HB 25-1278

HB 25-1278, also known as the Education Accountability System, is a Colorado bill that aims to improve educational assessments and accountability for students. It requires state education officials to create shorter, more manageable tests for students with disabilities and offers assessments in additional languages when there are enough English language learners who need them. The bill also establishes new ways to measure student success after high school graduation and encourages schools to use local assessment data to identify areas needing improvement. Signed into law, this act will help ensure that all Colorado students have fair and appropriate evaluations of their academic progress, especially those with special needs or learning English as a second language.

Official Summary

The accountability, accreditation, student performance, and resource inequity task force (task force) studied and made recommendations on academic opportunities, inequities, promising practices in schools, and improvements to the accountability and accreditation system. The act implements some recommendations of the task force. The act: Requires the department of education (department) in collaboration with schools of a school district, district charter schools, institute charter schools, and school districts (local education providers) to divide state assessments into shorter sections with age-appropriate time frames to evaluate students with disabilities who have an individualized education program (IEP) or a section 504 plan; Requires the department to administer, in collaboration with local education providers, versions of the state assessments for mathematics, science, and social studies in languages other than English and Spanish when the number of English language learners with a specific language background reaches at least 1,500 students statewide within an assessed grade level. To be eligible for a translated assessment, English language learners must receive instructional support for the content area in the proposed test language. Requires the department to administer reading and writing assessments in Spanish for students enrolled in grades 5 through 8 when the number of English language learners who receive instructional reading and writing services in Spanish reaches at least 1,500 students statewide within an assessed grade level; Requires the department to provide guidance to local education providers and the state charter school institute (institute) on encouraging student participation in state assessments; Creates the accountability work group to provide feedback to the department related to state and federal accountability policies and decisions and to make recommendations to the state board of education (state board); Requires the department to include curriculum-based achievement college entrance exams for purposes of calculating performance for the performance indicator concerning student academic achievement; Requires the state board to ensure that the calculation of performance for the performance indicator includes the academic achievement of students with disabilities but who no longer meet the eligibility criteria for an IEP; Requires the department, beginning in the 2027-28 school year, to measure the postsecondary and workforce readiness performance indicator on 4 performance sub-indicators: The college and career readiness before graduation sub-indicator, the postsecondary progress sub-indicator, the graduation sub-indicator, and the dropout rate sub-indicator; Requires the department to calculate measures for each performance indicator for the overall student population and for the combined disaggregated group. In determining the overall performance on a performance indicator, the department shall ensure that each student in the combined disaggregated group is counted once even if the student belongs to multiple student groups. Creates a multi-year pathway plan for school improvement for local education providers and the institute. The pathway plan connects a local education provider's or the institute's proposal for significant state action with broader strategies for the improvement of the local education provider or the institute. Requires the department, in consultation with the technical advisory panel, the accountability work group, and other advisory groups with relevant expertise, to study lowering student count thresholds on accountability calculations and reporting, addressing inherent volatility of test score measurements for local education providers with small student populations, and shortening statewide assessments and implementing adaptative assessment technology. The department is required to submit a report for each of the studies to the education committees of the general assembly. Requires the department to gather stakeholder input on the specific data elements and visual reporting format for the statewide education accountability dashboard on or before November 1, 2026. The department shall summarize the information into a report and submit the report to the state board. Encourages local education providers and the institute to adopt solutions to provide educator professional development and transform instruction in public schools in order to receive a grant award from the school transformation grant program; and Encourages the institute and local education providers that are implementing priority improvement or turnaround plans to use local assessment data to identify performance indicator gaps and provide supports and interventions in order to receive a grant award from the school transformation grant program. The act reduces an appropriation from the state education fund for the statewide assessment program by $465,000. The act reduces a general fund appropriation for the local accountability system grant program by $81,000. The act appropriates $559,187 to the department from the general fund for use by school quality and support. (Note: This summary applies to this bill as enacted.)

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