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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!

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.

Good Monday morning (if there is such a thing… well, it’s more likely during summer vacation, anyways!). I spend plenty of time blogging about how Colorado can do a better job in providing education. But to be honest, our problems don’t match up with New Jersey’s. Thus, I have to compliment New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his courage, common sense and commitment in taking on the powerful teachers union lobby in his state. Consider the nearly five minutes watching this video time well spent (H/T Matt Ladner):

Little Eddie’s Florida-thon blogging continues. And today’s edition could be the most exciting yet. From Matt Ladner and Greg Forster (both writing on Jay Greene’s blog) comes word of a new research study by David Figlio and Cassandra Hart, who conclude: We find evidence that public schools subject to more competitive pressure from private schools raised their test scores the most following the introduction of Florida’s voucher program, and that the gains in test scores appear to generalize to students ineligible to participate in the voucher program. In other words, the competition of school choice through tuition tax credits helps to lift the boat of academic performance even for public school students who come from families with incomes too great to take advantage of a scholarship. Wow! Forster notes that top-notch empirical studies are 18-0 in showing positive competitive effects from school choice programs, then calls out detractors for their weak attack on the findings:

Years after changing the way they pay teachers with ProComp, Denver Public Schools finally has the first round of research in showing how well it has worked. Ed News Colorado yesterday reported on the University of Colorado evaluation: – Student growth on state reading and math exams was higher after the implementation of ProComp in 2005-06. Researchers used a measure similar to the Colorado Growth Model to analyze DPS test results from 2002-03 through 2008-09. They found all teachers’ median growth percentiles – essentially, how much teachers are moving students – increased about 4 points after ProComp. – Teachers hired after ProComp appear to outperform those hired before ProComp. Teachers hired after Dec. 31, 2005 are required to join ProComp; it is voluntary for those already employed by DPS. Those hired under ProComp demonstrate higher first-year achievement, between 2 to 4 points in median growth percentiles, and the differences persist through the first three years. – High-poverty schools with high levels of ProComp participation are seeing fewer teachers leave. Retention rates in schools designated “hard to serve,” which yields a $2,344 annual bonus, are still not as high as retention rates in more affluent schools. But those high-poverty schools where […]

For most schools and students in Colorado, summer vacation has arrived. Yippee! Time for students to escape from the classroom! But what about teachers who escape from the classroom during the school year on tax-funded union release time? I’m not talking personal leave days or vacation time, but the special privilege underwritten by taxpayers that allows unions to release teachers for various days to do union business — including most recently so teachers could lobby at the State Capitol. Shouldn’t tax dollars be focused on the educational mission of public schools? At the least, shouldn’t there be more accountability for how this type of release time is used? If it’s being used for legitimate purposes, there should be no problem in creating and enforcing policies that do as much. Anyway, rather than listen to me ramble, you really ought to check out the new posting by Education Action Group on their NEA Exposed blog, after they interviewed my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow about the issue of union release time in Colorado. It’s a long and thorough piece that concludes with a call to action: “In general, greater public awareness of the problem is required, and taxpaying citizens need […]

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:

While we certainly have our challenges and plenty of room to grow, Colorado is a state blessed with a healthy variety of public school choice. Among the growing number of options are innovation schools, made possible by a bipartisan 2008 state law. Colorado was the first state to implement innovation schools — something I have written about numerous times here. The idea is to provide greater freedom from burdensome state regulations, district policies and collective bargaining provisions by allowing individual schools to formulate proposals that give them greater autonomy and flexibility over decisions surrounding personnel, program and budget. Of course, even the best education reform ideas encounter problems being put into action. As Education News Colorado reported last week, Colorado’s first three innovation schools (all based in the city of Denver — Manual High School, Montclair Elementary, & Cole Arts and Science Academy) have sought and received a formal legal opinion that school district officials are violating the Innovation Schools Act by refusing to relinquish control over key areas of budget and personnel.

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: