Connect for Success Program

Connect for Success is a Colorado Department of Education grant and direct support opportunity developed from the department's High Achieving Schools study. The original 2014 study examined five high achieving elementary schools based on overall performance and outcomes for English Learners, students with disabilities, students experiencing poverty, and minority students. School and local education agency leadership, personnel, families, and students participated in surveys, focus groups, and interviews to identify practices associated with stronger academic achievement. Four additional high achieving schools were added to the study in 2018, including a rural elementary school, middle school, high school, and alternative education campus. Connect for Success uses findings from this work to help eligible schools learn from and replicate effective High Achieving Schools practices. Participating schools receive a diagnostic visit and a report containing recommendations from a Colorado Department of Education team. Grantees participate in a kickoff meeting where they hear from High Achieving Schools leaders, connect with those schools, and subsequently visit a High Achieving School to observe effective practices in person. Each participating school identifies or hires an Implementation Coach who works with a CDE Implementation Manager. Following the diagnostic review, the school and CDE prioritize improvement areas, develop an implementation plan, monitor progress using a Connect for Success progress monitoring tool, and build on improvement efforts through High Achieving School visits. Eligible applicants are schools identified for improvement under ESSA as Comprehensive Support, Targeted Support, or Additional Targeted Support and/or schools with a state School Performance Framework plan type of Priority Improvement, Turnaround, or On Watch. If all eligible EASI proposals cannot be funded, proposals meeting grant expectations are funded according to the EASI school-level prioritization list, with schools receiving the highest number of prioritization points funded first. Capacity is also limited by CDE staffing, active sites from previous cohorts, site needs, geography, and availability of staff. The program is not considered a good fit for schools that completed Exploration Supports in the prior two years, schools currently supported by Accountability Pathways or in Year 3 or later on the state Accountability Clock, schools currently supported by or recently completing Transformation Network, and online schools or other schools with unique program models. Program support is designed for 2.5 years, covering 2025-26 through 2027-28. Applicants may request up to $20,000 per school in Year 1, up to $80,000 per school in Year 2, and up to $80,000 per school in Year 3, for a maximum stated multi-year amount of $180,000 per school. For application submission, applicants should use placeholder budget lines of $20,000, $80,000, and $80,000 for the respective fiscal years. A detailed budget and plan are jointly developed with CDE after the spring site visit and diagnostic review. Applicants may include indirect costs using the district's restricted indirect cost rate, but the total request including indirect costs cannot exceed the maximum award. Indirect costs are allowed only on federal awards and must be removed during post-award revision if the grantee receives a state award. No cost-share or matching requirement is stated. Grant funds must supplement and not supplant federal, state, and local funds already supporting activities. Post-award revisions must be submitted and approved in the online system before expenses are incurred and must be approved by June 30. Federal funds must be obligated by September 30 and requested by November 1 of the applicable fiscal year, while state funds must be obligated by June 30 of the final grant year. Carryforward may be permitted in accordance with funding-source restrictions and CDE approval. Unrequested federal funds revert at the end of the performance period, and unspent state funds must be returned. Future-year awards depend on state and federal allocations to CDE, and CDE may terminate an award with 30 days notice if program requirements are not being fulfilled or results are less than satisfactory. The program schedule identifies September through December for discussions with a CDE School Transformation Manager about interest and a proposed budget, with the application due in December and award notifications in January. A kickoff meeting occurs in February or March, diagnostic school visits and recommendations occur from February through April after revisions, collaborative planning, goal setting, and budget development occur in May, and the school submits the next year's plan, budget, and baseline monitoring indicators in June. August includes planning and learning opportunities for grantees. The source does not provide an exact calendar-day application deadline, an application opening date, a formal pre-application gating requirement, or an explicit statement that the grant recurs annually. Grantees must participate in evaluation and progress monitoring that includes diagnostic review information, parent surveys, personnel surveys, observation or walkthrough data, interviews, an implementation plan, implementation data when available, quarterly progress monitoring reports, and an annual Final Expenditure Report in GAINS by September 30. LEAs, school leaders, and teachers also undertake specified commitments involving implementation coaching, instructional rounds and walkthroughs, data analysis, professional development, monitoring, fiscal management, and implementation of High Achieving Schools practices. Program contacts are Laura Meushaw, Supervisor of Program Implementation, Federal Programs and Supports, at 720-728-9023 and Meushaw_M@cde.state.co.us, and Christina Adeboye Sullivan, Program Implementation Coordinator, at 720-498-2252 and Adeboye-Sullivan_C@cde.state.co.us.

Demonstrate readiness and willingness to rethink current strategies and practices using High Achieving Schools practices; confirm that the school meets the stated eligibility and program-fit conditions; align planning with recommendations from the CDE diagnostic review; use the required placeholder budget amounts without exceeding annual maximums; recognize that EASI prioritization points and CDE service capacity may determine which qualifying proposals are supported.