The must-read, full-length education story of the week is a piece by Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect, titled “The Test Generation.” Before you think this little guy has gone completely loony tunes, you have to know a couple things:

1. The article is all about Colorado, and mainly about the implementation of Senate Bill 191, but it opens with and focuses plenty of attention on the remarkable pioneering work of Harrison School District Two; and
2. While I don’t agree with all the article’s points and conclusions, it’s a mostly fair assessment that provides some interesting insights into Colorado’s efforts to forge ahead on enhancing educator effectiveness.

Showing the story’s release was timed well, earlier this week the co-chairs of the State Council on Educator Effectiveness presented their thick set of recommendations (PDF) to the State Board of Education for consideration. More thoughts on that to come in the near future.

More interesting is Goldstein’s close look at Harrison superintendent Mike Miles, whose focused leadership in the development of a groundbreaking new teacher evaluation and pay system have unsurprisingly garnered criticism from the teachers union. Yet so far the results speak for themselves: Continue Reading »

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Last fall a story about a report on teacher pay reform made the front page of the Denver Post: “Offering teachers bonuses for student growth didn’t raise scores, study finds.” Yes, the front page. Back then I shared a fresh reaction with insights from national experts like Rick Hess concerning what the study actually did or did not say about the Nashville incentive pay experiment.

Well, a conversation of that report in the context of teacher pay reform research shows up in a newly released issue paper from my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow, titled Pioneering Teacher Compensation Reform: K-12 Educator Pay Innovation in Colorado. The focus of the new paper is on Colorado’s significant number of local school districts and charter schools improving their teacher pay systems by moving rewards and incentives away from seniority toward measured performance.

The star of the group? If I had to pick one, it definitely would be Harrison School District 2 for its Effectiveness and Results (E and R) program — currently in its first full year of operation. Harrison’s program definitely is not an MPINO (as coined by Stuart Buck and Jay Greene). It will be very interesting to see the results it yields. Other school leaders should be paying close attention.

Unlike Harrison’s E and R program, the Nashville experiment was not true performance pay. I didn’t expect the results to be terribly successful or profound, but splashing its findings on the front page has led some readers to draw confused or misguided conclusions about K-12 compensation reform. Now, thanks to the keen eye of the National Council on Teacher Quality, we see that the U.S. Department of Education has rated the Nashville study as “does not meet…evidence standards.”

While I wouldn’t expect the Denver Post to highlight the Department’s critique on the front page, some short follow-up piece would appear to be in order — seeing as so much attention was given to the report back in September. Maybe such a follow-up could highlight what Harrison is doing in contrast, or even mention the new Education Policy Center report. Hey, I’m young. I can dream, can’t I?

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In a high-tech media world, it’s still lots of fun to get an actual print copy of the Sunday newspaper. That’s what my parents do. Sunday afternoon as I was digging through the newest edition of the Denver Post to find the color comics, I ran across something called the “Perspective” section.

What did I find, but two (not just one) very interesting pieces on K-12 education in our state — things I have told you about before right here on the blog. How exciting is that! Continue Reading »

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Colorado Springs Gazette editor Wayne Laugesen posted a great piece last night urging citizens to give District 49 leadership a chance with its bold plan that favors students over bureaucrats:

The school board has decided the large district will go forward without a superintendent — an experiment educators are sure to watch throughout the United States. If Colorado Department of Education officials approve the district’s anticipated application to become an “innovation” district, a chief executive officer will oversee the education program with less authority than a superintendent. Other day-to-day responsibilities, traditionally managed by a superintendent, will shift to principals, teachers and others directly in contact with students. It’s a decentralization plan, designed to focus resources more directly on students and those who work with them. It’s the Marine Corps approach, in which all personnel work the trenches.

You can read his piece and then vote on the question: “Do you support D-49 in eliminating top administrative positions, including the Superintendent?” I hope you join me in choosing the first option: “Yes, it’s a good idea.” Continue Reading »

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Quick hit for today from The Associated Press, highlighting results from a new education survey:

An overwhelming majority of Americans are frustrated that it’s too difficult to get rid of bad teachers, while most also believe that teachers aren’t paid enough, a new poll shows.

The Associated Press-Stanford University poll found that 78 percent think it should be easier for school administrators to fire poorly performing teachers. Yet overall, the public wants to reward teachers — 57 percent say they are paid too little, with just 7 percent believing they are overpaid and most of the rest saying they’re paid about right.

A full copy of the survey data is available here. When asked about problems facing American schools today, reuspondents listed the following as “extremely” or “very” serious, in descending order: Continue Reading »

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Update, 11/9: Douglas County’s choice proposals have been noticed east of the border (the Colorado border, that is). A blogger at Kansas Education notes:

…why are so many private schools religious ones? The answer. As a parent, you’re probably already paying taxes to support a school district to which you can send your child. What’s going to motivate you to pay tuition on top of that? Religious faith is one compelling reason.

