The House Education Committee advanced two bills to the Committee on Appropriations with favorable recommendations — HB 26-1028, creating statewide pathways for Seal of Biliteracy and Seal of Bilingualism endorsements, and HB 26-1006, creating a 'thriving institutions' designation for higher education based on student outcomes. Both bills passed over fiscal-note objections from a minority of members.
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Andrea Caulfield (Denver Public Schools) argued the bill's 'proficiency or higher' standard is imprecise because 'proficiency is a scale' and proposed specifying 'intermediate mid proficiency' aligned with ACTFL benchmarks, while also arguing that GPA and AP course completion are subjective and AP is restricted to a small number of languages targeting college-bound students; Rep. Garcia acknowledged the concern and committed to addressing it through second-reading amendments but did not adopt changes in committee.
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“Colorado serves over 114,000 multilingual students, but only 55 out of 179 school districts offer the seal of biliteracy. Access and recognition depends on where a student goes to school, not what they do or can do.”
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Sign in to subscribeYou will come to order. Mr. Beck, please call the roll. Representatives Bacon. Excused. Bradfield. Here. Flannel. Excused. Garcia. Sander. Present. Gilchrist. Excused. Amrick. Here. Johnson. Excused. Phillips. Yes. Stuart. Kay. Here. Story. Excused. Weinberg. Here. Martinez. Here. Madam Chair. Here. Okay. Today we are hearing two bills. We do have translating services, interpretation services. Thank you. Interpretation services. For those that are interested, we can talk to the gentleman in the back corner. And Today we're hearing two bills, House Bill 1028 and 1506. And our bill sponsors for 1028 are here. Rep. Velasco. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And thank you, Education Committee. I am very happy and thrilled to bring this bill with Rep. Garcia to address an issue of bilingual students are dealing with. Currently, we have students who clearly meet the skill level for biliteracy or bilingualism, but they cannot access recognition simply because their school doesn't offer it. Colorado serves over 114,000 multilingual students, but only 55 out of 179 school districts offer the seal of biliteracy. Access and recognition depends on where a student goes to school, not what they do or can do. I was very excited to be part of…
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