Colorado Department of Education
201 E. Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO 80203
Phone: 303-866-6822
303-866-2334
Feb. 9, 2012
News Release
For more information, contact: Janelle Asmus, Chief Communications Officer, 303-866-6822
Megan McDermott, Asst. Dir. of Communications, 303-866-2334
NOTE: The Colorado Department of Education will conduct a media briefing on this announcement today at 10:30 a.m. at its headquarters at 201 E. Colfax Ave, Denver, in Room 103, the conference room on the first floor next to the State Board of Education meeting room.
Colorado among first in nation to be granted waivers from NCLB
Colorado got further affirmation today of its strong education reform system when the White House announced it was among a very select few states to earn waivers from the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The waiver now gives Colorado the authority to use the state’s accountability system in place of key federal accountability requirements. Colorado’s state accountability system will now meet many of the No Child Left Behind requirements, including the requisite to annually determine school and district progress in meeting performance targets.
“Clearly Colorado is a noted leader in the nation for making the right changes in our education system to better support student learning,” Colorado’s Education Commissioner Robert Hammond said. “Colorado’s comprehensive state accountability system has gained the U.S. Department of Education’s quality seal of approval and has become a model for other states.”
The Colorado Department of Education aggressively pursued the waiver and the flexibility it offered when the option was first announced by the U.S. Department of Education in September. State officials see the waiver as a solid support to the state’s education reform system aimed at getting students college- and career-ready upon graduation. For Colorado, an important aspect of the waiver flexibility was around holding schools accountable for student growth, especially with regard to historically disadvantaged subgroups of students such as English language learners, students with disabilities, and students who are not yet proficient.
In the past, Colorado used two different accountability systems – a state system and a federal system. With the waiver granted, Colorado will now have one, unified accountability system which will better streamline schools’ improvement work and it will be much easier for parents and the public to fully understand.
“The waiver really supports our state system of continuous improvement and allows schools and districts to focus their energies on one accountability system designed to elevate student achievement,” Hammond added.
Colorado’s full waiver application is online at www.cde.state.co.us/Accountability/NCLBWaiver.asp.
The state department of education plans to exercise its waiver flexibility quickly. Work on implementation planning will begin immediately. However, because Colorado’s waiver application was based largely on its existing system, the current state accountability requirements as outlined in Colorado’s Educational Accountability Act will remain in effect, with some small changes.
Any changes in accountability determinations and sanctions will be in effect for the 2012-13 school year, based on the results of the 2011-12 assessments and the most recent postsecondary and workforce readiness measures. That begins in August 2012 when the federal Adequate Yearly Progress results are no longer calculated and consequences aren’t based on those results. Rather, school accountability will be based on the results of Colorado’s own accountability system.
For more details about the waiver and Colorado’s education accountability system, visit www.cde.state.co.us/Accountability/NCLBWaiver.asp.
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Questions and Answers
NCLB Waivers
1. So Colorado got waivers from NCLB. Why is that important? Why should taxpayers, parents or educators care?
The ESEA waiver affirms the strength of Colorado’s education reform initiatives in the areas of accountability, educator effectiveness, standards, and assessments. With the waiver, Colorado can shift from an accountability system based on federal definitions and sanctions to its own state accountability system. This allows the state, districts, schools and parents to share a common understanding of district and school performance and to meaningfully distinguish those schools and districts that are meeting performance expectations from those that are not. CDE and districts will be better able to direct resources to those that need them the most, and to focus their improvement efforts on what matters most: ensuring college- and career-readiness for all students.
2. How does the granting of a waiver change what schools and districts now do?
Rather than having to communicate and respond to results on both a federal and a state accountability system, schools and districts can now work within a single accountability system which sends a consistent set of signals. Accountability determinations under Title IA of NCLB through Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) will be replaced by the state accountability determinations, and certain sanctions under Title IA of NCLB will no longer need to be implemented. Schools and districts can instead focus on the results of the State Performance Framework reports and the improvement planning process that follows. This will allow for targeted attention on student growth, allowing educators to focus their attention on their efforts to move students towards college- and career-readiness. Removing AYP has the added benefit of reducing the amount of time and effort Colorado’s school districts and CDE staff spend on AYP calculations and appeals at a time when resources are needed elsewhere.
3. How does this waiver improve education in Colorado?
The waiver creates the right conditions for educational improvement in Colorado. Educators have long worried about the unintended consequences of No Child Left Behind. While the federal law promoted a focus on student performance outcomes at a time when not all states had such a focus, it identified some schools as struggling when they were in fact fostering great growth among students. Other schools were not identified while their students were not making much growth at all. The waiver allows Colorado to focus on what matters most in the performance of schools and districts: student academic growth, or learning, which is the heart of the state’s accountability system. When the accountability system incentivizes the right goals, school and district resources and instruction follow based on that focus.
4. How soon will the waiver be applied in Colorado’s schools and districts?
Work on implementation planning will take place immediately. However, the noticeable impact will occur in August 2012 when AYP results are not calculated and consequences are no longer based on those results.
Because Colorado’s waiver application was based largely on its existing system, the existing state accountability requirements as outlined in SB09-163 will remain in effect, with some small changes. Any changes in accountability determinations and sanctions will be in effect for the coming fall (the 2012-13 school year, based on the results of the 2011-12 assessments and the most recent postsecondary and workforce readiness measures).
5. What are the small changes in the state accountability system that will occur as a result of this waiver?
Colorado proposed including calculations for disaggregated graduation rates and for growth on the English language proficiency assessment in the state Performance Framework reports. Also, the federal government required states to identify a set of “Priority” and “Focus” schools, based on their definitions. Essentially these are low-performing Title I schools that will receive additional assistance beyond existing state law.
