Summary
Description
The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) provides leadership, resources, support, and accountability to the state's 178 school districts, 1,888 schools, over 53,000 teachers, and over 3,200 administrators to help them build capacity to meet the needs of the state's approximately 905,000 public school students. In addition, CDE provides structural and administrative support to the Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind and the Charter School Institute.
As the administrative arm of the State Board of Education, CDE is responsible for implementing state and federal education laws, disbursing state and federal funds, holding schools and districts accountable for performance, licensing all educators, and providing public transparency of performance and financial data.
CDE is a values-based agency that serves students, parents, and the general public by protecting public trust through ensuring adherence to laws, strong stewardship of public funds, and accountability for student performance.
CDE strives to incorporate five core values that we uphold in our work internally and externally. If you come to CDE, be prepared to incorporate Integrity, Equity, Accountability, Trust, and commitment to Service in what you do.
Why Work For CDE
The work we do is rewarding and impacts the students, families, educators, and communities across Colorado. Our leadership also promotes a culture that puts families and self-care as a priority. Along with meaningful work and an environment that puts employees first, the state also offers rich benefits that intend to make us an Employer of Choice!
The following is a summary of the benefits we offer:
- Flexible work schedules and flexible workplace options that may include flexible working hours, working from home, working in the office, and/or a hybrid working environment.
- Premier medical, dental, vision, and dependent life insurance options. All with a generous employer contribution keeping employee costs as low as possible.
- Employer paid short-term disability and life insurance
- Up to 160 hours of Paid Family Medical Leave (PFML)
- 11 paid holidays per year
- Competitive vacation and sick leave accruals
- Retirement through the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) www.copera.org
- Employer paid RTD Eco Pass (certain restrictions may apply)
- Paid professional development opportunities
A wide salary range is posted for this position and any job offer is based upon a salary analysis to comply with the Colorado Equal Pay for Equal Work Act. The salary analysis considers relevant experience, education, certifications, and state seniority as compared to others doing substantially similar work. While most salary offers are made within the posted range, occasionally an offer is made below or above the posted range based upon this salary analysis.
Description of Job
Work Environment:
This position is Full-time, is Hybrid (Remote/Home Office w/requirement to report to Work location per business needs.
- Office hours are typically Mon-Fri, 8 am-5 pm
- Extended hours during the evening or the weekend may be required by business needs
- Up to 10% Travel required within Denver Metro/Downtown for Meetings/Training and up 20% Travel Within State of Colorado that is outside of the Denver Metro area)
- A Remote (Home) office is required
- Required to report to the work location per business needs
- Essential Functions (ADAAA)
- LIGHT/Office environment:
- Required to sit, view a computer screen, and utilize a keyboard and mouse for extended periods of time
- May be required to lift and move up to 10 lbs of force frequently or 20 lbs occasionally
- Required lifting, bending, stooping, pushing, walking, etc.
- Light work usually requires walking or standing to a significant degree
- LIGHT/Office environment:
Position Summary:
The Accountability Specialist is responsible for coordinating and collaborating with CDE staff and stakeholders to provide technical support, training and disseminating information related to school improvement, accountability, and data interpretation to help districts and schools build coherence. As a member of the School Improvement and Planning Office (housed within the Accountability & Continuous Improvement Unit) this position supports implementation of the core work of the team. The work takes place within the context of our state and federal accountability systems, including the School and District Performance Frameworks and Unified Improvement Planning processes. While there are general responsibilities to provide universal supports to all schools and districts within the state, a special emphasis is placed upon supporting schools and districts identified as our lowest
performing under state (i.e., Improvement, Priority Improvement, Turnaround) and federal (i.e., Comprehensive, Targeted, Additional Targeted) law. This position has a special role in bridging the accountability side of the work with the school improvement side. This includes supporting sites in interpreting their performance frameworks and identifying next steps for improvement planning, supporting the request to reconsider process, as well as playing a coordinating role for the office for sites identified on Performance Watch (e.g., State Review Panel).The final salary is anticipated to fall within the posted salary range, however could be higher or lower depending on the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualifications of the preferred candidate while considering internal equity.
Major Duties and Responsibilities:
Work as a member of the School Improvement and Planning team to implement the work of the unit, specifically supporting cross-departmental processes (e.g., State and ESEA Accountability, Special Education, Literacy, Title I, EASI application, family-school partnerships) focused on school and district improvement. Tasks include:
A. Participate in the core work of the team in implementing policy related to best practices for improvement planning that enable sites to meet state, federal and grant requirements.
