It’s March — which means, if you like basketball as much as I do, there’s a really big tournament coming up. And after a team wins two games in that tourney, then they become part of the cleverly named “Sweet Sixteen.” But what about states that filled out applications for competitive federal K-12 grant money? How does it work out for them?

Well U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is a big basketball fan, too, and was once a good college basketball player. No doubt about that. So in one sense I understand why this morning Duncan announced 16 states are finalists for the first round of Race to the Top money. Colorado, which asked for $377 million to implement reforms, is among them.

Since no one knows exactly how many grant awards will be distributed, it’s hard to say how this all will play out and whether states will even get the amount they asked for. But Colorado hasn’t helped itself with a consensus approach, which among other things has created a council to study how to tie teacher tenure and evaluations to student academic growth, rather than actually try to fix the law itself.

And today Ed News Colorado tells us: Continue Reading »

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Maybe you have heard of Coverdell Education Savings Accounts. Maybe you even have one for your kids. They were created by Congress in 2001 as a way to save $2,000 per year per child for qualified education expenses tax-free. It’s a good way for parents to save money to cover some K-12 private school tuition expenses, or school supplies, or even to provide some savings for a college education.

But it appears, according to the Heritage Foundation’s Patrick Tyrrell, that Congress — by doing nothing — soon may limit what you can use your Coverdell ESA money for: Continue Reading »

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Being the cute little kid that I am and all, you’d probably think I’d be all on board for raising more federal dollars to fund the long-running, early childhood school readiness program known as Head Start. If not as a blogger, at least as a stage prop … right?

Wrong. I mean, it sure sounds like a nice idea on paper. But when you look at the long-awaited comprehensive research on Head Start that finally was released last month, you realize the billions of dollars spent every year is not accomplishing a whole lot of results beyond making us feel good about ourselves.

What do I mean? Check out the report by the Heritage Foundation’s David Muhlhausen and Dan Lips. In the dozens of measurements that made up the areas measured — cognitive development, social development, child health and parenting outcomes — virtually none showed a positive impact from Head Start. Their conclusion? Continue Reading »

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Education News Colorado reports on the latest K-12 student enrollment numbers from the Colorado Department of Education, leading with the following:

State enrollment figures released Monday show the number of Colorado students living in poverty climbed this year at its highest rate since at least 2003 as families grappled with the dismal economy.

As of Oct. 1, 39 percent of students in kindergarten through grade 12 were eligible for participation in the federal free and reduced-price lunch program, a common indicator for poverty.

To qualify for the program, a family of four must report an annual income below $40,793.

Colorado’s overall enrollment was up 1.7 percent this fall, to 832,368 students, while the poverty rate was up 3.08 percent. Enrollment growth has typically exceeded growth in poverty in recent years.

Continue Reading »

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There’s been plenty of debate — here in Colorado, more than in most states — about the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top (RTT) $5 billion grant funding program. On the surface it sounds really good, promoting some commonsense and effective reforms that in many cases should have been enacted years ago. To some extent, it may actually yield positive results.

But now that 40 states have participated in the first round of applications (and Colorado opted for the safe “consensus” approach), we soon will find out whether the faith in RTT is justified. As the editors of the Wall Street Journal note, the first big test will be to see how selective the grant process actually is (H/T Frederick Hess):

It’s been reported that Mr. Duncan may reward as many as a dozen states in the first round. A state like California in that scenario could receive between $350 million and $700 million. That may seem like a lot of money, until you consider that California’s K-12 education budget shortfall next year is expected to be between $5 billion and $10 billion.

Continue Reading »

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Yesterday the state of Colorado turned in its Race to the Top grant funding application to the U.S. Department of Education. Missing the opportunity to do something bold, Colorado instead opted for “consensus” and “collaboration” — as reported by Jeremy Meyer in the Denver Post. Some of my older friends in the Education Policy Center are less surprised by this development than I am.

