Draft Colorado Education Plan 
 
The State Board of Education directs the Commissioner of Education to prepare a new state 
education plan for submission to the United States Department of Education as part of our ongoing ESSA obligations.  The state plan should be based on the following principles: 
 
1.  Meeting our Colorado constitutional obligations to maximize local control of education 
and to eliminate, to the extent possible, all federal and state control of the education 
agenda in Colorado.  Local districts will be encouraged to innovate and use creative 
methods to utilize scarce resources to achieve maximum educational outcomes. 
 
2. To remove Colorado from any and all national testing consortiums and return to Colorado 
created tests that measure Colorado standards not later than December 31, 2018.  These 
tests, if required by the federal government, should measure not only critical thinking skills 
but, on an equal basis, assess the acquisition of core knowledge by Colorado students. 
 
3. By July 1, 2018 the establishment of a new set of Colorado created educational standards 
that equally emphasize the acquisition of creative thinking skills and core knowledge by 
Colorado students. 
 
4. The state will encourage, but not require, local school districts to use methodologies that 
have demonstrated the greatest success, emphasizing the acquisition of core knowledge by 
Colorado students.