Monthly Archives: May 2011

Education Action Group's Top 10 Indiana Reforms List No Laughing Matter

An email blast sent out Thursday by the Education Action Group (EAG) Foundation highlighted a list of “top 10 education reforms passed by the 2011 Indiana General Assembly.” If you follow this blog at all, you know right off the top what some of the biggies are — including limiting the topics open for teachers union collective bargaining and “the nation’s largest voucher program”. Also known as #1 and #3 on EAG’s list: 1. Limited collective bargaining to wages and benefits only. 2. Ended the union-contrived “last in, first out” practice of laying off teachers with the least seniority first, regardless of teaching ability.   3. Established the broadest voucher program in the nation by allowing all families in the state earning up to 150 percent of the threshold for free or discounted school lunches to receive a voucher to attend private schools. The vouchers – worth up to $4,500 for elementary students and 90 percent of state tuition support for high schoolers – will be available to 7,500 students the first year and 15,000 in the second. The enrollment cap is lifted in year three. 4. Expanded the state’s charter school law by allowing more charter school authorizers, creating a […]

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Open Union Negotiations Gets Favorable Attention from Mike Rosen

A couple weeks ago I asked the leading question: Is momentum growing for open union negotiations in Colorado? It may have been wishful thinking, but just for the short term. I was so glad to see Mike Rosen take on the issue in today’s Denver Post column, even if the news he had to bear was not my first choice for an outcome: Last Thursday, the dispute over secret negotiations came to a head at a Jeffco school board meeting. True to form, the teachers union rallied its troops, adorned in union T-shirts, to overwhelm other public attendees, a couple of whom bravely spoke in favor of openness. To no one’s surprise, the board then voted 4-1 in favor of secrecy, with [Laura] Boggs as the lone dissenter. Seems pretty clear that most Jeffco union and district officials don’t want any of those pesky taxpaying citizens watching — watching, mind you, not participating — in negotiations that govern tax dollars and public policies. We wouldn’t smile on any other government contract being negotiated completely outside of public view. Why should government employee union contracts be any different? My Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow made these and other points in […]

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Could Wildflower Elem. Show Colorado How to Climb Peak on 3rd Grade Reading?

The big news in Colorado education the past couple days is the release of the latest round of 3rd grade reading scores on the state CSAP test. While we still have a long ways to go, it is mildly encouraging to see the small increase in reading proficiency across Colorado: Statewide, 73 percent of third-graders scored proficient or better — 67 percent proficient and 6 percent advanced — on the 2011 Colorado Student Assessment Program reading test, up 3 percentage points from last year. More telling, though, than the big sweeping numbers is identifying the pockets of success. And nothing jumps off the page more than the fact that all 3rd graders at Harrison School District 2’s Wildflower Elementary in Colorado Springs are at least proficient in reading, as reported by the local Gazette:

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Michigan Governor Calls For More Parent-Friendly Open Enrollment (a la Colorado)

Open enrollment is something I haven’t told you much about lately, but now it’s in the news as Michigan’s governor looks to break down a barrier to parental choice and educational opportunity in state law. The Detroit News yesterday highlighted Rick Snyder’s plan to allow any public school student access to an open public school seat, regardless of where they live: “If all the districts have to open up the doors, then more may leave failing schools. This will present significant challenges for districts where students and parents have already left,” said Michael Van Beek, director of education policy for the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Since 1996, Michigan has allowed public school districts to open their doors to students who live outside their districts. But participation by districts is optional. Just about every Metro district has decided to participate; 11 do not. In essence, the Great Lakes State is considering whether to strengthen its existing open enrollment law. To approve Snyder’s plan would place Michigan more on the plane of Colorado, which has one of the nation’s very strongest and most parent-friendly laws. Citing a story from the Detroit Free Press, Adam Emerson at RedefinED catches hold of why […]

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Anti-National Curriculum Manifesto Worth Signing in (Virtual) Ink, Not Crayon

If you gave me a big box of crayons and asked me to write a manifesto, it’s probably not what I would have come up with. But I am glad to give it a big thumbs up, and hope that lots of big people sign on. What am I talking about? Closing the Door on Innovation: Why One National Curriculum is Bad for America: We, the undersigned, representing viewpoints from across the political and educational spectrum, oppose the call for a nationalized curriculum in the Albert Shanker Institute Manifesto “A Call for Common Content.” We also oppose the ongoing effort by the U.S. Department of Education to have two federally funded testing consortia develop national curriculum guidelines, national curriculum models, national instructional materials, and national assessments using Common Core’s national standards as a basis for these efforts. We agree that our expectations should be high and similar for all children whether they live in Mississippi or Massachusetts, Tennessee or Texas. We also think that curricula should be designed before assessments are developed, not the other way around. But we do not agree that a one-size-fits-all, centrally controlled curriculum for every K-12 subject makes sense for this country or for any […]

