Two days ago the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) released its annual report detailing the in-state academic remediation rates for post-secondary students. The bottom line?

Overall, the percentage of first-time recent high school graduates placed into remediation in at least one subject increased by 11 percent from the previous year (31.8 percentage points in 2010-11 from 28.6 percentage points in 2009-10).

Those figures include all schools. If you isolate public schools, the statewide remediation numbers rose from 30.7 percent in 2009-10 to 33.9 percent in 2010-11. Ed News Colorado has performed the valuable service of breaking out the last six year’s numbers for users to search by school district, or even individual high schools.

For an even longer-term view, you can check out an analysis of remediation rates from eight years ago (2002-03) in my Education Policy Center friend Marya DeGrow’s issue paper Cutting Back on Catching Up. The CCHE report then revealed that 26.6 percent of public high school graduates needed some kind of remediation — which amounts to more than a 27 percent increase over the past eight years!

Going back to Ed News’ posted data, we see a mixed bag of largely negative trends among Colorado’s five largest districts from last year (2009-10) to the most recent results (2010-11):

• Jefferson County: 25.8% to 28.6%
• Denver Public Schools: 59.0% to 58.9%
• Douglas County: 20.5% to 21.5%
• Cherry Creek Schools: 26.8% to 28.5%
• Adams 12: 31.0% to 39.1%

Hopefully, someone out there can dive deeper into some of the numbers and give us a better picture of which schools are struggling… and perhaps even some concrete answers to the question “why?”. I’m sure almost no one is satisfied with the progress or the results in the area of remediation. Any suggestions that more money simply be poured into the status quo model need to be greeted with a hefty dose of skepticism, though. Bring on the education transformers…

Well, tagging on at the end of an Ed News Colorado story about Jeffco school district employees pleading with the Board to stop budget cuts was this little nugget about last night’s meeting:

Shortly before public comment began Thursday, board members voted 4-1 to close employee negotiations to the public. Board member Laura Boggs was the only “no” vote.

Defenders of the status quo learned their lesson from last year. Since the teachers union bargaining agreement in the state’s largest school district says negotiations are supposed to be open, they needed to act early and decisively to keep the prying eyes of taxpayers away from important discussions. Sad. But thankfully, it’s not the only Colorado front in the fight to open union negotiations and bring the public into public education.

You have to go no farther than Douglas County, Colorado’s third-largest school district, where union leaders have lashed out against the reform-minded school board. Rather than sit back and let contentious negotiations fester behind closed doors, or allow the unseemly tactics to continue outside them, a group of local citizens is urging the board to open negotiations and shine the light on the real disputed issues. You can read (and sign, if you support) their petition here. It reads in part:

Negotiated union policies greatly impact how our tax dollars are spent and how our schools and classrooms function. In tight budget times, when we rightly demand greater accountability of our elected school board to make tough decisions, these decisions should be made in full view!

Meanwhile, at the State Capitol, Representative Kathleen Conti has introduced House Bill 1118 with the goal of “ensuring transparency in collective bargaining negotiations.” As my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow explained in a 2010 issue backgrounder, a similar bill was introduced, and very nearly passed, eight years ago (back in the dark ages…).

HB 1118 is slated for a committee hearing later this month, so you can expect to hear more soon about this important issue of public transparency and accountability. As I’ve pointed out before, open negotiations not only would remind union officials who they’re bargaining against (you: the taxpayer), but it also would help clarify who really is in charge of public education.

Denver Public Schools students and parents have from now until January 31 to exercise their school choice, using a new process that allows families to list up to five schools in order of preference. The Denver Post opined recently that the new, streamlined system is fairer and ultimately will prove more user-friendly. Parents can learn more from DPS at meetings either tomorrow morning at East High School or Wednesday evening at George Washington High School.

The range of educational options is expanding within DPS, and sometimes coming directly to families as schools compete for students. Viva Colorado’s Roxana Soto reports (H/T Ed News Colorado) that leaders from the newest West Denver Prep school are going door-to-door in the city’s Montbello neighborhood to recruit fifth-graders into their highly successful program:

On this particular morning, the recruiting team, which includes the principals of the two new schools, hopes all this favorable information will help them persuade parents on the fence. All recruiters are equipped with marketing materials and Google maps showing where current fifth-graders live.

