2016 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 22 - Education
General and Administrative
Article 7 - Educational Accountability
Part 10 - Preschool to Postsecondary Education Alignment
§ 22-7-1006.1. Assessment selection - department of education - study - legislative declaration - repeal

(1) The department of education shall investigate and review the options available to the state for selecting the state assessments in mathematics, English language arts, science, and social studies, including options for allowing local education providers to select and administer their own assessments in these subjects for use in the state accountability system. The department, at a minimum, shall consider:

(a) Resources available to the state to use in designing, creating, or selecting state assessments in the specified subjects and the approximate, anticipated costs to the state of selecting the state assessments;

(b) Methods by which local education providers, solely or in groups, may create or select and administer assessments in the specified subjects and the approximate, anticipated costs to local education providers of creating or selecting the assessments;

(c) The method by which the department would determine the quality of any assessments selected by local education providers, which must include ensuring that the assessments are valid, reliable, comparable, and criterion-referenced, so that the assessments would be suitable for the state accountability system, and the cost of determining the quality of the assessments; and

(d) Methods used by other states in selecting the state assessments and in providing greater flexibility to the school districts within the states in selecting assessments for use in the state accountability systems, the state and local assessments selected, the costs incurred by the other states in selecting the state assessments and providing flexibility to school districts, and the approximate, anticipated costs to Colorado of implementing the methods used in other states.

(2) The department of education shall report the results of the study described in subsection (1) of this section to the state board and to the joint education committee as part of the presentation required by section 2-7-203, C.R.S., in 2016.

(3) The general assembly declares that, for purposes of section 17 of article IX of the state constitution, investigating and reviewing the options available to the state for selecting state assessments is an important element in implementing accountable programs to meet state academic standards and accountability reporting and may therefore receive funding from the state education fund created in section 17 (4) of article IX of the state constitution.

(4) This section is repealed, effective July 1, 2017.