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Three Years of Five-Year-Old Blogging: Great Time to Appreciate Teachers

As usual, I’m taking the weekend off for extra Lego time and lots of playing outdoors in the beautiful Colorado sunshine. Since tomorrow is an important anniversary, I decided to observe it today. On May 7, 2008, I began my three years of blogging here as a 5-year-old with a post titled “Denver Parents Want More Successful Schools to Choose From.” (Interestingly, FOX 31 News ran a special story last night about one of the area’s most successful and well-known charter schools, which has grown since 2008: Denver School of Science and Technology.) Last week the prolific education reform blogger Matthew Tabor posed the question: “What makes you feel old as a teacher or blogger?” I’m not really sure how to answer that, other than I feel kind of old for… well, my age. Time doesn’t really fly when you can stay 5 for this long. Let me tell you. But what better way to mark this commemorative 3rd anniversary Ed Is Watching post than to give a shout-out to Teacher Appreciation Week — which ends today. For all the arguing I do about the need to improve educator effectiveness in our system, it needs to be repeated clearly from […]

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Everybody Else is Posting the Mitch Daniels Ed Reform Speech: Why Can't I Do It?

My mom really doesn’t have much tolerance for the “But everybody’s doing it” excuse. I’m hoping she makes an exception for this posting. What am I talking about? Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (who, today, I might add, signed into law “the nation’s largest voucher program”…. HIP, HIP, HOORAH!) gave a big education reform speech at D.C.’s American Enterprise Institute (AEI). Not surprisingly, AEI’s education guru Rick Hess had some good things to say about the “uber-wonk” Daniels’ speech. Matthew Ladner posted the full 51-minute speech on Jay Greene’s blog with the telling observation: “Indiana 2011 stands as the best reform session since Florida 1999 in my book.” Meanwhile, for those who don’t have time for the whole speech, RedefinED’s Adam Emerson has posted a key 90-second clip:

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Innosight Blended Learning Encyclopedia a True Wealth of Innovative Information

What can I say but, “Wow?” (I know, bad rhetorical question, because here goes….) All you education transformers out there should be aware of a new Innosight Institute report by Heather Staker titled The rise of K-12 blended learning: Profiles of emerging models. Doesn’t sound that spectacularly exciting, I know, unless you have joined little education policy geeks like me in catching on to the hugely important trend known as blended learning. And this snippet from Staker’s introduction gives you just a taste of what I mean: Online learning appears to be a classic disruptive innovation with the potential not just to improve the current model of education delivery, but to transform it. Online learning started by serving students for whom there was no alternative for learning. It got its start in distance-learning environments, outside of a traditional school building, and it started small. In 2000, roughly 45,000 K-12 students took an online course. But by 2010, over 4 million students were participating in some kind of formal online-learning program. The preK-12 online population is now growing by a five-year compound annual growth rate of 43 percent—and that rate is accelerating…. This paper profiles 40 organizations that are blending online […]

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Five-Year-Old ProComp Competes for Reform Attention, Awaits Final Evaluation

Denver’s Professional Compensation System for Teachers has received a great deal of attention through the years from those interested in education policy and reform. (Just Google “ProComp” if you want to see what I mean.) So it’s certainly no surprise to see the Denver Public Schools celebrate ProComp’s fifth birthday. Somehow, ProComp has caught up to become the same age as me: This may mean a challenge to my self-proclaimed position as Colorado’s #1 Education Reform Five-Year-Old! Anyway, not long after the system went into full effect in Denver, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow wrote an issue paper titled Denver’s ProComp and Teacher Compensation Reform in Colorado. He took the opportunity to credit the district for the extent of improvements made, given the binding power of a union bargaining contract, while pointing out areas where improvements could be made. As Charlie Brennan noted in today’s Ed News Colorado story, DPS’ leading partner in developing and implementing ProComp has more doubts now to express about how the pay reform has turned out — but not for the same reasons: [DCTA president Henry] Roman, who attended Monday afternoon’s event, offered a tempered endorsement of the program – in which he […]

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Students Now Can Apply for DougCo Choice Scholarships, Final School List TBD

Today is an important day for families interested in Douglas County School District (DCSD)’s brand new, groundbreaking Choice Scholarship Program. Student applications are now available. Completed forms — available either online or as a hard copy to download and print — will be accepted up through next Thursday, May 12, at 5 PM. Events are moving rather quickly, as the district prepares to have up to 500 funded slots available for students to attend one of 31 (potential) partner private schools in 2011-12. Students must be Douglas County residents and currently attend a DCSD school since at least last August. If more than 500 eligible students apply, the district will hold a lottery on Monday, May 16, and inform winners of the $4,575 choice scholarships by the end of that week. Initially, it looked like there were either 27 or 28 private schools that had applied to be partners in the program. The updated final list of applicants shows 31 schools, including 8 non-religious schools. In any case, it’s encouraging to see such broad interest from schools seeking to participate in the program.

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