Strong evaluation systems are foundational to improving teacher and principal quality; evaluations recognize excellence, support development, and address ineffectiveness. They must be meaningful, objective, and fair. Colorado is exemplary in this area. Districts evaluate educators annually according to a four-tier rating system that is tied to professional development. Evaluations include multiple measures including student growth, which comprises 50% of the total evaluation. Principals are assessed on their ability to recruit and retain effective teachers, and teacher evaluation also factors in student surveys and classroom observations. Colorado can continue its leadership in this area by explicitly providing districts the authority to develop evaluation criteria apart from contract negotiations in order to ensure that districts have the ability to develop the most meaningful systems.

Basing personnel decisions on performance is critical to building schools that retain effective teachers and make student achievement paramount. Colorado is notable in this area; specifically, the state uses teacher effectiveness to drive decisions around teacher assignment, layoffs, and tenure. Schools have the authority to build and maintain an effective instructional team, including having autonomy over hiring decisions and the dismissal of ineffective teachers. Furthermore, when teachers are forced to be laid off during a budget-induced reduction in force, districts must use performance to determine these layoffs. Seniority can also be a non-controlling factor. Teachers receive tenure status after serving a three-year probationary period. Attainment and revocation of tenure are tied to performance, and there are clear dismissal procedures for tenured teachers who are consistently ineffective. Colorado must continue taking steps to refine its system that prioritizes students and great teachers, using teacher performance as the driving influence for all personnel decisions.

To encourage a high-quality, diverse workforce, professional pay should be based on performance rather than other non-classroom factors such as seniority or degrees held. Colorado does not require school districts to implement performance-pay compensation systems, but it does allow districts to adopt a salary policy, schedule, or both. Several districts have implemented performance-pay systems that have received national acclaim. However, if a district fails to adopt a salary policy, such as performance pay, it must adopt a salary schedule that bases pay on degree type(s) and years of experience. To strengthen teacher compensation systems across the state, Colorado should eliminate automatic pay increase for master's degrees alone and require all districts to tie pay increases to performance measures that prioritize student outcomes.

Colorado allows many alternative certification routes, but raising selectivity standards would increase program quality. Applicants with a 2.6 undergraduate GPA are eligible, and alternative license holders can teach during the one- or two-year program. Candidates for full licensure are required to demonstrate content knowledge by passing state-approved content exams or through 24 hours of coursework. Elementary school teachers must pass a state content assessment. Colorado should strengthen its program requirements by increasing the minimum GPA to a 3.0 or 2.5 with five years of experience. Colorado is a leader in establishing a clear process for authorizing, evaluating, and decommissioning alternative certification programs that do not produce effective educators. The state requires programs to demonstrate that teachers show student achievement gains in the classroom.

Currently, parents in Colorado do not have access to key, meaningful information about their children's schools. To address this, the state should require that every PK_12 school receive an annual report card that includes an A_F letter grade based on student achievement. To further empower parents, Colorado must make teacher effectiveness data available to parents and require that parents are notified when their children are placed with an ineffective teacher. Also, the state should require parental consent for placement of a student with an ineffective teacher. Finally, Colorado should establish a parent trigger law that allows a majority of parents to organize at the grassroots level and petition to turn around low-performing schools throughout the state.

Colorado must ensure its students are not trapped in failing schools by increasing the number of high-quality school choice options for parents. While the state does not cap charter school growth, the state should empower the statewide charter entity to authorize anywhere in the state and set a high threshold for the expansion of successful charters. Additionally, Colorado requires schools to have a performance-based contract with five-year terms. The state should strengthen charter accountability by requiring annual performance reviews and holding authorizers accountable for school performance. Further, the state should establish a publicly funded scholarship program allowing low-income students in chronically failing public schools to attend a private school that meets certain accountability provisions.

Children stuck in chronically failing schools should have an option to attend another school of their choice without being punished by the state through reduced funding. Colorado provides equal per-pupil funding for all students, whether enrolled in traditional public schools or public charter schools. However, the state allows skimming in the sense that school districts may retain funding for central administrative costs. Colorado provides fairly exemplary facility financing programs, such as a limited per-pupil facilities allowance and access to bond revenue. The law should be strengthened to permit co-location in a variety of excess public spaces and to strengthen the ability of charter schools to purchase unused school buildings.

The ability to turn around failing schools is often hampered by bureaucratic red tape and politics. Colorado allows for limited state intervention in low-performing schools. Following locally determined turnaround efforts, if a school continues to underperform, the state commissioner may request a state panel review and recommend alternative turnaround interventions, including management by an outside entity, conversion to a public charter school, or designation as an innovation school. Following state board approval, the local board of education is charged with implementing the plan. To create more flexible governance options, the state should allow for full state control of low-performing schools and districts, including the authority and responsibility for implementing turnaround plans. Colorado should also consider allowing for mayoral control in low-performing districts.

Given the limited resources available for public education, states must ensure that districts spend as many dollars as possible in the classroom rather than in bureaucracy and that the dollars invested drive the greatest change. Colorado permits staffing flexibility because it does not mandate less effective class-size limits past the third grade. Additionally, Colorado provides exemplary spending flexibility to school districts because it does not restrict districts from re-allocating resources funded through categorical programs to their greatest needs. However, Colorado should empower data-driven decisionmaking by improving the financial data it collects and linking spending to academic achievement. The state should enable governance changes when resources are mismanaged.

Attracting a high-quality workforce will require a competitive retirement plan. Portable retirement options, such as 401(k) plans, are an essential component of compensation packages and make the teaching profession more competitive. It is a classic win-win for teachers and districts. Under current policy, Colorado provides two employer-sponsored retirement options for employees of traditional schools and charter schools: a defined benefit plan and a portable defined contribution plan. To provide the most career flexibility and ensure sustainability of the existing system, Colorado should require all employees of traditional public schools to participate in its defined contribution plan and permit public charter schools to opt out of these plans.