• SB23-061, Eliminate State Assessments in Social Studies (the bill was lost “on the calendar” at the end of the session).  

A4PEP supported this bill to eliminate the Social Studies CMAS test at the elementary and middle school levels, because the test is not federally mandated, has already been eliminated at the high school level, and costs too much.

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• SB23-071, Education Accountability Act (the bill was defeated in the Senate Education Committee at the sponsor’s request).  

A4PEP supported this bill because it would have allowed school districts to request judicial review of the State Board of Education’s decisions about the consequences for persistent low performance in the state’s educational accountability system.  Judicial review is allowed for other executive, legislative, and administrative actions.  Also, A4PEP believes that the SBE is overriding school districts’ Constitutional right to “local control” with these mandates.

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• HB23-1239, Local Innovation for Educational Assessments (the bill was defeated in the House Education Committee at the sponsor’s request).  

A4PEP supported this bill because it would have enabled school districts that are “piloting” assessments that are alternatives to CMAS to continue their work.  It would also have extended the option to develop innovative assessments to all school districts, allowing data from this practical application to provide the state with information about how alternative accountability systems could support special education students, English language learners, and students living in poverty. 

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• HB23-1241, Task Force to Study K-12 Accountability Systems (the bill passed).

A4PEP strongly supports this effort to create a task force to study academic opportunities, inequities, promising practices in schools, and improvements to the state’s accountability and accreditation system.  In 2015, the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) allowed each state the flexibility to design its own accountability system, yet Colorado did not act on the opportunity to re-evaluate and redesign a more comprehensive, equitable, and meaningful accountability system.  We hope this task force will make recommendations to do that.

 

A4PEP opposed this bill:

• HB23-1188, Individualized Learning Schools and Programs (the bill was lost “on the calendar” after no action by the Appropriations Committee).

A4PEP opposed this bill because it would have created another school choice option that had no clear design for administration, was not based on any successful models, and would result in the loss of vitally needed funds from district-run and charter schools.

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