Report of the On-Line Task Force Created by HB14-1382
Prepared for the Colorado State Board of Education, House Education Committee, Senate Education Committee in 2014
The On-line Task Force was created in response to Colorado House Bill 14-1382, and was charged with providing recommendations for: standards for authorizers of multi-district on-line schools; regulatory and statutory changes necessary to certify and to discontinue certification of those authorizers; establishing the frequency of and timeline for certification and recertification; the effect(s) on a multidistrict on-line school if its authorizer loses its certification; establishing parameters, duration, and methods for evaluating pilot programs; and to provide additional recommendations, as needed.
A task force of 15 (13 of which were voting members) was convened by the Colorado Department of Education from August through December of 2014. The task force was facilitated by Augenblick, Palaich and Associates. Members received and reviewed information from a variety of sources; reviewed accountability and performance rating data on the state’s current multi-district on-line schools; debated the issues and language associated with their charges; and created a set of recommendations for authorizer standards, a system for certifying authorizers (District, BOCES, & CSI) of multi-district on-line schools, rules and regulations, pilot programs, and other recommendations.
The August–December 2014 task force proposed eight recommendations to the General Assembly and the State Board of Education:
That there be created a certification process for authorizers (Districts, BOCES, and CSI) of multidistrict on-line schools based on a specific set of quality standards and practices provided by the On-line Task Force.
To support those quality standards and practices with a specific set of system and process elements provided by the On-line Task Force for the Colorado Department of Education’s (CDE) review and certification of authorizer’s of multi-district on-line schools.
That the certification of new authorizers of multi-district on-line schools begins in August of 2016, for implementation in the 2017-2018 school year.
That CDE continue the certification of multi-district on-line schools until implementation of the certification of authorizers of multi-district on-line schools begins.
That multi-district on-line schools and their authorizers who are already certified by CDE at the time of implementation of the new system of certification of authorizers of multi-district on-line schools be required to meet the new standards and practices, determined through the certification system, within five years of implementation, and every five years thereafter.
That any current multi-district on-line school whose authorizer loses certification will continue to serve their students through the completion of the school year when their authorizer’s loss of certification occurred, and for no more than one additional school year.
That the legislature appropriate funds for pilot programs and for CDE to implement the provisions of on-line pilot programs, which would include establishing the parameters for, duration of, and methods for evaluating pilot programs, as described in section 22-30.7-113(2)(b) of HB 14-1382.
That the legislature considers five other recommendations: statutory modification for clarification of drop-in centers; assessment of attendance, membership, and competency based models; data collection and reporting of analysis on student membership tracking; establishing a role for CDE in data collection, research, and dissemination of learnings; and an authorizer denial appeals process.