reviewed for inclusion on the Colorado Department of Education READ Act Advisory List.

• CDE has created new rubrics to review Spanish core, supplemental and intervention instructional programs for the READ Act Advisory List of Instructional Programming. 

Standards and Instruction

• The Office of Standards and Instructional Support will seek public feedback on recommended revisions to the Computer Science Standards beginning Friday, Nov. 10.