Category Archives: Education Politics

I bet you didn’t know it’s Teacher Appreciation Week. As we near the end of the year for most Colorado schools, it’s a perfectly fitting time to show your appreciation to your teacher, your child’s teacher or some other important teacher in your life. Why else is it fitting? It’s also THE week in the Colorado House of Representatives for Senate Bill 191, the Great Teachers and Leaders bill. Important policy questions about teacher quality that will have profound impacts on Colorado schools and classrooms will be decided this week. Some teachers come down on one side of SB 191, and some on the other. But as I pointed out on Monday, only one side gets tax funding to argue its case. Another favor you can do to show appreciation to Colorado teachers at least is to point them to the information on the Independent Teachers website, so they can make the best informed decisions about their professional memberships and the uses of their funds for political purposes. Information teachers and other education employees in our state can use all year long. Whatever you do, I hope you don’t end up saying “Screw Teacher Appreciation Week.”

A couple weeks ago I brought your attention to the fact that it was THE week for Senate Bill 191, the monumental effort to reform Colorado’s teacher evaluation and tenure system. Well, now that THE week is over and the bill passed the senate, this week really is THE week — as it goes up for a critical House Education Committee vote on Thursday. In the meantime, the heated debate over SB 191 has brought attention back to a locally-negotiated special perk for many teachers unions — tax-funded release time from the classroom for teachers to lobby against the bill. I have asked the question before: Where is the accountability for school employee union leave activities? In an op-ed published three (count ’em, three) places since Friday, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow says the latest experience with release time to rally against SB 191 makes the issue as relevant and as significant as ever. Take your pick:

Happy Earth Day. Remember a couple weeks ago when I told you how parents here in Colorado and elsewhere could help put Earth Day education back into balance? The nice lady Carrie Lukas explained it all on an iVoices podcast. Well, since we posted the information, a couple Colorado parents have chimed in with their stories on the Balanced Education for Everyone website. Here’s what a dad named Kevin from Denver had to say: It’s about time this topic is approached in our schools. My kids come home and I usually have to reeducate them about what they have learned in school that day. The liberal attention global warming attracts in schools needs to change. As a father of three, I am rallying for a balanced education in the classroom. Also, a Littleton parent spoke out:

As far as education reform issues go, this year’s Colorado legislative session has been kind of humdrum. Until now. Yes, this week is THE week. Senate Bill 191 — the proposal I’ve told you about that will overhaul our state’s evaluation and tenure system for the better — will be heard in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday and Thursday. If you’re not too familiar with SB 191, or you want a better sense of what exactly it will do and which groups are lining up to support or oppose the bill, then click the play button below (or follow this link) to listen to lead sponsor Senator Michael Johnston, D-Denver, discuss it with Ben DeGrow on a new iVoices podcast: Stay tuned. My Education Policy Center friends and I have just begun to cover this issue. (And if there happens to be another “THE week” after this one, don’t blame me for my youthful exuberance and excitement.

The Colorado state legislature has been in session for three months now (only one more to go!), and finally we get to the excitement of debating a truly significant education reform bill. With Democratic state senator Michael Johnston at the forefront, the newly introduced Senate Bill 191 (PDF) would overhaul our state’s teacher evaluation and tenure system for the better. Here’s a strong flavor of what the legislation proposes to do: Key provisions of the bill include annual teacher and principal evaluations, with teacher evaluations to be based 50 percent on student growth and principal evaluations based two-thirds on student growth and the demonstrated effectiveness of a principal’s teachers. The bill also would require that tenure be earned after three consecutive years of effectiveness as determined by evaluations. Tenured teachers could be returned to probation if they don’t have good evaluations for two years. The bill also would require the mutual consent for placement of teachers in specific schools and establishes procedures for handling teachers who aren’t placed. It also specifies that evaluations can be considered when layoffs are made.

