(1) The general assembly hereby finds
that an effective system of statewide education accountability is one that:
(a) Focuses the attention of educators, parents, students, and other
members of the community on maximizing every student's progress toward
postsecondary and workforce readiness and postgraduation success;
(b) Reports information concerning performance at the state level, school
district or institute level, and individual public school level that is perceived by
educators, parents, and students as fair, balanced, cumulative, credible, and useful;
(c) Provides more academic performance information, and fewer labels, to
move from a punitive accountability system to one that is positive and focused on
learning and achieving high levels of academic performance; and
(d) Holds the state, school districts, the institute, and individual public
schools accountable for performance on the same set of indicators and related
measures statewide, ensures that those indicators and measures are aligned
through a single accountability system, to the extent possible, that objectively
evaluates the performance of the thorough and uniform statewide system of public
education for all groups of students at the state, school district or institute, and
individual public school levels, and, as appropriate, rewards success and provides
support for improvement at each level.
(2) The general assembly further finds that an effective education
accountability system will be built around implementation of the Colorado growth
model that:
(a) Uses a common measure to describe in plain language how much
academic growth each student needs to make and how much growth the student
actually makes in one year toward proficiency on state content standards;
(b) Incorporates a complete history of each student's assessment scores in
calculating the student's needed and achieved academic growth;
(c) Focuses the attention of educators, parents, and students on maximizing
students' academic growth and achievement over time and reveals where, and
among which groups of students, the strongest academic growth is occurring and
where it is not;
(d) Assists the state in closing the achievement gaps that plague the public
education system by spotlighting the gaps in students' academic growth rates and
ensuring that educators have the data necessary to assist the neediest students in
making more than a year's academic growth in a year's time so that these students
can catch up to the academic performance levels of their peers; and
(e) Provides data that are recognized by educators, parents, students, the
higher education community, the business community, and other stakeholders as
fair, balanced, objective, and transparent to support individual school, school
district, institute, state, and federal education accountability purposes.
(3) The general assembly concludes, therefore, that it is in the best interests
of the state to adopt an aligned education accountability system for public
education in this state that:
(a) Holds the state, school districts, the institute, and public schools
accountable on statewide performance indicators supported by consistent,
objective measures;
(b) Incorporates input from parents, educators, administrators, and the
community in establishing clearly defined statewide academic performance
objectives;
(c) Reports performance in clear, readily understandable terms;
(d) Is adaptable to accommodate and include additional data that become
available as the state implements the Preschool to Postsecondary Education
Alignment Act, part 10 of article 7 of this title, including but not limited to data
concerning school readiness and postsecondary success;
(e) Recognizes and rewards areas of success, while also identifying and
compelling effective change for areas in need of improvement; and
(f) Ensures the availability of technical assistance, services, and support for
public schools, school districts, and the institute to improve students' academic
performance.