Garcia upbeat on chances for R2T grant

Colorado is preparing to enter a third round of competition for federal Race to the Top funds – will the state’s luck change?

Colorado shines in sun safety at school

With skin cancer on the rise in Colorado, the state’s schools are getting more intentional about sun safety for students and staff

Dougco students make case for vouchers

Of late the groundbreaking Douglas County Choice Scholarship Program has been the focus of unsurprising lawsuits and public scrutiny over the technical use of a “voucher-charter” to get up and running for the 2011-12 pilot year. (Full disclosure: I have been newly appointed to the board of the Choice Scholarship School.)

I’m not going to lay out a bunch of policy arguments in support of the private school option afforded to 500 students in Colorado’s third-largest district, and could begin to unpack the different options to provide a legal structure to provide that choice. At least not here. I’ll save it for the comment section, insofar as there is any demand to do so.

Instead, I’d like readers to focus on what they would tell 13-year-old Nate Oakley from Highlands Ranch concerning why they support or oppose choice scholarships:

Opinion: Has reform cart outpaced data horse?

Several high-profile education reforms passed by the Colorado legislature in the last few years rely on massive collections of data to work as planned. For example, the 2009 accountability bill requires administrators at struggling schools to use school-level data to drive the improvement planning process.

Senate Bill 191’s teacher evaluation provisions require more, however. Administrators must be able to drill down to the individual level, accurately linking teachers with students to evaluate teachers based on how well their students progress over the year. And Senate Bill 10-036 tills the soil for teacher prep programs to monitor the achievement of their graduates’ students in order to improve teacher prep programs.

All are ambitious laws — and I sometimes fear that Colorado’s reform cart has raced ahead of the data horse. The Colorado Department of Education, school districts and the Department of Higher Education are still working out the details on the kinds of data needed. That’s not a criticism. Collecting data that links every student, teacher, school and public university in the state is incredibly slow and painstaking when done right – and you definitely want it done right. I just worry that the public enthusiasm for the reforms will fade before they even get a chance.

That would be a shame because Colorado is headed toward building one of the most sophisticated data systems in the country, one that can be used to help improve our schools in many ways. Administrators and teachers can use data to identify their schools’ weaknesses and work together to set targets and monitor improvement. Principals can provide useful feedback to individual teachers, helping the weakest improve or find a new profession. Researchers can measure which programs and reforms are most successful over time and examine why.

Manual expansion to 6-12 in works

Denver’s still-struggling Manual High School could phase in grades 6-8 beginning in 2012 – the school board will vote on the plan in October

Dougco, state file voucher defense

Updated – In court documents, Dougco says it already has issued voucher payments totaling $158,519 to 140 students and their chosen private schools

State will use $1 million on remedial ed

Colorado will use a $1 million grant from a national nonprofit to redesign remedial education in hopes of boosting higher ed graduation rates

Opinion: High-octane ed reform campaign coming

National education blogger Alexander Russo broke news yesterday about a new and well-funded education reform advocacy campaign that will launch in Denver next week.

Called “One Chance Colorado,” the eight- to 10-week campaign will use billboards, slick, political campaign-style TV ads, bus stop posters and web-based strategies to push for “accountability at every level;” recruiting and supporting strong teachers and getting rid of weak ones; investing in good schools and “rapidly addressing” underperforming schools; and putting education ahead of politics.

There will also be a “field organizing” component to the campaign.

People involved in the campaign were reluctant to discuss it ahead of next week’s official launch. But here’s what I’ve learned:

The Churn: GOP grouchy about flyer

Some Republican lawmakers are raising a little stink about a leaflet sent to parents whose kids attend a Brighton high school. Plus more news

Report praises one program, dings two

A new report on student teaching rates one Colorado school highly but gives low marks to two others, evaluations those schools don’t agree with