Friday Churn: DOE on teacher prep

Updated – Education Secretary Arne Duncan has announced a new federal initiative to improve teacher preparation.

Pay for performance in spotlight

Moving beyond vouchers, Douglas County school board candidates Thursday focus on a pay-for-performance plan for teachers

Friday Churn: CU regent vacancy

Democrat Monisha Merchant, a CU regent since 2009, has resigned to join Sen. Michael Bennet’s staff.

“Never sit down” is not a sustainable model

There’s an education reform issue I’ve been thinking about lately that brings to mind the Henry Higgins song from My Fair Lady, “Why can’t a woman be more like a man.” Call it “Why can’t all schools be more like a KIPP.”

KIPP, of course, is the charter school chain that has attracted widespread praise and financial support for getting enviable academic results with disadvantaged students. It and a core of other similarly high-achieving schools insist on longer school days and years, greater parental involvement, school-wide expectations of success and the freedom to dismiss teachers who don’t measure up.

Such schools are often held up as the secret to closing achievement gaps. If we could only clone those schools and their playbooks a hundred thousand times demography would no longer be destiny, all children would achieve to their potential and America would once again lead the world in educational attainment.

If only universal excellence were so simple. Just as Professor Higgins had blind spots — about himself and women, for starters – people who think they can close the achievement gap just by providing more hours of class time, better school-home communication and tougher standards are missing an important element.

$1 billion on the line for education

Decisions about more than $1 billion in funding for education are facing voters in Colorado’s Nov. 1 election.

DPS unveils streamlined enrollment

Denver Public Schools will launch its streamlined school enrollment program next month, reducing its choice processes from 62 to one.

Thursday Churn: Endorsements flow

Updated – Denver Mayor Michael Hancock is throwing his support behind Anne Rowe in the District 1 race for DPS board.

Observations on DPS Framework news

It’s always a nice change of pace to see some good K-12 education news. Congrats and proper recognition are in order after yesterday’s revelation that a majority of DPS schools are in the green (“Meets Expectations”) or blue (“Distinguished”) on the district’s School Performance Framework. A few related observations follow:

Obama visit a hit at Lincoln High

Students at Denver’s Lincoln High School applaud Obama’s message of more jobs and better schools. Photo slideshow

Wednesday Churn: Bad completion news

Updated - A new report on college completion finds the situation may be worse than many previously thought.