- Specific tasks include review of school/district improvement plans, creating resources and engaging with the field to support school improvement efforts. Participate in the continued implementation and improvement of the state and federal accountability system for schools and districts from the lens of continuous improvement. This includes internal work and integration of laws (e.g., SB09-163, HB18-1355, SB19-204, SB22-137, ESSA, IDEA) and policies to provide "sense making" for the field.
B. Provide support and service delivery universally to the broader education community, as well as more targeted supports to an assigned caseload of districts identified or with schools identified for improvement. This must be done in alignment with team, unit, and division priorities.
C. Coordinate support and service delivery across the department support of team, unit, and division priorities. Engage with CDE offices to build training and technical assistance that contributes to meaningful continuous improvement efforts. Facilitate understanding and use of accountability data, other local measures and research-based improvement strategies with internal and external educational stakeholders (e.g., performance frameworks, Unified Improvement Planning process). This position has particular responsibility in contributing to accountability-related resource development to support this work.
D. Support team engagement with a wide variety of stakeholders (e.g., school and district staff, community representatives, education organizations, policymakers). This may include seeking and using feedback through formal and information structures in continuous improvement of the team’s work.
E. Coordinate technical assistance to sites participating in the request to reconsider process in collaboration with the manager of the request to reconsider process. Engage in the review of requests to reconsider making recommendations following process guidance.
F. Lead the office's work on tracking requirements, creating resources and ensuring supports for schools identified for improvement (i.e., Priority Improvement, Turnaround, ESSA Comprehensive Support). Coordination must occur with other offices within the division and even sometimes across the department. This also includes working with the unit's Executive Director in coordination of the State Review Panel contract with a third-party vendor.
G. Participate in cross-division work to design and implement a statewide system of supports for schools and districts.
H. Other duties as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications, Substitutions, Conditions of Employment & Appeal Rights
MINIMUM EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE REQUIREMENTS:
Minimum Education Requirements:
- Bachelor's degree from an accredited institution in Education or a related field of study related to the work assignment.
AND
- At least Four (4) years of relevant work experience in the Education field.
OR
Experience and Education Combination Substitutions:
- Master's degree from an accredited institution in Education or a related field of study related to the work assignment.
AND
- At least Two (2) years of relevant work experience in the Education field.
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QUALIFICATIONS AND CONDITIONS:
Qualifications for Success in the Position:
Division of Work
- Ability to understand and communicate the state's accountability system and program requirements (e.g., state accountability, ESSA, IDEA, Charter Schools, Innovation Schools, Online Programs);
- Experience and ability to engage in planning (e.g., UIP process, root cause analysis) and school improvement work (including but not exclusively within lower performing systems).
- Ability to listen and understand school and district needs and help them identify appropriate actions. This requires some grounding and knowledge of best practices and research-based strategies.
- Ability to listen and understand other programs' needs and pull them together into a coherent message for the field.
Data & Computer Skills
- Experience working with education data and interpretation of a variety of data reports.
- Proficiency in MS Office programs, specifically Word, Excel, and Power Point, as well as data accuracy and quality assurance.
Communication Skills
- Excellent written and oral communications skills with people of varying levels of knowledge of data use and interpretation.
- Ability to effectively collaborate with internal and external customers (e.g., school districts, other CDE units).
Approach to Work
- Ability to build trust, rapport, and facilitate successful outcomes with a diverse body of stakeholders, both internal and external to CDE.
- Demonstrated skills and abilities to independently problem solve.
- Takes initiative and exhibits a proactive approach to work.
- Ability to work under pressure and maintain quality of detailed work while meeting competing deadlines.
- Ability and willingness to travel.
Preferred Qualifications (Preferred/Not Required):
- Experience leading change in a school or district environment.
- Experience or additional certification in English language development.
- Intermediate to advance use in spreadsheets.
- Experience in developing strategies to communicate complex concepts in a variety of modalities (e.g., website, written documents, social media, trainings).
- Experience leading project processes that require high attention to detail, demonstrate agile planning and identify errors or exceptions within the process.
Conditions of Employment (Required):
- Must be willing and able to submit to the pre-screening process and pass a background check.
- Ability and willingness to independently determine, obtain means, and complete required travel
- (Up to 10% Travel required within Denver Metro/Downtown for Meetings/Training and up 20% Travel Within State of Colorado that is outside of the Denver Metro area)
- Work extended schedule per business needs
- Report to work location per business needs
Supplemental Information
Complete Applications must include:
- Completed Online Application: Required – Submitted through our ATS.
- Cover Letter: Required – Copy and Paste into the Supplemental Questions (11,000 character limit, aprx. 3 pages)
- Resume: Optional
