About 120 sixth- and seventh-grade girls who enrolled in the Girls Athletic Leadership School now inhabit the third floor of Calvary Temple, near Cherry Creek mall.

G.A.L.S. is the only single-gender public school in Colorado, aimed at empowering girls and providing them opportunities denied in a co-ed setting.

Interesting factoid about the Girls Athletic Leadership School. What a clever acronym, too. Maybe it’s time for an all-boys charter school. Let’s call it the Gents United Youth School (G.U.Y.S.). I’m all about equity and balance, you know. Anyone with me on starting G.U.Y.S.?

(Seriously, given its unique status and the 120 Denver-area girls it serves, I do wish the G.A.L.S. all the best.)

Anyway, as the Post story points out, the school is focused on serving a poorer, minority student population with the Expeditionary Learning program. But the school’s website also explains that the mission and long-term goals are bigger than just Denver:

The mission of The Girls Athletic Leadership Schools (GALS) is to develop a national brand of public girls’ schools predicated on best practices in gender-based and active learning. The schools provide an innovative and necessary educational option that engages health and wellness as a key-contributing factor in optimizing academic achievement and self-development.

The school has opened this year with 6th and 7th grade girls, so it’s obviously too late to get on board this year. But families interested in applying through the charter school lottery for next year can connect with the school on the enrollment page.

Other new schools for 2010-11:

• SkyView Academy (Highlands Ranch)
• Vista PEAK Exploratory School (Aurora)
• West Denver Prep and DSST Add Campuses

First, Education Next recently released the results of its 2010 annual survey. The bottom line?

With the exceptions of school spending and teacher tenure, the divisions between ordinary Democrats and Republicans on education policy matters are quite minor. To be sure, disagreements among Americans continue to linger. Indeed, with the exception of student and school accountability measures, Americans as a whole do not stand steadfastly behind any single reform proposal. Yet the most salient divisions appear to be within, not between, the political parties. And we find growing support for several strategies put forward in recent years by leaders of both political parties—most notably online education and merit pay.

In particular, Education Next’s Paul Peterson and Marty West talk about the growing support for charter schools — most notably among minority groups and parents who live in neighborhoods where charter schools operate.

Second, this morning the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released its latest version of the Report Card on American Education. Matthew Ladner, Andrew LeFevre and Dan Lips analyze and rate each state on two basic frameworks:

1. Measured performance and academic growth among the state’s low-income students; and
2. The quality of the state’s education policies in the areas of choice, accountability and educator effectiveness

Interestingly, Colorado ranks 17th in the former category and second nationally in the latter category. (Which is the only state leading Colorado? You guessed it: Florida.)

As we move forward, I hope both sets of data help to inform Colorado’s education reform strategies and efforts.

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:

Wednesday was the first day of classes for approximately 200 students at Liberty Common High, 2745 Minnesota Drive. The high school is an extension of Liberty Common School, a tuition-free charter school contracted through the Poudre School District.

For now, seventh- through 10th-grade students inhabit the building, a 27,000-square-foot facility with 14 classrooms, a library and a large space being used as the gym, auditorium and lunchroom, said Bob Schaffer, director of secondary schools for Liberty Common. The building, which formerly housed a now-defunct charter school, underwent some minor renovations during the summer to get it ready for students this fall, Schaffer said.

Liberty Common School will expand into a K-12 school by the fall of 2012, Schaffer said. Students in kindergarten through sixth grade will continue to attend classes at the other Liberty Common facility, 1725 Sharp Point Dr.

Yes, THAT Bob Schaffer — current chairman of the State Board of Education, among many other things.

I don’t know who wrote it, but you really have to read the news from Liberty Common High School. Entertaining, informative, encouraging, optimistic, compelling… all in one! On the surface at least, this looks like a successful school in the making (following in the tradition of Liberty Common K-8). Can’t wait to see the results!