Still, whether it jeopardizes our chances to win some of the federal cash or not, this approach is disappointing. One of the greatest statesmen (or women) who ever lived, Margaret Thatcher, famously once said: “Consensus is the negation of leadership.” An opportunity for greater leadership was missed. We may still win some money because very few other states opted to be bold either — and in comparison we could look pretty good. But that doesn’t cut it for me. Continue Reading »

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Today is the start of Colorado’s legislative session, and the people under the Golden Dome are wasting no time getting to work on education issues. With Race to the Top deadlines looming, lawmakers are working to speed some bills through the process.

Right now, the Senate Education Committee is considering Senate Bill 36 — which would use data to link teacher performance to teacher preparation programs, so we better know which education schools are getting the job done and which are not.

You can listen live (Senate Committee Room 354) like I am, and you’ll get a sense of just what kind of fast track this legislation is on. CDE associate commissioner Rich Wenning just raced across Colfax Avenue from testifying to the State Board and receiving their unanimous support for SB 36 to the Senate Education Committee. Now the committee is debating amendments.

There are more bills coming, and plenty of hectic action underway. My Education Policy Center friends and I are doing their best to stay on top of the situation. If there are late-breaking developments, please follow me on my Twitter page.

The action is fast and furious, almost enough to wear out an energetic little kid like me.

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Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010 to my mom, a few random basement-dwellers, and the handful of my other regular readers … I will be back on this space on January 4! (Yes, that’s a picture of the world-record largest Lego Christmas tree from Oberhausen, Germany, in 2003. Can you imagine how many presents would fit under it? Not to mention how much fun it would be to help build it! May all your Christmas dreams come true, too!)

A couple days ago I asked how far Colorado was willing to go to reform personnel policies in order to win federal Race to the Top dollars. An interesting report from Education Week’s Michele McNeil gives us every indication that Colorado is among the 25 states with application grants funded by the Gates Foundation, and thus more likely to be on the inside track for Race to the Top.

So there you have it … It’s nice to end on a positive note, no matter how briefly.

Race to the Top is going to be an even hotter education issue for 2010. So rest assured that I will be writing about it plenty, along with other important issues, when I return from my blogging break next year!

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Education leaders here in Colorado have shown a great deal of interest in the federal Race to the Top dollars, a multi-billion dollar program that we are told is designed to spur reform. In order to be eligible for rewards, states will be rated according how well their policies and goals line up with innovative practices mostly aimed at boosting student achievement.

But no category will carry more weight in the Department’s Race to the Top determinations than “Great Teachers and Leaders.” That’s why the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has created a very handy scorecard (PDF) to help you figure out whether Colorado or any other state might be on the right track to pursuing needed “human capital reforms.” I like going to Coors Field and keeping track of what happens on a baseball scorecard, but I don’t think that’s exactly what they mean.

Just what sort of things could Colorado do to get a high score in the area of “Great Teachers and Leaders” and increase our state’s chances of getting Race to the Top funds? Some of the “bold practices” NCTQ indicates would really help us include (in no particular order): Continue Reading »

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Remember the poor kids in our nation’s capital who benefit from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program?

Last night D.C. Parents for School Choice Executive Director Virginia Walden Ford sent out an email alerting supporters about a new troubling development from Capitol Hill:

Just an hour ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the omnibus bill that kills the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). This is devastating news, and it means that if this bill makes it through the U.S. Senate and is signed into law by President Obama, the OSP will slowly die, with no new students permitted to access great schools through this groundbreaking program.

When we began the fight to save this program more than a year ago, we pledged that we would fight hard and fight long and fight to the finish. We said we wouldn’t give up–regardless of the odds. Tonight is no exception. The House passed the voucher-killing omnibus by a tiny margin. The Senate must still act. So, we have not yet been defeated in our effort.

To get the full picture, check out a new Weekly Standard piece by Sheryl Blunt aptly titled “The Teachers’ Unions that Stole Christmas”: Continue Reading »

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