News Release Colorado State Board of Education hears updates on multilingual learners and the READ Act

Jan. 9, 2025

Colorado State Board of Education hears updates on multilingual learners and the READ Act

DENVER -- The Colorado State Board of Education's first meeting of the new year included the Colorado Department of Education's State of State for Multilingual Learners report, a four-year independent evaluation and program update on the READ Act, and a rulemaking hearing for the administration of the Exceptional Children's Educational Act (ECEA). The board will consider ECEA rule changes during its next meeting in February.

Progress and opportunities for multilingual learners highlighted in report

Chief Academic Officer Joanna Bruno and Deputy Commissioner Rhonda Haniford shared the State of the State for Multilingual Learners report, providing an overview of the success, opportunities, and next steps of the state's approximately 114,000 multilingual learners. The majority of these students speak Spanish as their primary language.

Bruno shared that while academic performance gaps persist for multilingual learners, students who exit English language development programs demonstrate academic achievement comparable to the general student population. At the same time, there are opportunities to improve outcomes for multilingual learners including ensuring that multilingual learners are not overrepresented among students with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs), and increasing the graduation rates while decreasing the drop-out rates so that multilingual learners outcomes may allow for greater access and opportunity in life.

Bruno also highlighted the success of the Denver Language School, a K-8 charter school that immerses students in Mandarin Chinese or Spanish during the early grades and gradually integrates English. All multilingual learners at the school met or exceeded expectations on state tests, showcasing the effectiveness of multilingual learning models.

Colorado READ Act program is reducing numbers of struggling early readers

Dr. Bruno and Dr. Haniford also presented a four-year evaluation of the Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act, revamped in 2019 to enhance early literacy. They were joined by WestEd Senior Research Associate Dr. Katie Grogan. WestEd served as the department's independent evaluator for the evaluation and program updates. Overall, the department is seeing promising progress from READ Act implementation including:

• Three-year declines in the number of K-3 students with significant reading deficiencies (SRDs);
• 98% of school districts using high-quality instructional materials;
• 81% of Colorado educator preparation programs aligned with the science of reading; and
• All K-3 teachers, reading interventionists, and administrators completed the required 45 hours of science-based reading training.

Bruno shared that, based on the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Colorado fourth graders rank among the top five states for reading proficiency. At the state level, third-grade students demonstrated higher proficiency on the 2024 Colorado Measures of Academic Success compared to 2019. Colorado students also outperformed the national average on the DIBELS 8 reading test.

These positive results are helpful in the context of some of the challenges. Currently, only 42% of the state's third graders are proficient on the English language arts Colorado Measures of Academic Success tests; CDE has set an ambitious goal of 60% proficiency by 2028. Meeting these goals will require Colorado to address needs of specific student groups. Students of color, students with disabilities, multilingual learners and students who are economically disadvantaged tend to have lower rates of proficiency.

The Colorado State Board of Education also:

• Held a rulemaking hearing for the administration of the Exceptional Children's Educational Act. The board plans to vote in February on proposed rule changes, including updates to state complaint procedures, student placement policies, application processes for administrative units, paraprofessional requirements, and Gifted Education Program Plan integration into Unified Improvement Plans. The changes also remove limits on gifted universal screeners, allow screening alongside Individual Career and Academic Plan creation, include group centers in administrative units, and require case management agencies to maintain auditable tuition records.
• Requested CDE staff to work on possible legislation related to recommendations in the staff memo concerning the Postsecondary Workforce Readiness Financial Study that was authorized by HB24-1364 and HB24-1393.
• Heard a presentation from the Colorado Education Initiative, districts and CDE staff about the use of Artificial Intelligence in K-12 education
• Approved the conditional reauthorization of Northwest BOCES as a designation agency for alternative teacher preparation and required the agency to return to demonstrate that all requirements outlined in the November 2024 reauthorization report have been met.

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The Colorado Department of Education's vision is to create equitable educational environments where all students and staff in Colorado thrive. Our role is to improve student outcomes and ensure students and families across Colorado have access to high-quality schools by serving, guiding, and elevating our state's 178 school districts and BOCES.

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