Monthly Archives: July 2008

A Glimpse at New Schools: Early College High School Arvada

For students or parents of students on the verge of entering the high school years, a new option is opening up this fall in Jefferson County, just west of the Denver city limits. The Early College High School (ECHS) at Arvada begins its first day of classes for 9th-graders only on August 18. Eventually, ECHS will serve all four high school grades, and is scheduled to graduate its first class in 2012. Authorized by the Charter School Institute board, ECHS at Arvada touts itself as a small school. In fact, the facility space – a former credit union office currently under renovation – will be able to serve only up to 450 students. But the real appeal of this charter school, located just east of Sheridan Blvd. on 60th Ave., is the design to help kids earn both a high school diploma and up to 60 transferable college credits in their four years. This dual-enrollment program especially is aimed to help young people whose families have limited background and financial resources that would allow them to enter the world of postsecondary education. It’s not too late to enroll in ECHS at Arvada. If you need to find out more, though, […]

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New NCTQ Report Rightly Calls for More Research on Teacher Union Impacts

Okay, I think it’s a long and boring paper, but Ben in the Education Policy Center says the new report from the National Council on Teacher Quality is very important. What it boils down to is there are a lot of rules, mostly written by well-meaning people, that end up negatively affecting how well kids learn in the classroom. The NCTQ report Invisible Ink in Collective Bargaining proves the realization that more damage is often done by lawmakers at the state level than by the private union negotiations at the local level. The report’s authors say there are three major reasons this “preeminence of state authority” is so poorly misunderstood: The old media doesn’t much either understand or pay attention to the issues that govern education–namely, “few have focused on the outsized influence of the teachers union in the statehouse.” Neither school district or union officials have a vested interest in bringing public attention to their private bargaining sessions. Short of threats to strike, the media doesn’t get how the issues that are negotiated locally have an impact on education’s bottom line. Few scholars have researched the impact of collective bargaining on — or “the origin and history of state […]

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New CSAP Scores Tell Colorado It's Time to Advance in School Reform

There’s a big hubbub today about CSAP results being announced. For those of you who don’t know, CSAP stands for Colorado Student Assessment Program – it’s the battery of tests in reading, writing, math, and science that help people to see how well schools and students are performing. The folks in the Education Policy Center and others like them get really excited on days like this, because of all the new information and what story it might tell. I guess this year is really special, because a new “growth model” has been introduced that allows for better measurement of individual student and school progress from year to year. Me? I haven’t had to take any CSAPs yet – frankly, I could do without tests altogether. But I understand why many people might think they are important. Anyway, the Rocky Mountain News has the basic rundown on the latest CSAP scores, and once again, hoped-for progress is not being achieved: Results were up in 11 of the 24 tests given in reading, writing and math in grades 3 through 10. Scores were down in seven tests and unchanged in six. Reading and math scores were generally up, with more grades seeing […]

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A Glimpse at New Schools: AXL Academy

I took a short vacation, but I’m back now. Thanks for your patience while I was gone. Now seems like a good time to continue our introduction to new charter and option schools in Colorado. The AXL Academy in Aurora, starting with 240 students in Kindergarten to 5th grade next month, is promoting what it calls a “Revolution in Learning”: All college prep schools expect students to excel in a rigorous academic program. But AXL asks more: that students discover how they learn, that they take intellectual delight and responsibility in their education, and that they gain the courage and integrity to negotiate the futures they create. AXL is committed to preparing all students to succeed in college and careers of their choosing. Eventually, AXL Academy will grow to serve students up through the 8th grade. Each grade will receive an emphasis in experiential and project-based learning, in addition to character education, from a smiling faculty and staff – including head of school Audra Philippon. What is different about AXL Academy? While the school is co-ed, the classrooms will be divided between boys and girls. And students will attend on a year-round basis with shorter breaks between each of the […]

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Jeb Bush's Stellar Education Reform Record Worthy of Colorado Emulation

Probably the best state for Colorado or any other to look to as a model in education reform is Florida. Education reform was the primary focus of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush during his eight-year tenure, and he was able to make progress on many fronts. The remarkable success yielded by years of systematic advances in school choice, accountability, standards, and teacher pay makes the Sunshine State worthy of emulation: Government-gathered data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that Florida has outpaced Colorado and the national average in nearly every measure of math and reading proficiency. In that light, it was important that Heritage Foundation education policy analyst Dan Lips was able to sit down and interview Jeb Bush (H/T Matt Ladner) at a recent education reform summit in Orlando. Here are a few key excerpts of Bush’s remarks from the interview transcribed at National Review Online: We need all schools — here in Florida and in 49 other states — to get better for our country’s future. The only way to improve student performance is through continual and perpetual reform of education. America needs a 21st century education system for a 21st century world…. Raising standards, […]

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A Glimpse at New Schools: The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

