Today’s lead story at Ed News Colorado highlights the disparity in private parent and community giving within Denver Public Schools. Reporter Charlie Brennan notes that no school raked in more than the nearly $230,000 at Bromwell Elementary, a school with a low 8 percent study poverty rate. The general findings are no surprise, yet nonetheless disappointing:

At the other end of the poverty – and fund-raising – spectrum is Johnson Elementary in southwest Denver, which reported fewer than $3,000 in private gifts in 2010-11.

If a donation of five or six figures came through the door of the school, where 96 percent of students are low-income, said Principal Robert Beam, “You’d be writing a story about a principal who is dancing in the streets all day long.”

The timing of the story is remarkable. Why? Yesterday substantial checks went out to 14 metro area public schools and 2 public charter management organizations (CMOs) serving high-poverty student populations, with awards totaling $500,000. And they didn’t just go out to schools based on need, but to schools with a proven record of serving their students well: Continue Reading »

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Raise your hand if you agree with me that the USA — and Colorado in particular — can do a better job preparing enough students for success in the areas science, math and technology. Don’t worry about feeling self-conscious if you are in a room with other people. If you can’t overcome it, at least mentally raise your hand. That’s right. If you agree with me, and I don’t see how you couldn’t, then you should be excited by some news I have to share.

The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) is a four-year-old program (younger than me!) that has demonstrated successful results in increasing the number of students who pass Advanced Placement (AP) exams in math and science, particularly among underprivileged students. The Colorado Legacy Foundation has reported similar positive results here in our state for the seven schools who participated in a less-than-fully-vamped version of the program in 2010-11.

The news? The effective math and science program is expanding dramatically in Colorado: Continue Reading »

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My Education Policy Center friends told you the judge’s decision last Friday to put the brakes on the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program would create a lot of chaos for families. That’s the question of the hour: What are the more than 300 students who had received scholarships (and some had already started schools) going to do?

Just like families make different choices based on their students’ educational needs, so many of their fallback scenarios will be different. FOX 31 News highlights one Castle Rock family:

Two of Becky Barnes’ kids were enrolled in the voucher program. Now unable to pay their private school tuition she is working hard to get them enrolled in public schools. Her first grader will go back to the neighborhood school.

Her 7th grader will attend cyber school. Other families are choosing to stay at their private school and pay the tuition.

Becky Barnes is one of three parents whose emergency education plans were documented today in an article by Karin Piper. Another parent was Diana Oakley, mother of Nate Oakley, for whom things seem to be working out at least for now: Continue Reading »

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This week one of my Education Policy Center friends was privileged with the opportunity to visit a Denver charter school that fills a niche for 16- to 21-year olds who have dropped out and/or been neglected by the system. Life Skills Center of Denver is an alternative education campus that uses computer-assisted instruction in a teacher-guided laboratory setting to help high school students get remediation in lagging math and reading skills with the goal of graduation and success in life.

In 2007, after four years of operation, Life Skills was in danger of having its charter revoked and being shut down. The State Board intervened to save the school after the DPS board’s vote based on legitimate concerns with poor results that showed up on testing measures. As Denise at Colorado Charters noted back then, new principal Santiago Lopez had already taken steps to improve the school. And Alan at Ed News Colorado came around to seeing Life Skills as a “special case” that deserved to stay open:

If DPS had a viable alternative for these kids, one that was being drained by the existence of Life Skills, I’d favor shutting down the school. But these are kids DPS has given up on, and vice-versa. What possible harm is there in giving them another chance, even if it’s less than ideal?

Continue Reading »

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The warm weather here in Colorado and the lure of the swimming pool are the main reasons why readers here just get a quick update for today. Ed News Colorado’s Charlie Brennan reports that ideas for 11 new schools (eight of them charters) were pitched this week to the Denver school board.

