Each year the Colorado Department of Education determines accreditation ratings for all 178 school districts in the state of Colorado based on state achievement test results, graduation rates, and ACT scores. Accreditation categories a district can earn range from Turnaround to Priority Improvement to Improvement to Accredited, to the state’s highest rating Accredited With Distinction. When this new accreditation process began during the 2009-10 school year the Center School District achieved a score of only 46.2% on the rating’s 100-point scale. This meant they were placed on Accredited with Priority Improvement status, the second lowest rating a district can receive in Colorado.

This rating of Accredited with Priority Improvement also put the district on CDE’s 5-year countdown clock, at the end of which the state department of education could significantly intervene and even possibly require a complete reorganization of the district.

Since this first district accreditation rating, and as a result of continual increased academic growth and achievement, the district has methodically raised its rating, first to 56.1% in 2011 (Accredited with Priority Improvement again), then 58.8% in 2012 (Accredited with Improvement, and off the state intervention countdown clock), to 61.9% in 2013 (still Accredited with Improvement) to 65.2% in November, 2014, the district’s first year with a fully Accredited rating!

With a student poverty rate hovering around 90%, a migrant student population around 30%, and half of students served needing some form of English Language Learner instruction, Center Consolidated Schools has still become one of the very few districts in Colorado to increase its rating from Priority Improvement all the way up to Accredited! This has been accomplished as a result of the continual hard work and professional growth of teachers and administrators, and the effect this has had on improved instruction of students, as well as the application of the district’s four core beliefs which include a dedication to increasing academic achievement for ALL students, offering the support so that all students can achieve at high levels and be successful in life, offer quality planning, instruction, and assessments that can lead to high achievement for all students, and making sure that everyone is committed to excellence in all they do every day. Wise words!