For the preschool-through-5th grade students at SkyView Academy in Highlands Ranch, a south Denver suburb, the inaugural school year doesn’t start until after Labor Day. That’s because the new school building is in the final stages of construction and is slated for a grand opening on August 26.

The school’s mission statement explains what it’s all about:

SkyView Academy offers a research-based, content-rich liberal arts program with a commitment to foreign language studies and community service.

As with so many other Colorado charter schools, SkyView has adopted the Core Knowledge curriculum — showing parental demand remains high for this proven focus on cultural literacy and solid content. But as reported on the website, the Highlands Ranch school also will integrate Core Knowledge with Spanish language acquisition and a character development program.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Merlin Holmes, long active in the charter school world, SkyView plans to expand upward in grades served. Its initial P-5 scope will grow a year at a time until it takes students through 8th grade in 2013-14, while the high school campus will open in 2011-12 with 9th grade and eventually graduate its first class in 2015. If SkyView sounds like an appealing possibility for your family, you will want to fill out an intent to enroll form (PDF) available from the school’s website.

Other new schools for 2010-11:

• Vista PEAK Exploratory School (Aurora)
• West Denver Prep and DSST Add Campuses

Anyway, given one of the toughest job assignments out there, Rhee continues to do great things. Two examples have graced the news pages recently:

1. The Washington Times reported that Rhee is backing vouchers for special-needs D.C. students in the style of Florida’s successful McKay Scholarship program. Matt Ladner explains how such a program would save the school district money while increasing parental satisfaction and improving programs through competition. Congress pulled funding from the voucher program for D.C.’s poor students, but Rhee isn’t letting that be an excuse to give up on school choice.
2. Then, just a couple days later, the Washington Post reported that Rhee used her upgraded IMPACT evaluation system and newly negotiated powers to remove 165 ineffective teachers from the classroom and put another 737 “minimally effective” teachers on one-year notice. Overdue and badly needed in one of the worst-performing school systems. Glad to see the important story put into proper context, the sage Rick Hess takes his hat off to Rhee.

Once again I’m inspired by the bold leadership and tough love from the D.C. chancellor. Are any other officials out there paying attention?

Peterson muses that a Republican takeover of Congress this November just might save Obama’s presidency… by saving his education reform program:

Will a Republican majority in the House, coupled with a conservative majority in the Senate, throw the president a lifeline? As the presidential election heats up, many Republicans will urge relentless opposition to everything, even if it fits the education reform agenda. But that backward-looking strategy will only give substance to inevitable Democratic charges that Republicans are negative nabobs of Know Nothing. If the president proposes something school reformers like, Republicans will have to sign on.

It’s an interesting argument. Feel free to chime in. Judging by the way my mom and dad yell at the TV a lot during the political news programs, I’m guessing there isn’t a whole lot that President Obama and Republicans agree on generally. If school choice and education reform is that one thing, then here’s to making some important progress in that area. Because it would be better than the situation we have now in Congress, that’s for sure.

Whether we realize it or not, I’m beginning to believe I am lucky enough to be coming of age during a truly transformational time in public schooling and education reform. I mean now. On that note, here are a couple of items I stumbled across today that may not seem to go together. Maybe it’s kind of a hodgepodge, but so what?

First, in the Wall Street Journal (H/T Matt Ladner), John Fund’s Political Diary highlights a speech made by mega-billionaire Bill Gates right here in Colorado at the Aspen Ideas Festival:

Undermining public education, he said, is a system that channels too much money to pensions for retired teachers. He predicts that state and local governments will have to lay off 100,000 active teachers in the next couple of years.

Gates then went on to call out state lawmakers for “fraudulent” budgeting systems that hide the true cost of these massive pension promises — promises my parents, and ultimately I, have to pay for. It’s almost like Gates was channeling Independence Institute senior fellow Dr. Barry Poulson and his PERA Transparency Project.

Shadowy accounting tricks are the past. Transparency and intelligent, cost-saving pension reform are the future.

