SB 22-070

Senate Bill 22-070 in Colorado aims to improve how teachers and principals are evaluated in schools. It requires the Department of Education to create new evaluation systems that reward highly effective educators, provide training for those who conduct evaluations, and set guidelines on how to include professional growth achievements in these assessments. Starting from the 2023-24 school year, at least 30% of a teacher's or principal’s performance rating will be based on student academic progress, with up to 10% considering collective student growth within their grade level or school. The bill also allocates funding for these initiatives and encourages schools to try out new evaluation methods. Since the bill has been signed into law, it is now in effect and being implemented by Colorado’s Department of Education.

Official Summary

The act specifies the duties of the department of education (department) related to licensed personnel performance evaluation systems, including the following duties, which the department must comply with by the beginning of the 2023-24 school year: Creating a modified rubric for evaluating personnel who are consistently rated highly effective; Creating specialized rubrics for particular teacher or principal roles; Providing free evaluator training for school districts and boards of cooperative services (BOCES); Providing guidelines for incorporating a licensed person's professional growth achievements into the evaluation; and Providing best practices in methods of conducting evaluations. The act directs the state board of education (state board) to adopt rules as necessary to ensure that, beginning with evaluations completed in the 2023-24 school year: 30% of a teacher's or principal's evaluation is based on the academic growth of students, and the remainder is based on the teacher's or principal's attainment of quality standards; Of that 30%, up to 10% of a teacher's or principal's evaluation may be based on measures of collective student academic growth for a particular grade level or for an entire school, but the evaluation must not include measures of collective student academic growth for students who are not enrolled in the school at which the teacher or principal is employed; and If a licensed person has been employed by a school district or BOCES for one year or less, the person's evaluation must not include data created before the licensed person's employment began. School districts and BOCES are encouraged to experiment with innovative methods of conducting observations for licensed personnel evaluations and train multiple persons to serve as evaluators. A school district or BOCES must complete the licensed personnel evaluations within the school year for which the person is evaluated and report the performance ratings to the department by October 15 of the next school year. For the 2022-23 fiscal year, the act appropriates $452,973 from the general fund to the department. Of that amount: $343,059 is for educator effectiveness unit administration; $90,200 is for information technology services; and $19,714 is for legal services and is reappropriated to the department of law.(Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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