The Colorado Department of Education today announced the launch of registration for its 2025-26 school year professional learning cohorts. These year-long learning cohorts provide opportunities for district leaders, school leaders, and educators from across the state to learn about and share best practices in improving student outcomes on such subjects as chronic absenteeism, helping connect rural leadership and special education support.
“We’re pleased to launch these new learning cohorts, recognizing that some of the best ideas in education come from educators learning and working together,” said Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova. “As author David Weinberger put it: ‘The smartest person in the room is the room.’ These cohorts are designed to draw on that collective insight and support educators in making meaningful progress for students across Colorado.”
In the 2024-25 school year, more than 350 leaders from 78 school districts, BOCES, and charter schools participated in 60 learning cohort sessions on chronic absenteeism, community schools, special education, student behavior, rural leadership, and new arrival support.
The department’s cohorts for the 2025-26 school year are designed for school, district, and BOCES leaders. The year-long sessions will focus on bilingual leadership, chronic absenteeism, elementary English language arts leadership, nontraditional teachers, and rural leadership partnerships.
“It was a very worthwhile and excellent experience,” said Kenny Davis, principal of Washington Elementary School from Lamar School District RE-2, who participated in the rural leadership and special education cohorts last year. “Honestly, this is the best training experience I have had in a long time.”
The 2025-26 cohorts will begin meeting in September, and cohort applications are on the CDE website. The department anticipates having limited seats for each of the five cohorts, and the deadline to apply is Aug. 30.
