CO State Board of Ed Votes to Create Quality Systems for State’s Schools
October 11, 2017
In “an effort to keep federal dollars flowing to Colorado classrooms,” the State Board of Education voted recently “to create two quality systems for the state’s schools—the existing one designed in 2009 by state lawmakers, and a new one that meets federal requirements.” After Colorado became the forefront of the opt-out movement in 2015, the State Board of Education “adopted a policy that forbid the state from lowering a school’s quality rating if they missed the 95 percent participation requirement.” But that “proved to be a sticking point when state officials submitted Colorado’s plan for complying with” ESSA. Federal officials “sent the plan back, saying the opt-out provision didn’t comply with the new law.” In the compromise focuses on “school quality ratings that don’t penalize schools for high opt-out rates.”