To visit CDE's Colorado Educator Effectiveness website click here.

Colorado Academic Standards
Revised standards, the Colorado Academic Standards (or similar), will be implemented statewide during the 2013-14 school year. While state law requires all Colorado districts to adopt revised standards, the decisions about how we implement and the curriculum we use remains at our discretion locally.

The standards, in 10 content areas, clearly delineate what students are expected to learn in each subject and grade, with each grade level building on the next, to be prepared for success in college and careers. Our community will need to work together to make sure our students transition successfully to these revised academic standards.

Click to view CDE standards and instructional support

Aligned Assessments
Good instruction and assessment cannot occur in isolation of one another, each informs the other, and they become the checks and balances that drive measurable student growth and achievement. Colorado assessments are changing in order to accurately assess student mastery relative to the new Colorado Academic Standards. With the standards being more focused, coherent and rigorous, assessments must adapt to align with them.

New assessments for science and social studies will begin next year: science assessments will be administered in grades 5, 8 and once in high school and the social studies assessments will be administered in grades 4, 7 and once in high school. The TCAP assessment will continue to be administered in 2013-14 for reading, writing and math and then in 2014-15, Colorado will transition to new statewide assessments in English language arts and mathematics.

Educator Evaluations
Beginning next school year, all Colorado school districts will implement new annual principal and teacher evaluation systems that align to Senate Bill 10-191. The new evaluations have been designed specifically to provide ongoing feedback on how educator practices impact student learning.

For the first time, Colorado has statewide standards, Quality Standards, defining effective teaching. The new evaluations use the Quality Standards as a foundation with the overarching goal of continued professional growth for all principals and teachers. To view the state evaluation model adopted by Ridgway School District click below:

Teacher Quality Standards Evaluation Rubric 2013-14

Principal Quality Standards Evaluation Rubric 2013-14

Evaluation Cycle