Category Archives: Parents

Colorado’s legislative bid to enhance early literacy is getting some national attention. The bipartisan House Bill 1238 enlists parents and educators to focus on interventions for struggling readers in the early grades and requires the local superintendent to sign off before a non-proficient reader can advance past 3rd grade. My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow was sought out for comment by American Family Radio News reporter Bob Kellogg: “Something needs to be done to provide consequences and hold schools accountable for helping students learn to read,” he says, “because if students just keep getting passed up through the system and graduate without those skills, we’re not preparing them well for life.” Also in the story, Ben highlights the success Florida has experienced by cutting back severely on 3rd grade social promotion. Indeed, research by Jay Greene and Marcus Winters shows the average student held back for extra reading help gained more than a half-year’s learning proficiency on struggling students who were pushed up through the system. HB 1238 isn’t exactly the same, nor quite as strong, as Florida’s law. But it does represent a significantly positive step.

One of the strengths I’ve touted about the charter school model is the greater flexibility to close down poor performers. In fact, it’s pretty rare for a charter to enter the “turnaround” process instead of being shuttered. But that’s what happened in 2010 with Denver’s Northeast Academy, having suffered through a healthy share of turmoil. The school district authorizer, Denver Public Schools, then signed a three-year contract with Northeast, but since has decided it wants to force a “phased closure” of the school by removing kindergarten and sixth grades. My Education Policy Center friends took a tour of Northeast Academy (385 students K-8, 87.5% Free and Reduced Lunch) last week and saw some clear signs of progress. New leadership is in place. The Core Knowledge program has been reinstated. The instructional workforce is being reshaped, and many dedicated teachers are getting high-quality, hands-on professional development. Serious discipline problems have declined. Some internal skill assessments show significant student growth since the start of the school year. Is it enough? Only time will tell.

My Education Policy Center friends asked me to stop playing around in the snow long enough to give a quick update and comment on something I mentioned last week. As Ed News Colorado reports, Rep. Don Beezley’s “Parent Trigger II” successfully passed its first obstacle with a favorable 7-6 party line vote in the House Education Committee yesterday. In other words, the proposal that represents a small, positive step for parental empowerment stepped out from beneath the groundhog’s shadow. And not a moment too soon, for such a commonsense piece of legislation. Yes, it’s sad to see only Republican representatives showing a modest support for the education consumer. Is it just Colorado where Democrats seem so universally wed to protecting K-12 institutions of power (the Colorado Association of School Boards and Colorado Education Association both testified against HB 1149) at the expense of a little extra parent voice in the school turnaround process?

Even if the Groundhog hadn’t seen his shadow this morning, the reluctant news would still be well more than six weeks of Colorado’s legislative session remaining. Too early for me to be ground into the dust, but at the same time too many important things going on for me to run back and hide in my cage (Note to Oakland Raiders fans: That’s a groundhog metaphor, not a reference to how my Education Policy Center friends treat me). One of the first important items to pop up is next Monday’s scheduled committee hearing for House Bill 1149, aka Parent Trigger II. This lighter version of last year’s Parent Trigger bill by Rep. Don Beezley looks like it at least will have a chance to go further than the House Education Committee, unlike last year’s proposal. In a nutshell, HB 1149 gives parents of students in low-performing schools greater voice to speed up the process of closing, turning around or converting the school. Currently, the State Board has to intervene in struggling schools designated “priority improvement” or “turnaround” after five years. The new proposal would empower parents during the third year of the process. If 50 percent of them sign a […]

Since yesterday’s school choice trifecta was so successful, why not another one to help bring a smashing conclusion to National School Choice Week? We’re in the heart of basketball season — it’s not March Madness time yet — but still “trifecta” gets me thinking about making that long-range jumper for student-centered education reform:

While School Choice Week has me in a happy frenzy, it doesn’t leave me as much time for blogging. But in my few spare moments, I wanted to share a few timely developments fitting for this week’s big festivities: The Alliance for School Choice has released the latest version of the School Choice Yearbook… The big news? More than 210,000 students nationwide are enrolled in publicly-funded private educational choice programs, a 25 percent increase in just four years! Remember Education Savings Accounts, the cutting-edge school choice program with a superior design? Well, today a Maricopa County judge ruled that Arizona’s first-of-its-kind ESA program for special needs student was constitutional! Finally, speaking of special needs students, the Columbus Dispatch reports that Ohio is about to launch its fourth voucher program, the Jon Peterson Special Needs Scholarship! Good news on all three fronts. Before my hyperactivity takes over and my short attention span fades away, here’s one last call to invite you to this evening’s Kids Aren’t Cars movie night at the Independence Institute in Denver. Hope to see you there!

Today’s lead story at Ed News Colorado highlights the disparity in private parent and community giving within Denver Public Schools. Reporter Charlie Brennan notes that no school raked in more than the nearly $230,000 at Bromwell Elementary, a school with a low 8 percent study poverty rate. The general findings are no surprise, yet nonetheless disappointing: At the other end of the poverty – and fund-raising – spectrum is Johnson Elementary in southwest Denver, which reported fewer than $3,000 in private gifts in 2010-11. If a donation of five or six figures came through the door of the school, where 96 percent of students are low-income, said Principal Robert Beam, “You’d be writing a story about a principal who is dancing in the streets all day long.” The timing of the story is remarkable. Why? Yesterday substantial checks went out to 14 metro area public schools and 2 public charter management organizations (CMOs) serving high-poverty student populations, with awards totaling $500,000. And they didn’t just go out to schools based on need, but to schools with a proven record of serving their students well:

I can hardly believe that School Choice Week is already here. For my Colorado friends, remember that there are several great events between now and Saturday, especially a cool “Kids Aren’t Cars” movie night I hope you can come to. Here in Colorado the legislature kicks off School Choice Week with the introduction of House Bill 1149, a lighter version of last year’s Parent Trigger bill by Rep. Don Beezley. This latest version allows parents from schools that have spent two consecutive years under one of the state’s two lowest accountability ratings (aka “priority improvement” or “turnaround”) to petition to change the school’s management structure and/or convert it to a charter. Because Parent Trigger II offers a slower process than in last year’s proposed legislation, it may win over more support. In the meantime, while I let the special School Choice Week moment sink in, here are some other related happenings and odds & ends that may interest you:

As last year was winding down, I told you that the issue of K-12 online and blended learning would be a big one going forward for Colorado in 2012. With the legislature now in session and the first-ever Digital Learning Day just around the corner, I found a timely article that deserves some attention here in Colorado. The Innosight Institute’s Michael Horn lays out the question of how to get from the national group Digital Learning Now!’s reform roadmap to a well-tailored solution in a given state, in this brand-new Education Next article:

While I sit and wait and tap my feet for some word on the appeal of the Douglas County choice scholarship injunction, here’s some important good news for you. A very similar statewide program enacted last year in the Hoosier State has been upheld in a January 13 decision: A Marion County judge ruled Friday that Indiana’s school voucher program is constitutional. However, those who oppose the program say they’ll appeal his decision. The vouchers, approved by General Assembly last spring, redirect money from public schools to help offset private-school tuition for students in low- and middle-income families. Of course, the union and other anti-choice groups will appeal. That’s just the way it’s done. But it’s a big win for the good guys, coming five months after the same judge blocked an initial request to put the program on the same sort of injunction as the one holding back Douglas County families.