Monthly Archives: May 2010

A quick Friday tidbit before your weekend, inspired by Mike Antonucci’s post “The Sound of Eyes Opening” and a comparison of the change in Ohio’s student population to the number of teachers at the Flypaper blog…. We hear a lot about Colorado school districts having to lay off teachers and other employees. It’s an unfortunate proposition that has come about as a result of rare budget cuts in K-12 education. When all is said and done, it will be noteworthy to see just how many local public school employees lose their employment statewide. The Colorado Department of Education reports the state had 724,508 students enrolled in public schools in October 2000, growing by 14.9% to 832,368 students in October 2009. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that during the same months employees of Colorado local government educational services increased by 20.9% from 108,700 (October 2000) to 131,400 (October 2009). If the same student-to-employee ratio from 2000 had been kept for 2009, that would be 6,500 fewer workers in Colorado local school agencies. And it raises many questions to be considered closely and carefully: How significant has the growth been among teachers? Administrators? Support personnel? How vital and how effective was […]

Update: Another Independence Institute friend and legal guru Dave Kopel has put up a thoughtful post about SB 191 over at the Volokh Conspiracy. Check it out. Angel choirs are singing, Hallelujah! Colorado’s legislative session is O-V-E-R. Finished. Done. The hot-button education issue SB 191 passed on the last day of session. Though amended to water down some of its effects, the bill is a genuinely positive change in the right direction of tenure and evaluation reform. One senator speaking on the floor got it about right yesterday: Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, didn’t speak during previous debates, but he struck a nuanced note Wednesday. “The change in this bill is not as dramatic as it proponents hope nor as cataclysmic as its opponents fear. It is a moderate bill.” Still, given the intensity and stridency of opposition coming from the state’s most powerful lobbying force, passage of SB 191 represents a true achievement worth celebrating. National education expert Rick Hess shares that view about SB 191’s passage, giving props to my Education Policy Center friends along the way:

My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow is also a contributing editor and regular writer for the national publication School Reform News. His latest takes a look at some heartening developments from the Sooner State: A trio of school choice bills has accelerated Oklahoma’s progress toward expanding educational options for state students. With strong official backing from Republican legislative leaders, proposals to increase the number of charter schools and create charter-like “empowered” schools or school zones have won widespread support from lawmakers. A bill to provide tax-backed tuition scholarships to special-needs students also has earned bipartisan approval in both houses of the legislature.

I know it’s only Tuesday, but I can’t help but thinking about movies again. Last week was the Denver event co-hosted by my Independence Institute friends. About 50 guests showed up to watch The Cartel and have a great discussion about education reform afterward. I couldn’t go because it was past my bedtime. And my Education Policy Center so-called friend Ben DeGrow couldn’t save any of the tub of buttery movie popcorn, or even spare a single Kit Kat bar, for me. Anyway, having just watched one top-notch education reform movie, there’s another one to look forward to being released in the fall, called Waiting for Superman. Here’s a snippet of a review: [Director Davis] Guggenheim makes his points by introducing us to all sorts of people who are directly affected by our floundering education system — and for the most part, it’s just not pretty. We meet Washington D.C. Education Chief Michelle Rhee, who has some revolutionary new ideas on how to keep teachers happy and inspired … but the teachers’ union doesn’t like them. We get to know a small handful of great kids, all of whom seem smart and sweet and dedicated … oh, but there simply […]

Deep down we know that our public school teachers are anything but a “one-size-fits-all” model. They’re human beings, right? And not only are some more effective at their jobs, but they also often have different experiences, philosophies and points of view. As Mike Antonucci observed in pointing out an online Alexander Russo interview with Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Michelle Switala, the most recognized successful teachers especially tend to have a maverick quality about them. Locally we have an even better and timelier example, as CEA member teacher and fellow Ed News Colorado blogger Mark Sass takes union leaders to task for their disingenuous attacks on SB 191: Colorado’s teacher effectiveness bill. Among other things, Sass points out that he and a few other CEA member teachers testified in favor of the legislation. Unlike in many other states, Colorado teachers can choose to join or not join a union or other professional organization. And many make their decisions to do so for a wide variety of reasons. The information on our Independent Teachers website is there to help them. But it’s disappointing (and hardly surprising) to see CEA leaders sometimes act as if they’re speaking on behalf of all their […]

Last night’s House Education Committee hearing on Senate Bill 191 went really late. My mom made me go to bed, so I missed a lot of it. But my Education Policy Center friends tell me it was quite the show. And given the reports I’ve seen, I have to agree. Kudos goes to three reporters (along with legislative staff and others) who stayed late to burn the midnight oil until the hearing ended at 12:37 AM. They have a strong case for earning overtime — if not combat — pay. Oh, the melodrama their stories just begin to tell….

This week the state’s latest 3rd grade reading test scores came out. As the Denver Post‘s Jeremy Meyer points out, the results were disappointing: Year after year, the number of proficient third-grade readers in Colorado stays mostly the same — hovering around the 70 percent mark — mirroring a trend occurring nationally. On Tuesday, the state released unofficial and preliminary results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program third-grade reading test, showing 70 percent of the students proficient or advanced in reading, 3 points lower than in 2009. Of course, the big picture sometimes clouds bright spots:

I bet you didn’t know it’s Teacher Appreciation Week. As we near the end of the year for most Colorado schools, it’s a perfectly fitting time to show your appreciation to your teacher, your child’s teacher or some other important teacher in your life. Why else is it fitting? It’s also THE week in the Colorado House of Representatives for Senate Bill 191, the Great Teachers and Leaders bill. Important policy questions about teacher quality that will have profound impacts on Colorado schools and classrooms will be decided this week. Some teachers come down on one side of SB 191, and some on the other. But as I pointed out on Monday, only one side gets tax funding to argue its case. Another favor you can do to show appreciation to Colorado teachers at least is to point them to the information on the Independent Teachers website, so they can make the best informed decisions about their professional memberships and the uses of their funds for political purposes. Information teachers and other education employees in our state can use all year long. Whatever you do, I hope you don’t end up saying “Screw Teacher Appreciation Week.”

It wasn’t that many months ago the Colorado Supreme Court decided it has the right to decide our state’s school funding policy in the Lobato case. Faithful readers have seen me write about it on several occasions. A couple months ago the plaintiffs — including some funded by school district tax dollars — filed a new official complaint, arguing that Colorado public schools are so under-funded that students are denied an adequate education, in violation of that state constitutional mandate of a “thorough and uniform” system. As reported in Ed News Colorado, Colorado’s Attorney General last Friday filed a response: In standard legal language, the answer rejects most of the plaintiffs’ claims or terms them legal conclusions that don’t require an answer. The AG’s filing claims the plaintiffs lack standing to bring the case, seek an unconstitutional remedy and that their claims violate the separation of powers. It asks that the court rule in the state’s favor. I happen to think the Attorney General is right. But anyway, thanks to the Colorado Supreme Court, Round 2 of the long, costly legal battle is now underway. It could be many years and many taxpayer dollars spent on both sides before the […]

A couple weeks ago I brought your attention to the fact that it was THE week for Senate Bill 191, the monumental effort to reform Colorado’s teacher evaluation and tenure system. Well, now that THE week is over and the bill passed the senate, this week really is THE week — as it goes up for a critical House Education Committee vote on Thursday. In the meantime, the heated debate over SB 191 has brought attention back to a locally-negotiated special perk for many teachers unions — tax-funded release time from the classroom for teachers to lobby against the bill. I have asked the question before: Where is the accountability for school employee union leave activities? In an op-ed published three (count ’em, three) places since Friday, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow says the latest experience with release time to rally against SB 191 makes the issue as relevant and as significant as ever. Take your pick: