Category Archives: Innovation and Reform

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 […]

Yesterday brought news from the U.S. Department of Education of the new state-by-state NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) scores in 4th and 8th grade reading. These tests are the gold standard for comparing student performance between states and over time. The big headlines note that in the short term (since 2007) the nation’s reading scores stayed flat in 4th grade and ticked up slightly in 8th grade. In the long term (going back to the first comparable tests in 1998), the results are exactly the opposite: with 4th grade scores going up modestly and 8th grade scores essentially remaining the same. Colorado’s achievement at both grade levels remains above the national average, but continues to track at about the same level of progress. The real long-term winner is still the state of Florida — which, as Matthew Ladner reports on Jay Greene’s blog, not only is boosting student performance across the board but also cutting the achievement gaps based on race and poverty.

Back before Christmastime, I told you about the promising work going on in the once-troubled Cole Arts and Science Academy in Denver, thanks to its newfound liberating status as an Innovation School. Well … freedom and autonomy lend themselves not only to innovation but also toward groundbreaking partnerships not nearly as likely to take place in the traditional public K-12 school system. Determined to place their mostly poor students on a track of college success, Cole parents and leaders recently have reached out to the Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) charter school as a potential partner.

Yesterday my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow appeared on a National Public Radio station in the Carbondale / Aspen area to talk about some of the pressing education issues facing our state. Follow this link to listen to his interview with Matthew Katz of KDNK. For more on the topics Ben references in his interview, check out these past posts of mine: National Council on Teacher Quality Affirms Me on Race to the Top “Sweet 16” Too Many Finalists, Race to the Top Winners Get “One Shining Moment”? How to Push Ben DeGrow’s Buttons in Making Arguments about School Funding iVoices: Superintendent Mike Miles on Real Teacher Performance Pay in Harrison Ben tells me that he was selected for the interview because the KDNK reporter was intrigued by my writings here. I asked Ben for a cut of the money he got for doing the interview, or I might have to resort to kicking his shins or something like that. I’m not sure I should believe him, but Ben said he didn’t make a cent for doing the interview. Oh well, at least KDNK gave a shout-out to Ed Is Watching — even if they let Ben pretend and […]

I’ve talked so much about Race to the Top, you might have gotten the idea it’s the only big federal education grant competition taking place right now. If so, you’d be wrong. While it’s not as big as Race to the Top and that program’s $5 billion potential to leverage reform at the state level, this month opens up a $650 million U.S. Department of Education program called Investing in Innovation (i3), available to local education agencies and/or non-profit groups:

No need for me to rehash my concerns about Governor Bill Ritter’s Council on Educator Effectiveness. My views hardly have changed over the weekend. But since I have to wake up on a Monday morning, the only thing better than a snow day is seeing my views validated by an important expert group like the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). They just released a report on the 16 Race to the Top finalist states, analyzing their proposals on the “Great Teachers and Leaders” section — which just so happens to be the weightiest single piece of RTT. The report, titled Navigating the Race to the Top Traffic Jam (PDF), uses traffic signal lights to describe whether a state deserves to Go forward on its reform plan, to Proceed with Caution, or to Stop and try again.

Ed News Colorado has a story about yesterday’s first meeting of Governor Bill Ritter’s Council for Educator Effectiveness: Thursday’s session, held at the Lowry headquarters of the state Community College System, was the usual first-meeting mix of introductions, setting expectations and deciding on a future meeting schedule. The introductions gave some hints of how individual members are approaching the 18-month assignment. “It’s always the adults who find it hardest to change.” – Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, who welcomed the group but isn’t a member

Ed News Colorado reports from yesterday’s State Board meeting about the state of school buildings: Colorado schools have $17.8 billion in maintenance and renovation needs over the next eight years, according to a statewide schools facilities study released Wednesday. The study, required as part of the 2008 Building Excellent Schools Today law, was the first-ever comprehensive structural review of 8,419 buildings, from large classroom buildings to sheds. The $17.8 billion estimate covers only what the study calls Tier I buildings – basically those used for instruction. The study found those buildings need $9.4 billion of deferred maintenance work between now and 2013. An additional $13.9 billion is needed for energy and educational suitability projects. A final $3.9 billion in work is estimated to be necessary from 2014-18.

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.

I pause from my regularly scheduled juvenile opining to acknowledge the passing of someone who gave many years of service to the state of Colorado — including many on behalf of public education. He and I wouldn’t have agreed on every issue, but there’s no doubt he was independent in thought, well-informed in his views, and passionate in his work. I’m talking about former Arvada state senator Al Meiklejohn, who died Monday at age 86 and will be put to final rest today. As reported in this week’s Denver Post obituary, Meiklejohn served six years on the Jefferson County Board of Education and “constantly pushed for public-school reform and better salaries for teachers.” For his service he has a Jeffco elementary school named after him. You know Senator Meiklejohn was a man of influence and stature when in the week of his death he has received such high praise from two very different sides of the education spectrum.