Colorado Launches Statewide Outreach Effort to Ensure All Students, Schools Can Leverage Digital Tools, Blended Learning
Outreach Will Focus on Strategies to Enhance Equity, Access Via Digital Tools
DENVER, February 6, 2017 — Colorado Empowered Learning, a state program working to enhance equity and access in K-12 education through blended learning, launched a statewide effort today to gather perspectives on Colorado’s use of supplemental courses and blended learning. The process, which runs through June, will shape and inform Colorado’s approach to blended learning — the use of digital content in partnership with classroom learning to enhance outcomes.
The resulting statewide roadmap will focus on expanding the availability of supplemental education courses and blended learning as well as increasing enrollment in effective, affordable supplemental education options.
“Blended learning is one of the most promising tools we have available to ensure that every student in Colorado — from the Great Plains to the Western Slope — has access to the tools, resources, and coursework they need to succeed. Blending learning also holds tremendous potential to help teachers educate their students using the latest innovative tools,” said Troy Lange, director of Colorado Empowered Learning and regional director of the Mountain Board of Cooperative Educational Services. “This statewide roadmap will ensure Colorado is seizing the opportunities and addressing the barrier to using blended learning to enhance equity and access in K-12 education.”
The Colorado General Assembly and Governor’s Office commissioned this statewide blended learning roadmap through House Bill 16-1222.
Colorado Empowered Learning’s process will include meetings in communities across Colorado and surveys of educators and others working in education. A core team of educators, education policy leaders, and other key stakeholders will work with Colorado Empowered Learning to ensure the statewide roadmap reflects school districts’ needs and helps position Colorado students for success.
Colorado Empowered Learning is partnering with the Keystone Policy Center to develop and execute its statewide outreach and development of the roadmap. Keystone is a nationally recognized nonprofit with a proven track record of finding collaborative, actionable solutions to public policy challenges.
To learn more about Colorado Empowered Learning or to share feedback or perspectives for the statewide roadmap, visit www.colorado.gov/cel.
About Keystone Policy Center
Keystone Policy Center brings together crucial teams of stakeholders who have diverse individual perspectives but recognize a common need to address urgent issues with lasting solutions. For more than 40 years, Keystone has helped leaders move beyond fixed positions toward collaborative, action-oriented approaches to problem-solving. In this age of polarized debate on nearly every major topic in public policy, Keystone offers a refreshing yet proven blueprint for progress.
