Empowering Action for School Improvement - Exploration Supports

Exploration Supports is a route within the Colorado Department of Education's Empowering Action for School Improvement application. The route is designed to help local education agencies and eligible schools identify needs and explore improvement options through external diagnostic reviews, stakeholder engagement, improvement planning, and potential early implementation. Exploration Supports may focus broadly on a school system or on particular student populations, content areas, or school models, including English Learners, Alternative Education Campuses, and online schools. Applications are reviewed for readiness and fit rather than scored through a traditional competitive points-based process. If requests exceed available funding, the department uses its EASI school-level prioritization process. The program includes four closely connected components: diagnostic review, stakeholder engagement, improvement planning, and early implementation. Diagnostic options include a Holistic Diagnostic Review, Alternative Education Campus and Online Review, Language Learner Partnership, and District Strategic Planning. Holistic reviews use a CDE-approved and trained external partner to conduct an evidence-based examination organized around the Colorado Four Domains for Rapid School Improvement and provide a report and staff debrief. Stakeholder engagement funds can support approved providers and costs such as substitutes, stipends, copying, translation services, childcare, food for community events, and travel. Improvement planning may address data gathering, student performance analysis, performance challenges, root causes, target setting, action planning, and progress monitoring. Award amounts vary according to the services and type of support selected. A school-level award with a Holistic Review and external-provider Improvement Planning is $80,000, allocated as $25,000 for review, $10,000 for stakeholder engagement, $25,000 for improvement planning, and $20,000 for early implementation. A school-level award using a CDE-provided Specialized Review is $42,000. District-level Specialized Review awards are $55,000. District Strategic Planning awards range from $80,000 to $150,000 depending on district size, identification status, and the number of schools identified for improvement. Program support is designed for an 18-month period spanning 2025-26 through 2026-27. Indirect costs may be included using the district's restricted indirect cost rate when permitted, but the total request may not exceed the maximum allowable award. Indirect costs are allowed only on federal awards and must be removed during post-award revision if the grantee receives a state award. Funds must supplement rather than supplant existing federal, state, and local funds. Eligible schools are those 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. District eligibility is based on school eligibility, and a district must have at least one school meeting these criteria. If available funds cannot support all proposals meeting program expectations, funding is prioritized according to the EASI school-level prioritization list, with schools having the highest number of prioritization points funded first. District-level requests use the average prioritization of the applicable EASI-eligible schools. Capacity may further limit CDE-provided Alternative Education Campus and Online Reviews and Language Learner Partnership services. For application submission, the budget should address diagnostic review, stakeholder engagement, improvement planning, and early implementation, although general placeholders are permitted for activities that will be determined from the diagnostic review. Expenses involving an external provider require an applicant-specific scope of work identifying timelines, deliverables, and costs; generic provider scopes are not sufficient. For a Holistic Diagnostic Review, the external partner must be selected before submission and the scope of work uploaded with the application. When an external provider facilitates multiple Exploration components, schools are strongly encouraged to limit provider costs to no more than $60,000 so that at least $20,000 remains available for early implementation. Early implementation activities should not be included in the provider's scope of work. Access to awarded early implementation funds requires submission of the final Diagnostic Review report, an updated Unified Improvement Plan reflecting the review and stakeholder input, and a revised budget for evidence-based implementation strategies. The program timeline identifies September through December for discussions with a CDE School Transformation Manager and development of a proposed budget, with the application due in December and award notifications scheduled for January. External diagnostic reviews are generally completed February through April, stakeholder engagement occurs February through August, and improvement planning and goal setting occur May through August. From September through June of the following year, schools that have completed the preceding work may begin early implementation. Grantees must incorporate review findings into the school's Unified Improvement Plan and submit a Final Expenditure Report in GAINS each fiscal year by September 30. Federal funds must be obligated by September 30 and requested by November 1 of the respective fiscal year; state funds must be obligated by June 30 of the final grant year. Post-award revisions must be approved before expenses are incurred and all such revisions must be approved by June 30. The program contact identified for Exploration Supports is Lauren Hesse, School Improvement Specialist in School Improvement and Planning, at Hesse_L@cde.state.co.us and (720) 737-3205. District Strategic Planning funding questions are directed to Sam Schneider at Schneider_S@cde.state.co.us. The source identifies an application due month of December but does not provide an exact calendar day, application opening date, or an explicit statement that Exploration Supports automatically recurs annually. Accordingly, no unsupported exact application deadline or recurrence schedule is supplied.

Demonstrate readiness and fit for Exploration Supports; align diagnostic review, stakeholder engagement, and improvement planning; use an applicant-specific scope of work rather than a generic provider document; align stakeholder engagement, improvement planning, and early implementation expenses with diagnostic review recommendations; keep the total request within the applicable maximum award.