Category Archives: Grades and Standards

I may be young, but I didn’t fall off the apple cart yesterday (or however that expression goes). In fact, your little Eddie sometimes is way ahead of the curve on local education issues. Take Colorado’s emerging debate over Common Core Standards: Been there, done that. Six weeks after I first brought your attention to the concerns raised by State Board of Education member Peggy Littleton, the Denver Post comes through with a front-page story this morning: A backlash over national education reforms is growing in Colorado, with some school leaders rejecting what they call a federal intrusion into the classroom. The piece by Jeremy Meyer not only highlights Littleton’s efforts and some statements made by U.S. Senate candidates Jane Norton and Ken Buck, but it also zooms in on one of the state’s smallest school districts out on the Eastern Plains:

Is the United States headed down a primrose path to national education standards? A couple weeks ago I brought your attention to the televised version of that debate going on here in Colorado. Of course, there’s been a terrific back-and-forth between the Fordham Institute’s Mike Petrilli and the University of Arkansas’s Jay Greene. The latest blast comes from the Heritage Foundation’s Jennifer Marshall, who questions exactly how “voluntary” the Common Core Standards are and notes that two new states — Minnesota and Virginia — are bowing out of Race to the Top over just such concerns. We’re heading into the heart of summer, which means it may not be near the top of your priority list or even on your radar screen. But I encourage you to stay tuned and get involved in this important debate, for the sake of kids like me.

(H/T Colorado Charters) Newsweek magazine has released its annual list of “America’s best high schools,” and Lafayette’s Peak to Peak Charter School tops the competition in the state with a 35th ranking nationally. The next closest from Colorado are Niwot High School at #180, Boulder’s Fairview High School at #201, and Lakewood High School at #228. But does the list really capture “America’s best high schools”? Two years ago one of the Ed News Colorado bloggers correctly pointed out the weaknesses and limitations that would omit the Denver School of Science and Technology, for example, from this list. And Newsweek‘s methodology hasn’t changed since then. Take the news for what it’s worth. Peak to Peak Charter School is doing something right by encouraging lots of its students to take classes of the challenging Advanced Placement variety. But it’s really stretching the matter to say definitively that it’s one of the 35 best high schools in the nation.

Harvard University professor Dr. Paul Peterson, along with colleague Carlos Xabel Lastra-Anadón, has unveiled some new research that underscores one of the top untold Colorado education stories of recent years. The issue is how high are states setting the bar to measure student learning in the basic subjects of reading and math–also known as “performance standards.” The findings? Since 2007 states have raised the bar a bit on reading performance standards but have made no improvement with math. Essentially every state “deems more students ‘proficient’ on its own assessments than NAEP [the National Assessment of Educational Progress] does.” The researchers measured the strength of a state’s performance standards by how well the state’s proficiency ratings in various subject tests match up with the “gold standard” NAEP test.

Last week I introduced you to a new iVoices podcast with Peggy Littleton from the State Board of Education raising legitimate concerns about Race to the Top and a slide toward national standards. Last week, Littleton joined state senator Michael Johnston on an episode of Jon Caldara’s show Devil’s Advocate to discuss both Senate Bill 191 and the Race to the Top requirement to sign on to Common Core standards. Check out the YouTube playlist for a great debate! The compelling give-and-take on Devil’s Advocate is a microcosm of a larger national debate playing out. Checker Finn from the Fordham Institute is all for the reform, saying the newly-released Common Core Standards are “better than ever.” But education experts from the Heritage Foundation disagree, saying it puts us on a path to standardizing mediocrity, while the venerable Dr. Jay Greene continues his strong compelling case against Common Core. What can I say? Tune in, get informed and get involved in the debate to determine who sets academic standards for Colorado.

Not too long ago I wrote about my Education Policy Center friends’ visit to Adams School District 50 for the Standards-Based Education tour. Some seem to have taken the posting as an unqualified enthusiastic endorsement of the district’s SBS program, or maybe they thought I was being too one-sided and generous with praise. The intent was to provide a descriptive summary of what my friends saw from the official tour. Okay, though, I own up for not making it clearer, and maybe I gave the district too much benefit of the doubt. But that’s also what happens when my friends let a 5-year-old do their blogging for them. (Not that I don’t like doing it, I’m just saying….) Anyway, a few facts are plain: 1) Adams 50’s SBS system is new and untested. 2) Buy-in from schools and teachers certainly isn’t universal across the district, and implementation has been rough — at least at times. 3) Test results so far haven’t been encouraging.

I’ve written plenty about Colorado’s ongoing quest for Race to the Top federal education grant money. I’ve noted both the promise and the peril within this pursuit. But one issue I have yet to highlight is the Race to the Top requirement that states sign on to the Common Core Standards. In a new iVoices podcast, Colorado State Board of Education member Peggy Littleton explains how the pull of federal money threatens to lead us down a path towards national testing and curriculum, undermining local control and in some cases watering down the quality of standards. Follow this link or click the play button below to listen:

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or so it seems. The article in today’s Denver Post, headlined “Nearly one in three Colo. graduates needs remedial courses in college, study finds”, almost could have appeared the year before … or two years ago … or the year before that. To be exact, the new report from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (PDF) finds that 29.3 percent of Colorado’s 2008 high school graduates who attended a Colorado two-year or four-year college needed formal remedial help in math, reading and/or writing. Six years ago my Education Policy Center friend Marya DeGrow completed an issue paper on the same topic, titled Cutting Back on Catching Up (PDF). Using the same CCHE data, she noted that 26.6 percent of Colorado’s 2002 high school graduates needed remediation — at a cost of $18.9 million to the state of Colorado and $15.4 million to the college students themselves.

For the last few years at least, Colorado students have been on an upward trend in their demonstrated math skills. Today the U.S. Department of Education released state-by-state scores for 4th and 8th grade math. NAEP scores are considered the gold standard for comparing academic success among states — especially in the subjects of math and reading. That’s why the test results are often referred to as “the nation’s report card.” In 2005, 39 percent of Colorado 4th graders rated as proficient in math — increasing slightly to 41 percent in 2007 and jumping to 45 percent in the latest results. For 8th graders over the same time span, proficiency rose from 32 percent to 37 and now to 40. A long ways to go, but still moving in right direction. While both scores remain above the national average, Colorado 4th graders also are beating the national trend on growth. (I wonder how close I am to being considered proficient on the 4th grade NAEP math test? Or the 8th grade test, for that matter?) While scores generally are flat nationwide, the Flypaper blog’s Mike Petrilli notes a bright spot in the nation’s capital. Petrilli says D.C.’s positive gains (though […]

Last year I told you about the remarkable education reform success story in Florida. The elements of this success can be traced to a comprehensive set of policy changes made while Jeb Bush was governor, including: School accountability Student accountability Private school choice Scientific-based literacy instruction Alternative teacher certification In a comprehensive article for the Summer 2009 edition of Education Next, Matt Ladner and Dan Lips explain exactly what Florida did to make dramatic gains on 4th grade national test scores. Perhaps more importantly, they take on critiques from those who say the scores are misleading because of social promotion policies or can somehow be attributed to other education initiatives voters approved: universal preschool and class size reduction. Check out the article.