Let parents take some of the money spent on behalf of their child to a private school, and you’ve expanded the range of choices for those parents. Isn’t that a good thing? Most Americans like having more choices rather than fewer.

Update, PM: A great resource I overlooked is this Douglas County Choice Task Force FAQ sheet (PDF). Find out why the task force exists, what it’s been up to and what’s coming next.

I’d like to think it was my Friday blog post about Douglas County’s private school choice proposal that fired up everyone. While I may be just a little tyke, I’m not that naive! Anyway, let the discussion (and the good times) roll….

On Saturday the Denver Post’s Jeremy Meyer followed up with a second straight front-page piece, more favorably balanced than the first. It also shed some more light on the discussion, including some informed national perspective:

Douglas County could be the first wealthy, high-performing district to introduce vouchers, said Frederick Hess, director of education policy studies at the Washington, D.C.-based American Enterprise Institute.

“It’s unusual,” he said. “If families in Douglas County right now find themselves being asked to send their children to public schools that are promoting values and norms they find offensive, if we allow them a way to be satisfied with their kids’ education, it strikes me as an eminently sensible way to approach the problem.”

Good to see the venerable Rick Hess weigh in. Still, some will declare that Douglas County’s choice proposal is a sign that the sky is falling. Fortunately not the major voices on the state’s largest newspaper. Denver Post columnist Vince Carroll dispels the anti-choice mythology, while the editorial board welcomes the debate and says: “Why not talk about vouchers?”

Some major Denver radio hosts are saying “Why not?,” too. Dan Caplis spent a lot of time talking it up on Friday, and Mike Rosen is discussing it this morning. As much as I like to, though, I can’t claim the credit for all the attention it’s getting.

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‘Tis the political campaign season, fa la la la la…. Yesterday the Denver Post published its endorsements of Colorado State Board of Education candidates. This year 3 of the 7 seats are up for election — two open after Board members are retiring and one held by an appointed Board member who stepped in to fill out a term. So what does the Post think?:

The Colorado State Board of Education will face many important issues in the coming years, not the least of which is choosing a new education commissioner.

The balance of the seven-member board is crucial, and we hope voters will choose to elect reformers who will continue the good work that has put Colorado at the forefront of education reform.

One critical issue is the approval of the nuts and bolts of a new teacher evaluation system that will link teacher tenure to student achievement.

Now, look. Little Eddie doesn’t touch candidate endorsements with a 10-foot pole. All you big people out there have to decide who you want to serve on the State Board of Education. But maybe you’re wondering what it is the Board actually does. That I can help with. We’ve got an iVoices podcast to explain.

And there’s something else I hope you keep in mind. The Post is urging you to put education reformers on the State Board. But I’ll go a step further: Wouldn’t it be a lot cooler to have some education transformers? A State Board where there’s “more than meets the eye,” maybe — but definitely one filled with bold visionaries interested in helping to serve all Colorado kids? I thought you might agree with that.

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In his role as writer and contributing editor for School Reform News, my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow recently came out with two articles on charter school developments in other states. First up is a research-based boost for nontraditional public school excellence in one of the Heartland’s cities:

Researchers at Vanderbilt University’s National Center on School Choice followed students in Indianapolis who switched from traditional public schools to charter schools. The study found the group, which included students from 2nd through 10th grade, made substantial strides in math achievement and smaller gains in reading. African-Americans made statistically significant gains in math, and Hispanics demonstrated significant growth in reading.

“Indianapolis was a district in high need of innovative schools,” said Anna Nicotera, coauthor of the study and director of research and evaluation at the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools (NAPCS). “These schools appear to have filled that niche.”

Continue Reading »

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Did you know that in many Colorado school districts teachers and other employees can opt into union membership and automatic dues payments at any time but that opting out is a much trickier business? It gets even worse: Did you know in a few Colorado school districts non-union teachers and other employees have a brief window of time each year to opt out of paying unwanted fees worth the full amount of union dues? (Congrats if you already knew. You probably saw the video about Colorado teachers unions.)

Especially if these facts are new to you, I invite you to check out a newly-published article by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow. The September edition of Liberty Ink Journal features his article titled “Hotel California for Colorado Teachers” (on page 15 of the print edition, page 17 of the electronic issue). To find out more about union opt-out processes and periods, including local details, visit our Independent Teachers website. Continue Reading »

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Last night’s House Education Committee hearing on Senate Bill 191 went really late. My mom made me go to bed, so I missed a lot of it. But my Education Policy Center friends tell me it was quite the show. And given the reports I’ve seen, I have to agree.

Kudos goes to three reporters (along with legislative staff and others) who stayed late to burn the midnight oil until the hearing ended at 12:37 AM. They have a strong case for earning overtime — if not combat — pay. Oh, the melodrama their stories just begin to tell…. Continue Reading »

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