“It’s just a time for us to make sure that every fifth-grader knows there’s an awesome option in their neighborhood,” says [WDP enrollment manager Alicia] Lucero.

Yes, there’s no doubt the first four West Denver Prep middle schools have been “awesome,” and there’s every reason in the world to believe the new Montbello and Green Valley campuses will follow suit. But the success also may create a dilemma as the charter franchise reaches out to families in these neighborhoods. Does “West Denver Prep” create too much confusion among denizens of the city’s northeastern corridor and necessitate adjustment, or do all the successful schools retain the well-earned brand of distinction?

A minor issue, I guess. Whatever the name is, the beautiful, real-life chaos of school choice expands and thrives, bringing more opportunity along with it. And families in our state can find the information they need by visiting the incredible duo of fantastic informational sites, School Choice for Kids and Colorado School Grades.

Onward and upward for Colorado educational choice in 2012. In the meantime, don’t forget that now is an ideal time to exercise the right to search for a better learning option while the first round of open enrollment lasts. It will be over before you know it.

The state will deposit 90 percent of the student’s funds into an account parents can use for a variety of educational expenditures, including textbooks, therapy services, tutoring, and even tuition for alternative or online schools.

Not only does the money follow the student to serve their educational needs as the family chooses, but the families are encouraged to be wise consumers by the fact they can save money in their ESA from year to year. Any money left over at the end of high school can be used toward college expenses. Who wouldn’t like that?

Well, as education reform doctoral fellow Stuart Buck notes on the Flypaper blog, the Arizona School Boards Association, the Arizona Education Association and the Arizona Association of School Business Officials didn’t like the loss of control that comes with ESAs. They may even sense the 2011 legislation opens the door for more students and families to experience the liberation. So they filed a lawsuit that had its first hearing earlier this week. Buck breaks down the arguments and concludes:

…if the Arizona courts properly apply their own precedents, they will reject the attempt by powerful interest groups to stiff-arm special education students.

I certainly hope he is correct. In addition to interested Arizonans like the Boesl family, the state of Utah also has to be keeping a close eye on proceedings. I told you a couple months ago about a legislator from our neighbor to the west who was planning to introduce a dramatic, consumer-empowering proposal even more expansive than Arizona’s. The efforts in Utah can only be bolstered by a plain and positive vindication in the Arizona courts.

In The Grand Canyon State, these kind of anti-school choice legal actions seem to be a regular occurrence. Most recently, an effort to upend a tuition tax credit program was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court’s Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v Winn. Meanwhile, here in Colorado, the fight continues to appeal a district court injunction of the Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program — a groundbreaking, parent-friendly reform, the first school board-initiated voucher program in the nation.

Perhaps the point is that it doesn’t matter if you are helping kids and families by promoting School Choice 1.0 (vouchers) or version 2.0 (tax credits) or the cutting-edge version 3.0 (ESAs). Where power is threatened, attorneys will be hired by the status quo to try to strike the opportunity down. What encourages me on this Friday is to recall that school choice has won many battles in court and that the will of supporters to keep fighting these battles in defense of educational freedom remains as strong as ever.

Expanding to the 100 largest districts, as Biddle urges, would include some of Colorado’s own. I’m pretty sure Denver Public Schools would do well on the ECCI, given the commitment to expanding charter and innovation school options. Interestingly, the Denver Post featured a piece yesterday about how DPS schools are increasing their efforts to market themselves to parents.

For those paying attention, it’s not the first time the local media has brought attention to this trend of a more active, consumer-oriented approach going on in Denver schools. Which means it’s not the first time I get to tell you about the important role our fabulous School Choice for Kids website has to play in arming parents with some key information.

Of course, the site covers not only Denver but all of Colorado. Which makes me wonder how Douglas County — with its one-of-a-kind local board-initiated voucher program (not to mention a healthy charter sector) — would fare on the ECCI. An index worth its salt would have to relate Jefferson County and Cherry Creek lower. So I guess for now, little ol’ me will just have to content myself with wondering what an expanded version of the Brookings educational choice index would look like.

The holiday season is upon us. I can practically smell the Thanksgiving feast a couple days away, and then the anticipation builds and builds and builds for Christmas! But your intrepid little Eddie is always looking ahead. For many school districts in Colorado, the month of January is open enrollment period — the time when students and parents can apply to get into a school outside their neighborhood for the coming school year. (Some deadlines come earlier than others: Douglas County parents have only until January 5 for their first-round application.)

