We hold our kids accountable. We have them expelled or suspended for their behavior. I think the same rules apply for everybody.

The husband-and-wife educator duo look to be in hot water. According to the CBS4 report, the decision to pursue firing Johnny and Pamela Trujillo followed an internal district audit. I’m not able to comment on the specifics of the case to presume anyone’s guilt, but if further investigation confirms the truth of the serious charges, it also reflects on an important policy: teacher tenure (aka “due process”).

In our state tenure reform is still a live issue, with some of the best reasons articulated by Dr. Marcus Winters in his April 12 Independence Institute talk on Teachers Matter. After three years, Colorado teachers automatically acquire a special property right to their job. Eventually, a 2010 state law will tie earning the right to three years of demonstrated effectiveness in the classroom. But even if SB 191 had taken effect by now, it wouldn’t affect a case like the one taking place in Adams 12.

I was left with a few questions after watching the CBS4 investigative report, such as: Is the union representing the accused teachers? How much has the district spent, and how much does it expect to spend, in legal fees to prosecute the dismissal? How many more appeals remain, and how long before the issue will be settled?

Notable past cases in Colorado show that it easily can cost more than $100,000 to remove a tenured teacher and take several years to reach an outcome. Adams 12 officials must believe they have a strong case, because that’s not money and time to be taken lightly.

On a related note, Ed News Colorado reports a different kind of investigation — this one requested of the state department of education by Denver Public Schools — to determine whether two schools cheated on state tests to get their good results. I certainly hope it turns out not to be true. Most educators have a lot of integrity, but a few bad apples can spoil a lot.

Anyway, as the case regarding Beach Court Elementary and Hallett Fundamental Academy unfolds, please take into advisement my comments from last year’s Atlanta scandal about a “predictable overreaction.”

First is last week’s awful news from Alabama. The local Decatur Daily reported:

Proponents of charter schools will likely have to wait at least another year as an Alabama House panel Thursday effectively killed a measure that would have allowed for the creation of the taxpayer-funded, privately-operated schools.

It’s sad to see that even public school parental options can’t gain any real traction in the Heart of Dixie. The teachers union, the Alabama Education Association (AEA), led the charge against choice. As the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci observed, the result should cause some reconsideration of what we describe as “strong union” versus “weak union” states. He also found that AEA’s anti-charter campaign was aided online by thousands of phony Twitter followers. Creative.

But seeing as how I like to save the better news for the end, we can celebrate yesterday’s awesome development from Arizona. Following last year’s successful adoption of Empowerment Scholarship Accounts (ESA) for special-needs students, Grand Canyon State Governor Jan Brewer yesterday signed into law a program expansion that makes ESAs available to students from military families and students in failing schools:

The Arizona-based Goldwater Institute estimates some 11,500 school-age children of active military members and more than 94,000 students in public schools or school districts graded D or F by the state will be ESA-eligible. Currently, 125,000 students with special needs qualify for ESAs.

“This expansion gives more parents the ability to customize their children’s education,” said Jonathan Butcher, Goldwater’s Education Director. “Empowerment Scholarship Accounts are a 21st century model for education other states would be wise to consider.”

Hear, hear. Now nearly twice as many Arizona kids are eligible to exercise greater choice through the groundbreaking ESA model. Perhaps it’s time for Colorado to take a look? When it comes to school choice, better to be like Arizona than be like ‘Bama.

So I’m not the only one who likes to see what kind of progress we’re making on the CSAP TCAP. In the past five years, 3rd grade reading scores in most of the state’s 10 largest districts have been flat with very slight upticks. The notable exceptions are from the lower performers with greater student poverty. Aurora Public Schools improved from 46 percent proficient in 2007 to 51.5 percent in the latest round.

Even more remarkable, Denver Public Schools has made the leap from 50 percent proficient to 59 percent over the same five-year span. As DPS superintendent appropriately noted in his email announcement:

As pleased as we are with the growth, it is clear that we have much more work in front of us to continue to improve our elementary literacy.

Likely sharing the same attitude is one of DPS’ exceptional improvements, my friends at the Cole Arts and Science Academy innovation school. In this school with a 96 percent student poverty rate, 3rd grade reading proficiency more than doubled from 22 to 48 percent on the CSAP TCAP. Hooray! A DPS turnaround school that made an even bigger improvement, Greenlee Elementary, earned a feature on 9 News for boosting the success rate from 21 to 55 percent.

On the opposite end, the highly-touted recent success of high-poverty Beach Court Elementary has taken the plunge from 85 percent proficient 2 years ago and 78 percent in 2011 to only 40 percent this time around. Ongoing success is not guaranteed. What exactly has changed deserves a closer look.

To a lesser extent, Harrison School District’s Wildflower Elementary — which last year proudly claimed 100 percent proficiency with three-fourths of its student population in poverty — came in above average at only 84 percent on this year’s CSAP TCAP.

Wildflower was one of eight elementary schools statewide last year to register a perfect mark in 3rd grade reading proficiency. (Please note that some schools might be omitted because the sample size, or number of students in the grade, was too small.) This year there were 11, including rural Valley Re-1’s Caliche Elementary with a 47 percent poverty rate. One school repeated the feat in consecutive years, Cherry Creek’s Challenge School. The other nine 100-percenters on the 3rd grade reading CSAP TCAP are as follows:

• Aurora Quest K-8
• Carbondale Community Charter School
• Liberty Common Charter School (Fort Collins)
• New Emerson School at Columbus (Grand Junction)
• Polaris at Ebert Elementary (Denver)
• Steck Elementary (Denver)
• Swink Elementary
• University Hill Elementary (Boulder)
• Wilder Elementary (Littleton)

Onward and upward for next year’s batch of Colorado 3rd grade reading scores!

a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of content and instruction with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace and at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home.

That definition comes from the new report Classifying K-12 blended learning by Heather Staker and Michael Horn. Why come up with a new report? To improve the system of classifying different blended learning models. After consulting with many other education experts, they reduced the number of identifiable models from six to four (skipping right over my favorite number — five!):

• Rotation model
• Flex model
• Self-blend model (Hint: Watch for an important Education Policy Center paper on this topic coming VERY soon!!!)
• Enriched-virtual model

Interestingly, most of the famous successful, real-world examples of blended learning fall into the four new subcategories of the “Rotation model”:

• Station Rotation (KIPP Empower Los Angeles)
• Lab Rotation (Rocketship Education)
• Flipped Classroom (Colorado’s own Woodland Park High School)
• Individual Rotation (Carpe Diem Schools)

In one sense, names and categories definitely matter, to help us all understand what’s going on and what separates one approach to instruction and schooling from another. But in another sense you can call these different approaches what you want, just don’t call me late for dinner! Seriously, though, the new Innosight Institute report is definitely worth checking out.

Still unclear what blended learning is? Go back and watch the video. Don’t let your mind limit the possibilities, though. We’re talking about the future of education here, unfolding before our very eyes…

So begins a great new 2-minute video put together by my Independence Institute friends. It blends excerpts from a March 19 Colorado State Board of Education panel event here in Denver, “Making the Connections: School Finance Design and Student Achievement.” Two panelists in particular, national school finance experts, make a strong case that Colorado needs to think outside the box in designing a new system to fund learning success:

For some of my most loyal readers, you may recognize both Dr. Eric Hanushek and Dr. Marguerite Roza from previous writings here on this blog. In the video, Hanushek particularly provides a clear, forceful answer to the rhetorical question I used to open this post:

If the funds aren’t used effectively, and we know they aren’t in Colorado, then how do you possibly determine what it would take? Because it would be an infinite amount.

Later in the video, Roza gives hints at how Colorado could redesign a system:

If we could change the way we spend our money, and get a more close relationship to funding and student outcomes, we would get closer to empirically determining a spending number that gets us closer to an outcome level we are happy with.

But what are some specifics? There are lots of good ideas and food for thought we can look at that could take Colorado beyond the status quo. Interestingly, some of the key ones are included in the state’s own digital learning policy road map:

• The public school student enrollment count system should allot funding based on multiple attendance count dates.
• The school finance system should enable fractional funding to be allotted in smaller increments than full-time or half-time only, breaking up per-pupil revenues (PPR) by student and time to reach the course level.
• School finance dollars should be delivered through “backpack funding” (also known as weighted student funding), in which per-pupil revenues (PPR) directly follow a student to the school and courses of his/her choice.

All right, Colorado. Let’s have that conversation. A serious conversation. We need to stop listening to those who tell us what we can’t do, and move forward with a plan that puts dollars inside the student’s backpack (not literally, of course) and creates incentives to spend dollars wisely toward learning success. Are you with me? Watch the video, and spread the word.

While we’re in the spirit of commemoration, let’s be reminded that this week is both Teacher Appreciation Week and National Charter Schools Week. It’s a veritable double dose of education appreciation. The least I can do is help bring them both to your attention.

Colorado’s many good teachers certainly ought to be honored and celebrated for the hard work and the difference they make for many kids. I’m talking about teachers who partner with parents to ensure a child’s academic needs are served, teachers who deliver high-quality instruction in the (real or virtual) classroom, teachers who serve as positive role models, teachers who take the initiative to pursue excellence, teachers who make learning fun! Thankfully, Colorado teachers have membership options that reflect their professional status, even if some of those options remain restricted by disrespectful rules.

But I really wanted to look at ways the two commemorations could be brought together. I didn’t have to look far for a couple great examples. Writing at Ed News Colorado, KIPP Colorado board chair Shepard Nevel explains how teacher appreciation fits perfectly with support for education reform and parental options in charter schools, no matter how much some may take a narrow view and stridently complain to the contrary.

Hey, how about the fact that charter school teachers are a major factor in their success. The Association of American Educators celebrates this fact with its new website devoted specifically to charter schools. Regardless of what kind of educational setting they serve in, research clearly and resoundingly tells us that Teachers Matter.

So go out there and do some appreciating! Whether it’s your teacher, your child’s teacher, or a friend or family member who happens to be a teacher, give them a high-five, a hug, a greeting card or a simple “Thank You” (whatever is most appropriate). At the same time, as we continue to work to promote educational excellence through choice and competition, you also can show your gratitude for the current charter school options that serve tens of thousands of Colorado students.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate four years of edublogging fun!

The bill directs the state to join as a governing board member a consortium of states that is developing a common set of assessments. For assessments in reading, writing, and mathematics, the state board will rely upon assessments developed by the consortium.

What’s the big deal, you say? I thought you’d never ask. There’s a reason why the State Board of Education voted 4-3 to oppose the legislation. The majority is committed to Colorado developing its own tests and maintaining control within the state rather than from outside agencies.

Education Week reporter Catherine Gewertz explains the increasingly lonely position the Centennial State occupies in this process, and what exactly the proposed legislation would do to make us a “governing board member”:

Colorado is one of a dwindling number of “participating” states—five, at the moment—that still belong to both consortia. That role allows the state to be in on conversations about test design without having voting power. It also doesn’t commit the state to using the tests. “Governing” states have voting power but must also promise to use the tests when they become operational in 2014-15.

As a February Pioneer Institute white paper notes, the two federally-funded entities developing the assessments — the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers Consortium (PARCC) and the Smarter Balance Assessment Consortium (SBAC) — are working to develop supplemental materials that directly inform school-level curriculum and instruction. The report’s authors note that the U.S. Department of Education is on:

a road that will certainly cause it to cross the line of statutory prohibitions against federal direction, supervision or control of curriculum and instructional materials – upsetting the federal system.

Why yes, it does sound upsetting. Which is why you just might find me Tweeting about it at this afternoon’s House Education Committee hearing. The action is moving quickly. Only a few days left before the end of the session, but Colorado parents and other citizens need to stay alert.

Later school start times have been touted as a way to increase student performance. There has not, however, been much empirical evidence supporting this claim or calculating how large an effect later start times might have. My results indicate that delaying the start times of middle schools that currently open at 7:30 by one hour would increase math and reading scores by 2 to 3 percentile points, an impact that persists into at least the 10th grade.

These results suggest that delaying start times may be a cost-effective method of increasing student performance. Since the effect of later start times is stronger for the lower end of the distribution of test scores, later start times may be particularly effective in meeting accountability standards that require a minimum level of competency.

Of course, I’m not old enough yet for these findings to provide me with any personal benefit. But this research offers one more small, promising idea to local Colorado education innovators who are trying to find ways to spend existing K-12 dollars more productively.

What do you think? Go ahead and debate amongst yourselves. In the meantime, (yawn) I think I’ll go take a nap. Zzzzzz…

Nor am I talking about the fact that my family’s favorite Friday night show The Devil’s Advocate last week featured a conversation with Tim Farmer from the Professional Association of Colorado Educators about House Bill 1333, the “options for teachers” legislation. Yes, that’s great, too. But I am thinking about something that could be potentially bigger and feed my video-watching appetite for a long time to come.

Choice Media TV’s Bob Bowdon has unveiled the new series Reform School: A Public Forum on Changing American Education. The inaugural episode features a lively discussion on the federal role in education policy with Democrats for Education Reform’s Joe Williams and Dr. Jay Greene of the University of Arkansas. Two clips have been released on the Choice Media site:

Go ahead. Watch it. You know you want to. The clips are right-sized at under 4 minutes and full of good discussion, debate and insight from the leading lights in the world of education reform.

Besides, well-placed rumor has it that an upcoming segment may (!) include a virtual question for one of the guests devised and submitted by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow. Like State Board of Education chairman Bob Schaffer and yours truly, he isn’t a huge fan of federal involvement, which might color his question. Yes, I know you’ve got to be careful of rumors. Believing too many of them might ultimately lead a young soul down the dark and dangerous path to, well, reform school, I guess. Given this image of reform school, though, just how bad of a place would it really be?

I know, wrong “Reform School.” But anyway, here’s wishing the best to the new Choice Media TV series.

Such is the case in Falcon School District 49 outside Colorado Springs, where more than 15 months ago the Board of Education boldly seized the mantel. Within weeks, leaders in the district’s zones of innovation separately began to convene with parents and staff to flesh out plans that would free them from specific district policies and state laws to achieve something greater. District leaders made some tough decisions to streamline functions and administrative personnel.

One local election and various delays later, numerous school innovation proposals yesterday reached the Falcon Board of Education for an important vote. (Pictures from the meeting are on the district’s Facebook page.) Despite objections, the Board was able to squeeze out three votes to approve innovation proposals affecting nine schools.

Taken as a whole, the substance of this major round of proposals was not radical or earth-shattering. Most of the specific requests do not need waivers from the State Board of Education, and not all even require overriding school board policy. Still, staff members at one school voted to opt out of tenure protections. An entire zone (representing a third of the district’s traditional schools) won support to adjust its calendar to meet local curriculum and testing needs. Another high school seeks to create six “career academies.”

Falcon is fast approaching another important crossroads. The issue at hand is local empowerment. Awakened to the realization that too much power has been ceded and delegated to professional administrators, parents and the classroom teachers with whom they choose to partner are taking ownership and gaining the responsibility that comes with self-government. As the process still lives, innovation zone leaders are paying attention. But the school board stands closely divided, and with a vacancy soon to be filled, the transforming process and the fruits it has begun to bear rest precariously in the balance.

The extent of Falcon’s innovation does not end with the proposals ratified last night. Despite that victory, political opponents are dangerously close to shutting down the process gaining community support. As Carol McGraw’s Colorado Springs Gazette story pointed out, two pro-innovation Board members made a dramatic exit from the meeting. That move sends a powerful statement. Is there enough momentum among engaged parents and their allies to face down the challenge and overcome it?

A couple months ago I pointed readers to a thoughtful Education Next article, asked if we can put schools in charge, and held forth Falcon 49 as an example that represents “model steps forward for others in the K-12 world to embrace.” Do I still have such high hopes? Yes, but it certainly hasn’t been as easy as I once thought.