Category Archives: Parents

Last night my Education Policy Center friends went to see the Colorado premiere of The Lottery. Ben DeGrow has written up a review over at Ed News Colorado. While it was past my bedtime and I didn’t get to stay up and watch the film, the story about kids like me who live in Harlem and whose parents hope and pray that they win the lottery to get into a successful charter school is something I look forward to watching. If you don’t get what I mean, this trailer should help you see it: What are you waiting for? Find a theater near you to go see The Lottery, and then get involved in fighting for the cause. You could do it as a favor for your all-time favorite junior blogger, but the four kids who are the stars of the film are even better reasons!

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.

Back in April, I told you about the Balanced Education for Everyone campaign to empower parents to ensure their child’s school provides a balanced presentation of global warming and environmental issues. Well, it’s more than just an idea here in Colorado. Out in the Grand Junction area, local attorney and former school board candidate Rose Pugliese took note of some unbalanced classroom presentations in her local schools. Instead of just complaining about it, she started circulating petitions and has garnered hundreds of signatures that she plans to present to the school board this evening. Click the play button below (or follow this link) to listen to Rose discuss her grassroots effort with my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow on an iVoices podcast:

Yesterday Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law Senate Bill 191. Now all eyes are on the details that will be hashed out by the Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness. The state’s largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association, carried all the weight of opposing SB 191 and pushed amendments that watered down some of the bill’s better features. And yesterday CEA officials turned down the chance to show up for the bill signing event:

This is the education story of the month you may have heard nothing about. In light of having recently seen the movie The Cartel, the scene seems especially poignant. In fact, if a sequel were to be made to The Cartel, you certainly can imagine this being a part of it. The scene is last Thursday in Trenton, New Jersey, at the State Capitol — where a senate education committee hearing was scheduled for the bill S1872, which would create a 5-year pilot scholarship tax credit program. Cue Lori Drummer, writing for the Big Government blog:

On Friday my Education Policy Center friends took in the presentation and tour of new Standards-Based Education (SBE) system in the local Adams School District 50 (Westminster). It’s the largest school district in the nation to have taken such a bold departure from the traditional system of age-based grade levels and familiar letter grades. Under the leadership of Superintendent Roberta Selleck, District 50 decided to move outside the box in addressing the challenges of a long-term decline in student enrollment coupled with growing rates of student poverty and limited English proficiency. The district is just completing its first full year using the SBE system, and there’s definitely something exciting and innovative going on. The system is about so much more than can be squeezed into a blog post, but here’s 16summary thoughts about SBE:

Last Friday I told you that a great new education movie called The Cartel is coming to town. In fact, on this coming Tuesday at 7 PM, at Denver’s Chez Artiste Theatre, my Independence Institute friends are co-hosting a special screening event with a brief Q & A following the movie. Given the events of this week, in which thousands of New Jersey students walked out in protest at proposed K-12 education budget cuts, watching the film takes on all the more fresh relevance. As edublogger Matthew Tabor points out, the adult organizers who incited the event are doing a disservice to students by showing no interest in truly solving the Garden State’s education problems. Had they watched The Cartel with an open mind first, they might have taken a different perspective on quite possibly the most fiscally bloated and corrupt state education system in the nation. Got your attention yet? If you’re still not sure about whether to come, I invite you to read a brand new review of the film written by local blogger Joshua Sharf. It provides a refreshing and insightful perspective, coming from someone smart and thoughtful who isn’t enmeshed in the finer points of the […]

One of the main ingredients that gives public charter schools the opportunity to thrive in a competitive environment is the degree of autonomy to determine its own culture, curriculum, program, budget and personnel policies. But just how much autonomy do they have? We know that because of different laws and policies, all states certainly aren’t equal. The Center for Education Reform’s annual report card on states’ charter-friendliness is the leading example. But today the Fordham Institute released a report that takes a closer look at 100 charter schools in 26 different states, rating them on a carefully-developed metric of autonomy in the areas of: Vision and Culture, Program, Staffing, and Financial and Governance. An interesting aspect of the report was not only taking into account the effect of state laws but also adding the impact of contracts signed between charter schools and their authorizers (e.g., school districts) on autonomy in these different areas.

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:

Ok, let’s get something straight. Just because you name something a charter school, and even just because you give it charter-like freedoms, does not guarantee success. These schools provide an opportunity for innovation, for something outside the norm. And most importantly, they are afforded the conditions that better empower students, teachers and principals to build success. To bring home the point that nothing is guaranteed, last week the New York Times reported on a California charter school that, according to some experts, should have had all the ingredients for success, except it didn’t succeed: