The Colorado Governor’s Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) publishes the results of evaluations funded by the grant program on its website each year. OSPB also publishes annual guidance to state departments requiring the use of data and evidence in the state’s budget process. It also provides definitions for key research and evaluation terms and “encourages agencies to use the evidence continuum outside the budget process as a means to evaluate programming internally, and to guide discussions with OSPB analysts and internal and external stakeholders.” With the large influx of the America Rescue Plan Act (ARP), OSPB has applied the evidence continuum as a cornerstone of its decision making process to ensure the strongest outcomes for residents.

To align the guidance and definitions across the executive and legislative branches, the Colorado state legislature passed a law in 2021 that establishes a set of evidence-based definitions, aligned with the OSPB evidence continuum, to be used when analyzing a program or practice. The law further requires the joint budget committee staff to “independently analyze and describe the program or practice using the definitions and to include any evidence-based information as part of any recommendation it makes regarding a budget request or budget amendment request.”

The Colorado Department of Higher Education (CDHE) developed a research agenda to inform education and training policies and programs. Data sharing is required by Colorado law among the Department of Education, Department of Labor, and Department of Economic Development, which collectively generate research covering the education-to-workforce continuum.