The public charter sector in Denver is brimming with activity and opportunity for greater growth. Highly successful West Denver Prep and KIPP Sunshine Peak were among those proposing expansions to the board. Other proposals were two all-boys (Yippee!) charter schools — Miller-McCoy Academy and Sims-Fayola International Academy. Continue Reading »

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February is a big month for awards. There’s the Oscars for movies and the Grammys for popular music. Before both of them comes the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the winner of the most-watched sporting event: the Super Bowl. So I thought today would be a great opportunity to highlight a couple of freshly-announced education-related awards.

First and foremost, the group Stand for Children Colorado yesterday announced well-deserved recognition, along with giving out $1,000 each, to 10 superhero teachers across the state:

At Stand for Children, we’ve seen the impact a great teacher can make. And after reading nearly 100 nominations for outstanding teachers across the state, we know you have, too. Please join us in celebrating the ten teachers listed below who have won $1,000 to recognize and reward their commitment.

The list includes teachers from Evans to Grand Junction and all along the Front Range, teachers who represent the elementary and middle and high school levels, as well as six neighborhood schools, three charters and an alternative school. Congratulations to each and every one of them! Read the entries to see what their nominations had to say about them.

Now for something mostly different. Matt Ladner this morning has accepted — on behalf of Lindsey Burke as well — a prestigious Bunkum Award from the “NEA’s ‘academic’ mouthpiece” for their Heritage Foundation analysis of Florida’s success in closing the racial achievement gap. Rich with irony, Ladner explains how their Think Tank Project critic actually published a table undermining her critique and how she ignored some earlier work he had done with Dan Lips, then of the Heritage Foundation.

Some of us out here in the hinterlands confess to being a little envious, but send out kudos for the important honor. I also am glad he chose not to use his acceptance “speech” to ramble on and thank all the little people. I say that, despite so often being considered a little person myself. Mom says I still have a lot of growing to do, you know.

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Yesterday’s Denver Post featured an interesting story on a successful program at Denver’s Abraham Lincoln High School and its feeder schools to engage parents:

The collaboration is focused on aligning academics and empowering parents — providing them with training, taking them to visit colleges, encouraging them to volunteer and getting them to attend parent-teacher conferences.

Not long ago, it was typical for only 100 parents to attend parent-teacher conferences at the high school. This year, an estimated 1,500 parents showed up.

Wow, that’s a huge improvement! No doubt parental involvement is an important contributing factor to student success. That includes the research-based findings that show students fare better when their parents actively choose the school their children attend. And even better if they make a well-informed choice. That’s one of the main reasons my Education Policy Center friends have created and maintain the very valuable School Choice for Kids website.

So yeah, my first instinct would be to hesitate at my mom and dad showing up at every parent-teacher conference. (Kind of like my hesitation at having to eat broccoli and other green vegetables for dinner.) But on the other hand, odds are that kind of interaction is only going to benefit my academic success in the long run. When parents choose a school, especially if they choose wisely, their involvement means that much more.

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I only have time for a short posting this morning, but thought you should be aware of the newly-released results of the 12th-grade NAEP (National Achievement of Educational Progress) test scores. Instead of weighing in, I’ll point you to the analysis of a few others. First, Fordham’s Checker Finn writes:

The big news, alas, isn’t news at all, which is that proficiency levels remain dreadfully low in both reading and math (worse in math), that gains have been tiny, that college readiness is nowhere near what it ought to be, that the achievement gap hasn’t narrowed by a micron….

Continue Reading »

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I learned some good news today: While Colorado K-12 public schools expect to receive $160 million in Edujobs money to save more jobs than were lost and to preserve the status quo, some good news arrived: Colorado also will receive a 3-year, $40.8 million federal grant to help innovative charter schools with start-up expenses. Denise at Colorado Charters has posted the official CDE press release.

While certainly some of the new schools I’ve highlighted will be eligible for funding, there’s another new school featured today in the Fort Collins Coloradoan: Continue Reading »

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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.

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