When Colorado's Tenure Reform Bill, House Bill 1159, was signed into law, the work of teachers was not significantly changed. However, the law did make some significant inroads in the work of administrators and streamlined the due process accorded to teachers in the event that dismissal becomes necessary. This paper addresses whether the legislative process worked in 1990 to bring about a policy that significantly changed education, and whether the problem-definition step in the policy-formulation process was the key piece to facilitating effective policy. Drawing from John Kingdon's (1984) conceptual framework of policy formulation, the paper examines the evolution of the tenure problem, the intensification of the problem, the opening of the policy window, the actions of key players, special interest agendas, the formulation of the policy, and finally, the lessons that can be learned from the process. A conclusion is that, in the past, policy-formulation models described policy as a process comprised of four steps: (1) general awareness; (2) generation of alternatives to solve the problem; (3) formulation of a solution; and (4) justification of the solution. Findings of this study suggest that the success of this model depends on several critical aspects. A revised problem-definition policy-formulation model and its specific stages is outlined. (LMI)