Last time I checked into it, the trend of Colorado families taking advantage of open enrollment was still growing. And there’s no reason to believe it has changed.

In fact, given Denver Public Schools’ new simplified and streamlined enrollment process, the trend figures to increase as education consumers assert themselves more in search of better and more suitable education options. If you want to get in on the open enrollment process, now is the time to start doing your holiday homework. DPS is hosting a series of five school expos between December 3 and 10. And of course, you’ll want to check out my Education Policy Center friends’ spectacular School Choice for Kids website!

(Become a Facebook fan of School Choice for Kids, and now you can become a fan of my brand-new Ed Is Watching Facebook page, too!)

Yes, Ed News Colorado blogger Julie Poppen makes some great points about the current limitations on school choice, but it’s only all the more reason to keep pushing for more options and better — and how about a system of “backpack funding” where the money follows the student to the school of their choice? Don’t you think that would help a lot, too?

This week of Thanksgiving, my parents are reminding me that it’s thankful people who are happy and not the other way around. So while it may not be the first thing you think of on your big family feast day, we in Colorado have one of the strongest public school open enrollment laws in the nation to be thankful for. While I’ll continue to speak up for more school choice opportunities for families, the fact we can enroll in schools both inside and across district lines deserves some serious gratitude this holiday season.

In the video, you may also recognize Highlands ranch mom Diana Oakley, whose son Nate received a Choice Scholarship and was featured in a July Independence Institute video. Also, interestingly, Dougco school board director Justin Williams — one of two board members who won re-election this week (the third race was an open seat won by pro-voucher Kevin Larsen) — was interviewed in the Choice Media TV piece.

Choice Media TV, you may ask, where have I heard that before? Wasn’t that famous filmmaker Bob Bowdon? You got it. Six weeks ago I told you how this venture fills a valuable niche in the education reform world. Now maybe you have seen some living proof of it.

The timing to share the important, groundbreaking news out of Douglas County is as important now as ever. The anti-choice injunction has been appealed, and school board president John Carson confidently states in the video that he likes the choice program’s chances of prevailing with the higher courts. You may remember at almost the exact same time as the Dougco injunction that an Indiana judge denied a similar request against that state’s new statewide Choice Scholarship Program.

Well, now today we learn that nearly 4,000 students have signed on for private school choice in Indiana, making it the largest-ever first-year voucher success. So even though it will take longer, keep up the faith. Sharing a theme DeGrow put forth in his Ed News Colorado analysis of Tuesday’s election results, one of Dougco’s school board winners stated an excellent point about the future with a local newspaper:

“(The school board is) going to have to pursue expanding choices for parents and a pay-for-performance system for our terrific teachers in our district … in a way that doesn’t require additional revenue,” [Craig] Richardson said. “I think we’re up to the task. I think this is the best board in the county that is able to innovate with scarce resources.”

Indeed. Challenging times lie ahead, but for the sake of educational opportunity and productivity, they can be exciting times, too.

Among the many topics covered at the September school board candidate briefings were examples of Colorado local K-12 innovation. Since 2005 the Education Policy Center has released a series of six papers in the “Innovative School District” series — including homages to Douglas County for its “home-grown teachers” waiver program, and to Delta County for its student-centered VISION program.

Well, believe it or not, school district-level innovation is by no means isolated to our own Centennial State. An article by my Education Policy Center friend Ben DeGrow published in the new November issue of School Reform News highlights the initiative of Michigan’s Oscoda Area Schools, which created its own performance-based teacher evaluation system without waiting for state agencies and officials to guide them along:

The district partnered with an in-state software company to tailor a computer program that manages and processes the essential evaluation data quickly. This helps administrators spend more time mentoring teachers and less time filling out and duplicating paperwork, [then-Oscoda superintendent Christine] Beardsley said.

Other districts have shown interest in the customizable software, for which Oscoda owns the copyright. This could generate a stream of new revenue for the district.

Yes, a Michigan state legislature hungry for federal Race to the Top dollars passed a 2010 law requiring all school districts to incorporate student academic growth into professional teacher evaluations. Rather than wait until the last-minute deadline to comply, Oscoda seized the idea by meeting during the summer to craft its own locally-suitable program that incorporates the legislated state requirements. And now as other districts scramble to comply, Oscoda has the rights to a customizable data management software tool that it can share for a fee to generate revenue. Sounds kind of entrepreneurial, doesn’t it?

Hey, whether it’s Colorado or Michigan, good K-12 innovation is good K-12 innovation. News like the story from Oscoda is encouraging to see. If you want to learn more about what exactly the district did, I encourage you to check out a video created by my friends’ sister think tank, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.

Exit thought: Here in Colorado, our state senate president is pushing ahead with an audit of “for-profit” online schools. Have to demonize anyone who happens to make money, you know. Setting aside for a moment the larger debate that could take place, should school districts that make money off innovative software tools be subject to audit, too?

There’s a major power play happening in the Jefferson County school-board race that could mean big changes in the near future, including a possible move, some say, to add vouchers to the slate of choices in the district.

Hats off to the Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA) — aka the teachers union in Colorado’s largest school district — for getting their rumor printed as a headline and a lead. But I also thought the candidates they were trying to scare people about made a clear response:

“I’ve heard some of that stuff, but it’s unfounded,” [Jim] Powers said. “I never said anything about firing the superintendent. I never said anything about vouchers. I don’t think just because it says vouchers we should close our eyes and say no, and I don’t believe we should say yes, either.”

Why sure, don’t I wish more educational officials would embrace a broader vision of school choice? In lots of districts you can barely find enough local school board candidates to fill the open seats. But not everywhere is Douglas County, either. I’m realistic about that.

To me, the encouraging part of this Sunday story from the Denver Post is that while no candidates for the Jefferson County school board are ready to promote private school choice, they are seriously open-minded about the idea. I encourage readers, whether in Jeffco or another Colorado district, to do your homework about the candidates out there and look seriously at their experience, their visions, and whose interests they are primarily focused on promoting.

Meanwhile, I am glad to continue helping to educate people about why the V-word is not scary at all, but can be part of a bigger effort to reform, promote and encourage public education. So please save the bogey man talk for those other elections.

Affluent suburban districts may be outperforming their large urban neighbors, but they fail to achieve near the top of international comparisons…. White Plains, New York, in suburban Westchester County, is only at the 39th percentile in math relative to our global comparison group. Grosse Point, Michigan, outside of Detroit, is at the 56th percentile. Evanston, Illinois, the home of Northwestern University outside of Chicago, is at the 48th percentile in math. The average student in Montgomery County, Maryland, where many of the national government leaders send their children to school, is at the 50th percentile in math relative to students in other developed countries….

It goes on, but you get the flavor. If you’re wondering about your own school district, you can check out the handy new web tool Greene and company created called The Global Report Card. All in all, it’s an interesting tool that may be worth further exploring. The findings reported by Greene and McGee do raise some cause for concern:

In four states, there is not a single traditional district with average student achievement above the 50th percentile in math. In 17 states, there is not a single traditional district with average achievement in the upper third relative to our global comparison group. And apart from charter school districts, in over half of the states, there are no more than three traditional districts in which the average achievement would be in the upper third.

One of my Education Policy Center friends decided to check out the 10 largest school districts in Colorado, to see at which percentile average students rank among their international peers. Here’s what he found:

1. Jefferson County (48%)
2. Denver (unclear, data presented separately for “Denver” and “District 1″)
3. Douglas County (60%)
4. Cherry Creek (52%)
5. Adams 12 [listed as "Adams"] (38%)
6. Aurora [listed as "Aurora County"] (22%)
7. Boulder Valley (58%)
8. Colorado Springs 11 [listed as "Colorado Springs"] (44%)
9. St. Vrain Valley (48%)
10. Poudre (55%)

Looks like Colorado might be one of the 17 states identified as not having “a single traditional district with average achievement in the upper third relative to our global comparison group.” If somebody can find a Colorado district at or above the 67th percentile, please let me know. Looked at this way, the state’s K-12 performance still doesn’t show terrible results, but we can certainly do better.

While we certainly shouldn’t abandon less privileged students in the quest to raise their academic performance, it is important to recognize that we need to raise the bar for middle class, suburban students, too — a point more ably made by Greg Forster on Jay Greene’s blog, of all places.