Nobody in the education world is talking about anything else, so why not just make it official and call this “Race to the Top week”? The fallout continues. In an exclusive interview on Tuesday, State Board of Education member Marcia Neal told my Education Policy Center friends that we might see an effort to slow down or roll back Senate Bill 191: Colorado’s landmark teacher tenure and evaluation reform.

I’m not sure if she was thinking it would happen this week, but open up the opinion section of today’s Denver Post, and you’ll see a guest column written by Cherry Creek educator Brian Kurz titled “Go back and fix SB 191.” My modest suggestion would be for the author to go back and check some of his facts and assumptions. First:

[Bill sponsor] Michael Johnston authored SB 191 and pushed its passage as a way to better position Colorado for Race to the Top money. Johnston knew first-hand the obvious flaws with both the language of [sic] bill and the ambiguity of how to achieve its goals. Despite the lack of specifics, the bill was Colorado’s chance at a $175 million lottery.

While Johnston certainly expressed hopes of winning Race to the Top, I don’t know how many times he scrupulously stated that SB 191 was the right thing to do regardless of Race to the Top — something he expressed in public legislative meetings and on widely-heard radio interviews. By the same token, I can’t say we’ve heard Johnston expound on the “obvious flaws” and “ambiguities” in SB 191, but Mr. Kurz seems to know the bill sponsor’s mind.

What “obvious flaws” and “ambiguities”? Check out this rhetorical sleight of hand: Continue Reading »

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I’ve had a great time lately with the cool (and here in Colorado, I mean “cool”) fireworks shows and water fights. Still, it’s good to be back sharing some more good news about school choice. Yes, I’m behind the curve in letting you know about what Louisiana has done, but better late than never — besides, it’s summertime:

Washington, D.C. (June 25, 2010) – Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal this week signed into law the nation’s 20th private school choice program, which will allow children with special needs to use state-funded scholarships to attend the private schools of their parents’ choice.

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About a month ago I brought your attention to the remarkable story from the New Jersey legislature, in which a liberal Democrat committee chairman moved a voucher bill hearing outside after union members hogged all the seats and refused to give up any to children supporting the bill.

Well, today the Wall Street Journal has the latest news on this legislation, and it’s not all good for school choice supporters:

A bill that would give poor children in New Jersey scholarships to attend private schools is bottled up in the Democratic-controlled Legislature even though it has the backing of prominent members of the party.

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Good Monday morning (if there is such a thing… well, it’s more likely during summer vacation, anyways!). I spend plenty of time blogging about how Colorado can do a better job in providing education. But to be honest, our problems don’t match up with New Jersey’s.

Thus, I have to compliment New Jersey Governor Chris Christie for his courage, common sense and commitment in taking on the powerful teachers union lobby in his state. Consider the nearly five minutes watching this video time well spent (H/T Matt Ladner): Continue Reading »

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Yesterday Gov. Bill Ritter signed into law Senate Bill 191. Now all eyes are on the details that will be hashed out by the Governor’s Council on Educator Effectiveness.

The state’s largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association, carried all the weight of opposing SB 191 and pushed amendments that watered down some of the bill’s better features. And yesterday CEA officials turned down the chance to show up for the bill signing event: Continue Reading »

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Update: Reactions to Governor Crist’s decision are pretty strong, including the Eduwonk giving Crist the ironic “it’s all about the kids” award and Andy Smarick labeling the move “the most disappointing education policy decision by a major Republican officeholder in recent memory.”

Just a short post today: Bad education reform news from the state of Florida (I know, it’s hard to believe). Governor Charlie Crist has vetoed Senate Bill 6 — which would have made it easier to dismiss ineffective teachers, while tying teacher compensation more closely to demonstrated gains in student learning.

Was the bill perfect? As Rick Hess–one of the sharpest education reformers out there–points out, certainly not. But it was a “game-changer”:

…[G]iven the fierce battle that the FEA and its brethren have waged against even more nuanced efforts to rethink tenure and pay, the choice is not between this ham-handed bill and a more elegant cousin but between SB6 and the status quo. Given that choice, there’s no contest–give me SB6.

If you have 3 or 4 minutes to spare, listen to education reform godfathers Paul Peterson and Checker Finn try to unravel the politics behind Crist’s decision to veto the bill.

There… See? I can blog about Florida even when I’m not heaping the state with praise.

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It’s a beautiful day, the sun is shining, and the big news in the education world? Colorado didn’t win any Race to the Top (RTT) federal grant money the first time around. Since only two awards were given out — Delaware and Tennessee of all places were the winners — there should be lots of money left over for Round 2 (applications due June 1).

Depending on how you look at it, the news is good and bad. From the standpoint of demonstrating seriousness about advancing real reform, the fact that only two states won suggests the U.S. Department of Education was trying to hold to some kind of selective standard.

But just what the standard might be has some rightly concerned. Andy Smarick — about the most trusted expert in evaluating RTT applications I’ve seen — had Delaware and Tennessee ranked 4th and 5th, respectively. He notes, however, that the two winners “distinguished themselves with good plans and nearly unanimous union and LEA support.” They beat out higher-ranked Florida, Louisiana and Rhode Island, which had stronger plans but more opposition from entrenched in-state education groups.

The venerable Dr. Jay Greene elaborates on the consequences:

If people know that union opposition scuttles a state’s chances, then no state will apply in the future unless they have union support. This means that the unions will dictate what reforms will be pursued, which means that there will be virtually no reform.

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No need for me to rehash my concerns about Governor Bill Ritter’s Council on Educator Effectiveness. My views hardly have changed over the weekend.

But since I have to wake up on a Monday morning, the only thing better than a snow day is seeing my views validated by an important expert group like the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ). They just released a report on the 16 Race to the Top finalist states, analyzing their proposals on the “Great Teachers and Leaders” section — which just so happens to be the weightiest single piece of RTT.

The report, titled Navigating the Race to the Top Traffic Jam (PDF), uses traffic signal lights to describe whether a state deserves to Go forward on its reform plan, to Proceed with Caution, or to Stop and try again. Continue Reading »

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Ed News Colorado has a story about yesterday’s first meeting of Governor Bill Ritter’s Council for Educator Effectiveness:

Thursday’s session, held at the Lowry headquarters of the state Community College System, was the usual first-meeting mix of introductions, setting expectations and deciding on a future meeting schedule.

The introductions gave some hints of how individual members are approaching the 18-month assignment.

“It’s always the adults who find it hardest to change.” – Lt. Gov. Barbara O’Brien, who welcomed the group but isn’t a member

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The more things change, the more they stay the same. Or so it seems. The article in today’s Denver Post, headlined “Nearly one in three Colo. graduates needs remedial courses in college, study finds”, almost could have appeared the year before … or two years ago … or the year before that.

To be exact, the new report from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (PDF) finds that 29.3 percent of Colorado’s 2008 high school graduates who attended a Colorado two-year or four-year college needed formal remedial help in math, reading and/or writing.

Six years ago my Education Policy Center friend Marya DeGrow completed an issue paper on the same topic, titled Cutting Back on Catching Up (PDF). Using the same CCHE data, she noted that 26.6 percent of Colorado’s 2002 high school graduates needed remediation — at a cost of $18.9 million to the state of Colorado and $15.4 million to the college students themselves. Continue Reading »

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