Easter is just over, and I’m still working on all that candy. So it’s hard to think about another holiday coming up soon. But in two weeks it will be Earth Day (April 22). What does that have to do with education? Well, a nice smart lady from the Independent Women’s Forum named Carrie Lukas wants you parents out there to be alert to what will take place in your child’s classroom for Earth Day. Click the play button below (or follow this link) to hear Carrie explain why our public school classrooms need to bring Earth Day education into balance and what parents can help to do about it, in a 9-minute iVoices podcast with my Education Policy Center friend Pam Benigno: How much does the scare tactic approach to environmentalism go on in Colorado schools? I don’t know for sure, but I’d be naive to believe it doesn’t happen. Colorado parents, what are you waiting for? Do you need some more information, resources or inspiration from kids and parents who are already standing up for balanced learning over one-sided alarmism? Then I urge you to visit the special website Balanced Education for Everyone. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time […]

Update: Correction made to quote below, per Jeremy Meyer. Colorado faced a disappointing setback earlier this week with the first round awards announced for Race to the Top. It hurt not only that our state wasn’t one of the top two winners, but that we ended up a dismal 14th out of 16 finalists. Today brings a little more hope, though, and you wouldn’t be an April fool for believing it. First, the Denver Post‘s Jeremy Meyer blogs on a great catch: Colorado had the largest differential between reviewer scores than any other applicant among the final 16 finalists for the first round of Race to the Top money. Colorado had the second-largest differential between reviewer scores among the final 16 finalists for the first round of Race to the Top money. More specifically, one reviewer rated Colorado just a hair behind first-place Delaware, while another reviewer rated Colorado 117 points lower, essentially “in 28th place behind California.” Whoa! But if you believe the latter score was an outlier, then maybe winning a Round 2 award is within reach. Let’s follow the lead of the other winning state Tennessee. Our state could pass a new law that overhauls teacher tenure […]

It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and the big news in the education world? Colorado didn’t win any Race to the Top (RTT) federal grant money the first time around. Since only two awards were given out — Delaware and Tennessee of all places were the winners — there should be lots of money left over for Round 2 (applications due June 1). Depending on how you look at it, the news is good and bad. From the standpoint of demonstrating seriousness about advancing real reform, the fact that only two states won suggests the U.S. Department of Education was trying to hold to some kind of selective standard. But just what the standard might be has some rightly concerned. Andy Smarick — about the most trusted expert in evaluating RTT applications I’ve seen — had Delaware and Tennessee ranked 4th and 5th, respectively. He notes, however, that the two winners “distinguished themselves with good plans and nearly unanimous union and LEA support.” They beat out higher-ranked Florida, Louisiana and Rhode Island, which had stronger plans but more opposition from entrenched in-state education groups. The venerable Dr. Jay Greene elaborates on the consequences: If people know that union […]

My parents have been acting kind of gloomy recently. You know, the whole nasty, arrogant government takeover of health care by Congress and the President. It might be part of the reason I didn’t put up anything on my blog yesterday. Things have started to cheer up a bit, though, since mom and dad learned there is something they can do to help defend our own Colorado from Obama Care. But that’s not the main reason I’m writing. It is instead to point out one small overlooked aspect of this whole health care debate that has to do with education and teachers. Flash back to last August and this important (and still relevant) posting from Independent Teachers: …If you were a full-time member of the National Education Association (NEA) through joining your local teachers union, then you sent money during the 2007-08 school year to support the current proposal from Congress and President Obama to promote socialized medicine.

Are great teachers just born that way, or is there a proven method to train many instructors to become much more effective? In one of the most fascinating (and longest) education articles out there, Elizabeth Green wrote in the New York Times Sunday magazine about “Building a Better Teacher.” The experts she talked to suggest that the answer may be the latter, that there are specific methods and techniques (and a new vocabulary of teaching terms) that can be used more successfully train high-quality instructors. However, over at Education Next, Harvard’s Paul Peterson says one of Green’s key conclusions is misguided: …She says we will need millions of additional teachers to cover baby boom retirements, and wonders how we can find enough good ones. The answer is that we can’t–not even with more effective education schools or elaborate merit pay programs or by ruthlessly dismissing ineffective teachers.