Today’s post is the first in a series on new charter or option schools opening up in Colorado this year. I’m out there keeping an eye on developments in the world of education that are important to parents. This definitely includes knowing about specific new options that may happen to be in your area or the area of someone you know, with a child who might fit well into the school’s environment. Our first featured school is The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch – located in the Falcon School District on the east side of Colorado Springs. The Academy is scheduled to open its doors for the upcoming 2008-09 school year. A temporary facility (pictured at right) will be used for the first year, while the permanent site is under construction. Catering to students in kindergarten through 6th grade in its first year, the Academy will a use the Core Knowledge curriculum, and has school uniform requirements. Check out the school’s website for access to much more information on enrollment, program, staff, and more. The Academy is the first of two schools being opened by principal and charter school developer Tina Leone, under an operating agreement with the national […]

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I'm Sure Glad Cars Aren't Produced Using the Education System Model

While comparing education to cars isn’t a perfect fit, there is a lot to be learned from the comparison. As a thought experiment, the Cato Institute’s Andrew Coulson examines the change in costs and productivity in America’s education system and applies it to the automotive world (H/T Joanne Jacobs): What would the U.S. automobile industry look like if it were run the same way, and had suffered the same productivity collapse, as public schooling? To the left is a 1971 Chevrolet Impala. According to the New York Times of September 25th, 1970, it originally sold for $3,460. That’s $19,011 in today’s dollars. If cars were like public schools, you would be compelled to buy one of these today, and to pay $43,479 for that privilege (2.3 times the original price). To measure productivity in education this way assumes that the students being taught today are no more or less challenging than the students being taught in 1970. If they are harder to teach, higher costs would be required to maintain the same output. If they are easier to teach, less would be required. (At least that’s what the Education Policy Center people tell me … I’m not that hard to […]

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Clint Bolick: Hispanic Electoral Support Hinges on School Choice

Clint Bolick – one of the heroes of the school choice movement – had a piece in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week about the political possibilities of reaching out to Hispanics on the school choice issue (H/T Matt Ladner): Hispanic votes will be crucial in key battleground states, including Florida, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico. George W. Bush won 40% of Hispanic votes in 2004, but support slipped to 30% for GOP congressional candidates in 2006. Mr. Obama fared poorly among Hispanics in the presidential primaries, while Mr. McCain carried 74% of Hispanic votes when he won re-election to the Senate in 2004. All that adds up to this: Hispanics voting on school choice could tip the balance of the election. Hispanic voters are overwhelmingly young and have exhibited a propensity toward political independence — and no issue is more tangible for them than educational opportunity. If Hispanics align their voting with the educational interests of their children, it could alter the electoral landscape — not merely for this election, but permanently. Of course, a great tool for parents – including Hispanics – to learn more about their Colorado educational options is the School Choice for Kids website […]

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CNN's Roland Martin is Right: School Choice Shouldn't Be Partisan Issue

CNN commentator Roland Martin hits the nail on the head today by proclaiming the need for more school vouchers, and highlighting the interest group politics that has blocked or slowed down the needed reform (H/T Mike Antonucci). His article is titled “McCain right, Obama wrong on school vouchers,” but the larger point is that it’s time to move school choice beyond partisan politics on a national scale. Here’s some of what Martin has to say: I fundamentally believe that vouchers are simply one part of the entire educational pie. There simply is no one sure-fire way to educate a child. We’ve seen public schools do a helluva job — I went to them from K through college — and so have private schools, home schooling, charter schools and even online initiatives. This is the kind of innovation we need, not more efforts to prevent a worthy idea from moving forward. Obama’s opposition is right along the lines of the National Education Association, and the teachers union is a reliable and powerful Democratic ally. But this is one time where he should have opposed them and made it clear that vouchers can force school districts, administrators and teachers to shape up […]

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Mile High Parent Campaign Should Reward Time on School Choice Site

Lousy parenting is a typical scapegoat of those who resist public school accountability or who make excuses for poor performance. Not all parents fulfill their responsibilities, and certainly none are perfect. But the overwhelming number of parents want to see their kids reach their fullest education potential. In that light, an idea like this one seems to make sense: The Mile High Parent Campaign, set to begin on the first day of school this fall, is designed to track the time DPS parents spend furthering their kids’ education. The goal is 5,280 minutes a year, or 30 minutes a school day. “I’m just hoping to bring a little more awareness of the importance of parent engagement and to celebrate things that we, as parents, do on a daily basis,” said Marlene DeLa Rosa, chairwoman of the Parent Empowerment Council. Parents who enroll in the program will log their time online or complete a form that details how they assisted their children. Suggested activities range from reading with a child, attending back-to-school night, helping with homework or taking a child to the museum. It sure sounds nice on paper, and I wish it the best. The use of prizes and other […]

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