News Release - State Board of Education finds Adams 14 failed to comply with 2018 order

Sept. 10, 2021

State Board of Education finds Adam 14 failed to comply with 2018 order

Denver -- The State Board of Education at its two-day meeting on Thursday and Friday found Adams 14 School District has failed to comply with the board’s 2018 order requiring the district to turn over full decision-making authority to a management entity.

The board directed the district to come into compliance with the 2018 order by Sept. 27. The district had ceased working with its management company last month without seeking a change to the state board’s order from 2018. The board ordered the district and its management partner, MGT, to submit a joint written statement by Oct. 1 or face immediate removal of the district’s accreditation.

Adams 14 first came before the State Board of Education in 2017 after receiving priority improvement or turnaround ratings on the state’s school and district accountability system for six years. In June 2017, the state board directed Adams 14 to turn over partial management to Beyond Textbooks.

Academic performance at the district continued to decline, and in fall 2018 following a review and recommendations from the State Review Panel, the board directed the district to delegate all formal decision-making authority to a management entity. The district selected MGT as its management partner in April 2019 and the state board voted to approve the selection in May 2019.

Board approves new partial manager for Gateway High School

The board approved Aurora Public School’s proposal to amend the 2019 order directing the district to bring on Communities in Schools, an external organization, for partial management at Gateway High School. The district proposes to continue the order but change the management partner to Zero Dropouts, which will focus on credit recovery, tutoring support, virtual learning opportunities, and extended day and evening learning opportunities for the 2021-22 school year.

Standards Review and Revision Update

CDE staff provided an update to the board on the plans to review and revise the Colorado Academic Standards according to the timeline laid out in Colorado House Bill 20-1032. The content areas currently being reviewed are social studies, which includes the new Holocaust and Genocide Studies standards, and the arts, which includes dance, drama and theatre arts, music, and visual arts.

Committees for each of these content areas will present their recommended revisions to the state board at its November meeting. At that time, the public will also be invited to provide feedback on suggested changes until February 2022. After feedback is collected, the board can discuss any proposed amendments to the standards before voting on them in May or June. School districts will then have two years to transition their local standards, curriculum and assessments to align to the revised standards, with implementation anticipated to begin with the 2024-25 school year.

After this first group of standards content areas are revised, the Standards Revision Process will begin for Group Two, which will consist of comprehensive health and physical education, computer science, and world languages. The third and final group of standards that will go through this process includes English language proficiency, mathematics, science, and reading, writing and communicating.

Recognition of Student Art Competition winners

The board recognized the following student artists for their accomplishments in the Colorado Congressional Art Competition. Their art will be displayed in the State Board Room for the next year.

• Brooklyn Brown, Coronado High School, Colorado Springs School District 11, Congressional District 5. Brown was recognized for her photograph, “Fox.”

• Sheea Sau, Golden High School, Jeffco Public Schools, Congressional District 7. Sau was recognized for her painting, “Lost in the Madness of Uncertainty.”

In other actions, the board:

• Approved a notice of rulemaking to consider amendments to 1 CCR 301-110, Rules for the Administration of the High School Innovative Learning Pilot Program, which reflect the small changes made to the Innovative Learning Pilot Program as directed by Senate Bill 21-106.

• Received an update from CDE staff on the progress being made at schools and districts with board-directed improvement plans due to their chronic low performance on the accountability system. Reports for each school and district with board-directed action are available on the website.