Monthly Archives: August 2013

It’s been awhile since I’ve written about good old SB 191, Colorado’s 2010 law passed in an attempt to create a more meaningful teacher and principal evaluation system. As the 2013-14 school year gets underway, school districts across the state are meeting the requirement to put the new system into place. What can we expect? That’s the question to ask, as observers wonder how the new system will affect classroom practices and behaviors, as well as interactions with principals and the role of districts in support. What we do know as of August 1 is who will follow the state’s model evaluation system. Ed News Colorado tells us that 160 of 178 districts have adopted this approach fully, further noting: Another 10 districts will use a “hybrid” – usually the model system for principals and their own systems for teachers. Jeffco, the state’s largest district, is among the “hybrid” category. According to Ed News, only seven districts are going their own route completely:

For some Colorado students, the school year is already back. For most of them, it’s coming very soon. So I can enjoy the last days of summer vacation, I wanted to share something quickly for you to help appreciate some more of the possibilities raised by The Rise of K-12 Blended Learning in Colorado. So in the spirit of Rocketship Education, Carpe Diem, and KIPP Empower LA that I’ve written about before, here are a couple more videos to watch about schools successfully adopting blended learning models. Unfortunately, they won’t let me embed them here. But you should still check out Aspire ERES Academy (Oakland, CA) and the BLAST Alliance College-Ready Prep Schools (Los Angeles). Yes, most of these highly promising innovations come from California, but that’s far from a good reason to dismiss them out of hand. Glimpse the future, contemplate the policies that Colorado needs to change, and join in helping to inspire and bring more effective blended learning models to life. The tremendous potential is undeniable.

How many of my posts here have been inspired by a story at Education Next? Someone with too much time on their hands and go find the exact answer. But you’ll have to add this one to the count, because I think readers would find interesting a new piece by Marc Holley & Co., “Competition with Charters Motivates Districts.” It’s a creative project in which the authors look for evidence from 12 different urban school districts across the U.S. — geographically disbursed in four different regions — to see to what extent the growth of public charter sectors might actually “prompt low-performing districts to improve their practice.” They looked at more than 8,000 media reports since 2007 to determine whether the dozen districts responded constructively and/or obstructively. They conclude:

A good reminder when analyzing policies, including in the world of K-12 education, is to take some time to look beneath the surface. A policy may not be exactly what it seems. The inimitable Mike Antonucci recently offered up a telling example. Under the heading “How to Close ‘Open’ Bargaining Sessions”, he points readers to a column written by Las Vegas teacher Chip Mosher, recounting his adventure trying to attend so-called open negotiations. The result? It turns out before he could enter a session in which a union bargaining team was supposed to be bargaining on his behalf, Mr. Mosher says he had to sign a form that’s somewhere between a nondisclosure agreement and a “loyalty oath.” This encounter came after two previous attempts to observe negotiations. When Mosher asked if the union leader could sign his own form, something to the effect that he wasn’t being singled out, he was refused. The Las Vegas teacher tried to get more of an explanation, wanting to know from the union representative at the door if only teachers had to sign the union’s “loyalty oath” form:

A little disappointed? Yes. Surprised? Not really. I’m talking about digital learning guru Michael Horn’s new Education Next breakdown of 2013 legislative policy changes affecting the world of online education. It’s a long read, but Horn essentially identifies three different trends: More course-level choice and freedom for students; More restrictions on full-time online learning programs; and More steps toward the flexibility needed to embrace competency-based (rather than seat time) learning.