Speaking of the future, thanks to Eduwonk for pointing out a fabulous opportunity for education entrepreneurs. A group called Kauffman Labs in Kansas City is seeking to support “passionate, disruptive, driven” people with revolutionary ideas to put into action in the area of education. Sounds like a great opportunity for someone (or someones) in Colorado!

For one, I’m sure my Education Policy Center friends would love the opportunity some day to share more stories of entrepreneurial success, as they have with John Danner and Rocketship Education, for example.

In the end, Colorado and other states need policies that are friendly to education entrepreneurs, that provide opportunity for success and space to expand tested and proven innovation without unreasonable regulation — and, of course, with greater parental choice. If we keep working at it with a smile on our faces, I believe it will happen.

All part of a bright future changing before our eyes.

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.

Now, at least one education reform expert out there — Rick Hess — is wary that films like The Lottery and Waiting for Superman (coming soon) may go a little over the top. Yes, maybe he’s being old and cranky, but there is a valid caution in his conclusion:

So, I’m torn. I think these movies have a valuable and constructive role to play, so long as advocates don’t deem it a substitute for reasoned argument. I guess I’m for edu-agitprop so long as its practitioners evince good nature and a bit of humility, and so long as cheerleaders retain enough sense of irony to not believe their own hype.

I urge you to read all of Hess’s conflicted assessment, then go to the theater and help discover for yourself whether he makes a valid point. In any case, I’m sure you’ll find the movie compelling. Get out to the Starz Film Center. After Thursday, it may be gone!

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:

The prior achievement of students entering KIPP schools varies, but KIPP schools most often enroll students whose average fourth-grade achievement is lower than the districtwide average.

In other words, KIPP middle schools reach students who tend to be behind their peers academically but go significantly farther in helping them make progress and close the achievement gap — especially in math. But let one of the study’s authors speak for himself, as he did in this Education Week article:

“The consistency of the effects across most of the 22 schools and the magnitude of the effects are pretty striking and impressive,” said Brian P. Gill, a senior social scientist for Mathematica and an author of the study. “We do a lot of education studies, and often the effects are nonexistent or quite small.”

Colorado has two KIPP schools, both located in Denver. One is the KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy middle school; the other is the adjacent new KIPP Collegiate High School. They represent a couple among many of Colorado’s higher-performing education options for parents who are looking to exercise some school choice.

So some of you are thinking… Georgia? A different country? Maybe like 150 years ago or something.

Wrong Georgia. We’re talking halfway around the world, not just across the continent. Anyway, Hess notes the heavy emphasis on reform in the former Soviet republic in what he calls the “land of the libertarians”:

The 2005 law on general education, as enacted by parliament, declared, “The state shall protect freedom of educational choice of a pupil and a parent…The state shall finance education of a pupil from the central budget by a voucher [and] every parent has a right to get a voucher for financing the education of a child who reaches school age.”

On the surface this does look like great news. But apparently it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. Hess follows up to explain why just creating a “voucher” law may not guarantee success:

Georgia offers a terrific illustration of the difference between choice in theory and in practice…. In short, a seemingly elegant market design has been undermined by the familiar shibboleths of problematic funding formulas, incoherent governance, ambiguity about the practical extent of school autonomy, and the reluctance of state officials to keep their hands off the schools.

There is more involved to ensuring education reform success than implementing school choice, and there is a lot more involved than simply passing any old “voucher” law with insufficient preexisting conditions and simply waiting for something magical to happen. Hess goes on to note that the nation of Georgia has begun rolling back some of its “libertarian” education reform, at least in part for pragmatic reasons.

In any case, it’s good to broaden my horizons and see that this foreign country Georgia is not some place where people speak our language just with a funny accent.

And lest you think the title of my post suggests something it does not, I am not implying anything about Hess’s character or that’s related to any nasty, soul-buying evil figures. Nor will you find an iota here about highly-skilled fiddle players. But if I got you to read this far and provoked a little thought, I certainly accomplished something.