Colorado READ Act

The READ Act

The Colorado Reading To Ensure Academic Development Act (Colorado READ Act) was passed by the Colorado Legislature during the 2012 legislative session. The READ Act repeals the Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) as of July 1, 2013, keeping many of the elements of CBLA such as a focus on K-3 literacy, assessment, and individual plans for students reading below grade level. The READ Act differs from CBLA by focusing on students identified as having a significant reading deficiency, delineating requirements for parent communication, and providing funding to support intervention. Other components of the Colorado READ Act include a competitive Early Literacy Grant and a resource bank of assessments, instructional programming, and professional development.

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READ Act Resources: 

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News:

August 15, 2018
READ Plan Working Group 

CDE has opened an application process to participate in a READ Plan working group.  Applications will be accepted through Friday, August 24.  Click here to apply.  Applicants will be asked to provide a current resume.

This spring, a bill was passed making changes to the READ Act including the creation a working group to study the creation and use of READ plans.  The working group will be formed under the direction of the Commissioner and will work through early 2019 to study and recommend changes to improve the use and effectiveness of individual READ plans. Once the working group completes its work, the Commissioner will submit a report of the recommendations to the State Board and the education committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The working group will be comprised of educators, parents, principals, district leaders, and literacy experts and will be selected to represent districts from across the state.  The group will also include educators with expertise in special populations.

The working group will be convened virtually in September and will continue to meet regularly (bi-monthly or quarterly) through December 2019 to complete its work, and members will be provided travel reimbursement and, if applicable, substitute cost reimbursement.

For more information, contact Melissa Colsman at colsman_m@cde.state.co.us or 303-866-6737.

May 22, 2018
2018 READ Conference

The Office of Literacy along with the Exceptional Student Services Unit at CDE will be hosting our fourth annual READing Conference on Thursday and Friday, September 27^th and 28^th, 2018.

• This conference is designed to support the implementation of evidence based reading instruction. 
• The target audience is K-3 educators including general education teachers, special education specialists, reading coaches, reading interventionists, English Language Development specialists, principals and school leadership teams.
• The focus of the conference will be on direct and explicit instruction for all students including:  English Learners, emerging readers and struggling readers.
• Our speakers this year include:
  • Anita Archer - focusing on the magic of instruction delivery and design, vocabulary development and reading fluency
  • Elsa Cardenas Hagen - focusing on English Learners and literacy development, vocabulary development as well as spelling and writing development. 
  • Lucy Hart Paulson  - focusing on our early learners with alphabet learning and evidence based approaches as well as direct and explicit instruction that is developmentally appropriate
  • William Van Cleave - focusing on vocabulary development for all learners as well as sentence to paragraph writing and the motor component of handwriting and keyboarding
  • Linda Farrell - focusing on leveled and decodable readers and other strategies to support reading in the K-3 grade range