Leveraging Recovery for Statewide Innovation and Scale

Message From CEI President and CEO Rebecca Holmes

From CEI’s November 2022 Newsletter

Over the past 18 months, CEI has helped to champion, cultivate, and support the investment of approximately $21M in new funding being invested in Colorado’s K12 systems over the next two to five years from a combination of public and private sources. We began this school year launching or expanding several significant statewide initiatives – with active district partnership in all eight CDE-recognized regions of the state, representing between 25% and 74% of the districts in each region. Further, we have supported over 30 districts through the critical process of developing community-informed strategic plans and local graduate profiles and partnered with over 20 rural superintendents focused on creating conditions for excellence in community leadership, governance, and sustaining long-term change.  

Importantly, we are seeing infrastructure being built that will address the Colorado Paradox in significant and sustainable ways, including pivotal efforts at the intersection of career-connected learning, social emotional development, and family partnership. Communities are beginning to embrace identity development and professional competencies – core pieces of social emotional development – as critical to reengaging students, supporting learning recovering, and accelerating motivation and preparation for college and career.

Components of this work were initiated through private investment and expanded through public relief funding, a stellar example of philanthropy driving innovative proof points and public dollars expanding promising practice. This is what CEI means by maximizing the policy and funding opportunities of recovery to enable breakthrough change that drives equity and relevance in high schools. 

Looking around the corner, we are building capacity to support financial sustainability planning post-ESSER, co-creating human capital models in response to learnings from the pandemic, and partnering with the Governor’s office to support communications and dissemination focused on developing and scaling infrastructure to enable successful uptake of effective RISE and RISE-related work statewide. 

Our November newsletter highlights many of these initiatives and includes opportunities for learning and support from these as well as from new teammates and other partner organizations, including: 

• Project Spotlights: Pivotal efforts at the intersection of career-connected learning, social emotional development, and family partnership; CEI’s partnership with Colorado Trustee Network; and 2022 Dr. Cile Chavez Rural Superintendent Academy Fellows  
• Teammate Spotlight: CEI Expands!; Now Hiring Directors of Family and Community Partnership and Communications and Marketing  
• Partner Organization Spotlights: Policy and Practice Insights from Colorado Succeeds and the Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab