Yesterday morning the Colorado Department of Education unveiled the latest CSAP (state assessment) results. It’s hard to believe: in the past these events attracted a lot of fanfare. But for the most recent announcement, I missed the brass band and confetti. Maybe because there wasn’t any.

And that doesn’t take into account the fact the release was scheduled on primary election day, which limited the news media coverage. Oh, well.

The Denver Post reports that CSAP scores once again were flat, though there were some notable bright spots, like Beach Court Elementary and the West Denver Prep and Denver School of Science and Technology charter schools in DPS, and Mapleton Public Schools.

On the larger scale, however, Colorado education reformers can be anything but satisfied. Disappointed would be a better word. We still have a long ways to go. It’s time to look at what the more successful Colorado schools and districts are doing while also broadening our vision to look at other states with clearly successful track records (e.g., Florida’s education reforms).

No Comments »

Colorado has been a national leader in public school choice. One of the small facets of that choice is the Innovation School concept pioneered by a 2008 state law. These public schools or school districts can seek waivers from some state laws to have more flexibility in program and/or personnel policies.

Up till now, the handful of schools that have sought and received Innovation School status are all located in Denver, designed to serve challenging urban student populations. But in the 2008 law’s own pioneer spirit, the tiny rural Kit Carson School District on the Eastern Plains is changing the trend.

On the newest iVoices podcast (click here to listen to the MP3 in another window), Kit Carson superintendent Gerald Keefe talks about his district’s Innovation waiver proposal to be brought before the State Board of Education in coming months. Rather than wait for the groundbreaking new SB 191 to go into effect, Kit Carson has some ideas of its own how to implement a more performance-based teacher evaluation and dismissal system.

In any case, it’s good to be reminded that innovation comes in all shapes and sizes — and population densities.

No Comments »

As I write this, I’m listening to the Mike Rosen Show on AM 850 KOA Denver as he interviews director Madeleine Sackler about her newly released edu-documentary The Lottery.

A month ago my Education Policy Center friends attended a special screening of this film. The Lottery is back in Denver this week, and you can watch it at the Starz Film Center at the Tivoli. Continue Reading »

No Comments »

Ed News Colorado reported last Friday that a new Denver Public Schools policy has started to reap some small dividends:

Fewer Denver teachers unable to find jobs on their own were placed into the city’s highest-poverty and lowest-achieving schools for 2010-11, according to district figures.

That’s a reversal of what’s occurred for at least three years, when the poorest schools were more likely to be assigned teachers who either did not apply to be there or were not chosen for hiring by the principal.

Because of collective bargaining agreements and standard bureaucratic practices in most larger urban school districts (81 out of the nation’s 100 largest district, Education Week reports), the reality for some time has been that the unwanted teachers get shuffled around and force-placed in the poorest schools with the neediest students. A much bigger problem for Denver than the surrounding suburban districts, this “dance of the lemons” is not exactly a formula for closing the academic achievement gap.

The new Denver Public Schools policy makes it more difficult for forced placement of teachers into high-poverty schools and prohibits forced placement into low-performing schools. In addition to easing the effects on high-need schools, it looks like the policy may have helped curb the number of forced placements altogether: from 107 last year to 64 as of Friday’s report.

It’s not a huge number of teachers, and it’s not an earth-shattering policy change. But it’s a positive step. And with the help of the new tenure reform bill SB 191, DPS indeed has a better chance of meeting Superintendent Tom Boasberg’s stated goal of “zero direct placements.”

Onward and upward….

No Comments »

It’s almost too obvious to say, but worth repeating to those who don’t want to listen: Not all public charter schools are good. But nearly all are offering families a viable education alternative, and many are outperforming their traditional counterparts — some by a significant amount. Like KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program).

A new study conducted for KIPP by Mathematica shows exactly that. KIPP charter schools are making a positive impact on the primarily poor and minority student populations they serve. The examination of academic progress at 22 KIPP middle schools yielded some glowing results, including:

• Nearly all 22 schools have significant positive effects on student math performance over three years, mostly in the second and third year
• Most schools have significant positive effects on student reading performance over the second and third years, not as many in the first year
• “Estimated impacts are frequently large enough to substantially reduce race- and income-based achievement gaps within three years of entering KIPP.”
• Most KIPP schools have more students held back a grade (largely because they don’t practice social promotion) but have no higher levels of student attrition than their public school counterparts

Perhaps most interesting of all is the way this study destroys the myth that KIPP owes its success to attracting students who are more gifted than their peers. As the report highlights: Continue Reading »

No Comments »

The faithful readers of Ed Is Watching (I love you, mom and dad!) know that during the past two summers I have dedicated many blog posts to introducing interesting new education options in Colorado. Links to all the posts are compiled on our A Glimpse at New Schools page.

This year, I’ve decided to get an earlier head start while we head for the mid-summer doldrums. To kick off the 2010-11 edition, it seems appropriate to highlight the offspring of some golden oldies. I’ve written before about West Denver Prep middle school and Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) — both top-notch, “distinguished” charter schools.

The great news is that these schools won’t be contained, but rather are multiplying under successful models and sound leadership. The 2010-11 school year doubles the number of West Denver Prep campuses from two to four, with new sites shared at Lake Middle School (starting with 6th graders only) and Emerson Street School.

And DSST (the original campus in the Stapleton neighborhood contains both a middle school and a high school) will open a second campus in far northeast Denver’s Green Valley Ranch. If DSST II hits the same trajectory of getting 100 percent of students ready to succeed and complete four-year college, it will have done a great service.

For the sake of the students they serve, here’s wishing continued and growing success for two of Colorado’s most remarkable charter schools as they expand into the 2010-11 school year and beyond.

1 Comment »

Years after changing the way they pay teachers with ProComp, Denver Public Schools finally has the first round of research in showing how well it has worked. Ed News Colorado yesterday reported on the University of Colorado evaluation:

– Student growth on state reading and math exams was higher after the implementation of ProComp in 2005-06. Researchers used a measure similar to the Colorado Growth Model to analyze DPS test results from 2002-03 through 2008-09. They found all teachers’ median growth percentiles – essentially, how much teachers are moving students – increased about 4 points after ProComp.

– Teachers hired after ProComp appear to outperform those hired before ProComp. Teachers hired after Dec. 31, 2005 are required to join ProComp; it is voluntary for those already employed by DPS. Those hired under ProComp demonstrate higher first-year achievement, between 2 to 4 points in median growth percentiles, and the differences persist through the first three years.

– High-poverty schools with high levels of ProComp participation are seeing fewer teachers leave. Retention rates in schools designated “hard to serve,” which yields a $2,344 annual bonus, are still not as high as retention rates in more affluent schools. But those high-poverty schools where most teachers are in ProComp have seen a sharp increase in retention since 2006-07.

A long, long time ago — like almost three years ago!! — my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow published a paper titled Denver’s ProComp and Teacher Compensation Reform in Colorado (PDF). It’s a handy reference, a milepost if you will, because much has happened since Ben wrote things like this: Continue Reading »

1 Comment »

While we certainly have our challenges and plenty of room to grow, Colorado is a state blessed with a healthy variety of public school choice. Among the growing number of options are innovation schools, made possible by a bipartisan 2008 state law.

Colorado was the first state to implement innovation schools — something I have written about numerous times here. The idea is to provide greater freedom from burdensome state regulations, district policies and collective bargaining provisions by allowing individual schools to formulate proposals that give them greater autonomy and flexibility over decisions surrounding personnel, program and budget.

Of course, even the best education reform ideas encounter problems being put into action. As Education News Colorado reported last week, Colorado’s first three innovation schools (all based in the city of Denver — Manual High School, Montclair Elementary, & Cole Arts and Science Academy) have sought and received a formal legal opinion that school district officials are violating the Innovation Schools Act by refusing to relinquish control over key areas of budget and personnel. Continue Reading »

No Comments »

Several weeks ago I very briefly highlighted a School Reform News piece written by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow on an innovative public charter school network in California that may someday soon come to Colorado.

The name? Rocketship Education. It couldn’t be more cool, makes me think about becoming an astronaut someday. Even better, the school is helping needy students in San Jose learn a lot using a unique hybrid model to divide instruction between the traditional classroom and the online “Learning Lab.” Rocketship schools are able to save money and resources for other key priorities in the process.

Well, Rocketship CEO John Danner is coming to Denver this Friday to speak at the Donnell-Kay Foundation’s Hot Lunch event. Before making his trip, Mr. Danner joined Ben DeGrow for a new iVoices podcast (click the link or the play button below) to discuss what sets his schools apart, his vision for education reform and possible future plans for Rocketship Education (maybe coming to Colorado?):

1 Comment »

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 isn’t enough room for those kids at the (relatively) local charter school.

Seem familiar? Gulp. It sounds like there isn’t much that could make this movie even better. If you want my opinion, I think they should change the name to “Waiting for Spiderman,” because he is really a much cooler superhero. He climbs buildings, shoots spider webs from his hands, and doesn’t need a phone booth (a what?) to change clothes….

Well, anyway, here’s the brand-new trailer of Waiting for Superman that just might get you to anticipate this movie as much as I am: Continue Reading »

No Comments »