6. Does the waiver impact any kind of funding for the state or districts? Or, is this simply relief from some federal requirements? Will it reduce paperwork, staff time or effort?
Approval of the waiver does not bring any additional funds, nor does it take any existing funds away. Some of the Title I funds allocated to districts may be used with greater flexibility as a result of the waiver. The waiver removes the duplicative reporting requirements, paperwork, and staff time associated with implementing two separate accountability systems.
7. What aspects of Colorado’s reform plan are other states emulating?
Because many of the reform initiatives are already in motion in Colorado, many states are looking to build and implement components of Colorado’s education reform package in their own states. In particular, states are looking to Colorado’s Great Teachers and Great Leaders Bill (SB-191) as a model for how to develop educator effectiveness systems and to Colorado’s Educational Accountability Act (SB-163) for how to develop accountability and support systems. Within the latter, other states are particularly interested in Colorado’s use of growth data within its accountability system. Nineteen other states have already signed on to use the Colorado Growth Model. They share the value that Colorado places on being able to measure how much progress students make towards proficiency and college- and career-readiness.
8. Was it difficult to get the waiver? How so?
Colorado was well-positioned for approval as the state was already implementing next-generation standards, assessments, accountability, and educator effectiveness measures (rather than just plans for those reforms), based on state legislation passed during the last three years. In that regard, Colorado was essentially already well down the path of implementing the system required by the waiver, even before the waiver opportunity was announced.
However, challenges did exist throughout this process, including:
· Negotiating how Colorado’s accountability and support system aligns with the requirements set by the U.S. Department of Education;
· Collecting and incorporating various stakeholder feedback; and
· Working across CDE, and the state, to present a cohesive description of Colorado’s reform system.
9. Why do you think Colorado was chosen for waivers while other states weren’t?
The federal government had its own process for evaluating waiver applications, and every state’s system is different, so the U.S. Department of Education had a very complex task in deciding which applications met its requirements. Although some states may not have yet received waiver approval that does not mean those states were essentially denied. Rather, those states may continue to revise their application until they receive approval to implement a system at a later date.
Again, Colorado was well positioned for approval in that, over the last three years, state legislation and implementation of next-generation standards, assessments, accountability, and educator effectiveness measures were already under way. Colorado worked closely with the U.S. Department of Education to come to agreement on how to stay true to the state’s system while also including those components most important to the U.S. Department of Education and the President.
10. Will this waiver status improve Colorado’s chances for other opportunities such as grants or relief from other laws?
The waiver status indicates that Colorado is a leader in the country around accountability, standards and assessments, and educator effectiveness. As much as other grants or future waiver possibilities are based on those conditions, we have documented that our state has strong, effective policies and practices in these areas.
11. We noticed at the announcement in Washington today, the commissioners of the other states earning the waiver were present for the news conference. Why wasn’t Colorado represented by our commissioner?
Commissioner Robert Hammond takes his responsibility to the state’s education system to heart. Unfortunately, the announcement fell on the same day as a scheduled public State Board of Education meeting. As much as the Commissioner would have loved to be at the announcement, he was needed in Colorado to keep the reform agenda moving forward.
12. Some say this waiver will actually reduce the level of accountability and that some schools that have been on improvement plans through the old federal system, are now just going to be able to re-set the clock and “take a pass.” Is that true? Explain.
One of the main reasons the President called on the U.S. Department of Education to open this waiver process to states was that the federal system of AYP had become outdated. With expectations nearing 100% proficiency, AYP was no longer able to distinguish between schools that were truly struggling and those that weren’t as high-performing as we’d wish they could be. Schools received either a pass or a fail determination, and too many schools were being identified as failing.
Our state system doesn’t just label all schools that aren’t near 100% proficiency as failing. Colorado recognizes there are nuances, and that rating everyone as failing isn’t particularly helpful. So, the Colorado system gives schools one of four performance ratings and districts one of five accreditation ratings. This doesn’t give schools or districts a “pass” and it doesn’t re-set the clock. The state accountability system includes at least two years of results for schools and three years of results for districts on the School and District Performance Framework report. Those schools and districts on five consecutive years of Priority Improvement or Turnaround (our lowest performance ratings) will face sanctions, as directed by the State Board, which may include school closure or loss of district accreditation. These are serious consequences for schools and districts that don’t improve.
Additionally, our state system actually holds more schools and students accountable than the AYP system did. For example, by calculating a minority disaggregated group in the School Performance Framework reports, as opposed to the calculations required for AYP, nearly all minority students in the state are included in accountability determinations. The state’s system accounts for 98 percent of minority students, whereas AYP accounted for 82 percent of minority students.
Colorado’s accountability system is also more comprehensive, moving beyond just math and reading proficiency and graduation rates. Colorado’s system incorporates performance on achievement (proficiency) in writing and science, growth and growth to standard, gaps in student group growth and growth to standard, and postsecondary and workforce readiness indicators that, in addition to graduation rate, also includes dropout rate and ACT scores.
This provides a more complete look at school and districts’ success in moving students to college and career readiness.
Additionally, through Colorado’s Unified Improvement Plan process, all schools and districts annually participate in a continuous improvement process, using data to reflect on their performance, identifying performance challenges and root causes, and creating plans for improvement. All schools and districts annually submit these plans to CDE and they are posted for public review. We know even our high-performing schools can find ways to do even better.
We firmly believe the waiver will allow for greater improvements and focus on school and district performance. It is a step forward for meaningful, student-centered accountability.
