The Cortez School District Gets Good News

By Mike Lynch

MCSD RE-1 school board Director

District G

On September 10 the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) released the results of their District Performance Framework ratings for all districts in the state.  The Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 (MCSD) improved significantly for the second year in a row.  Additionally, MCSD is no longer “on watch”.  For the two school years ending 2023 and 2024 this District has achieved an Accreditation Rating of Improvement, something that has happened only once going back to 2009 according to CDE data.  From 2009 to 2015 the data does not include percentage points but from 2016 to 2022 the percentage points ranged from 36.4 to 43.3.  The percentage points in 2022 were 39.2%.  In 2023 the District beat the high by attaining 46.8%.  That was a 19% improvement over the previous year.  Then in 2024 the District made another stepwise improvement to attain 51.2%.  That was a 9% improvement over the previous year.  In these past two years MCSD has achieved scores higher than any year back to at least 2009.  That seems huge in my book.

School Performance Frameworks ratings have also been released.  They reveal why the District ratings went up. 

To review the improvements of 2023; all 5 public schools in the District raised their percentage points significantly, one school dropped by one plan type, but three schools achieved an improvement of two plan types higher than previous.

For 2024 three of five schools improved their percentage points significantly, and three schools achieved an improvement of one plan type higher than previous.  One school dropped by one plan type.

Congratulations go out to the District staff who did the work to make this happen, and to District leadership who questioned the status quo enough to implement bold new protocols having the potential for significantly better results.  The bottom line is that the MCSD has delivered improved outcomes for our students in 2022/23 and 2023/24.

The report is available on the CDE website at www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/performanceframeworks.