DFER Colorado
From Our Blog
Competing without a Team: The Consortium Assessment Bill
May 2, 2012
Photo Courtesy Stock XChange
Moira Cullen, DFER Colorado State Director
When fairly technocratic bills engender controversy, there is usually an underlying narrative as is the case with Senate Bill 12-172. The bill would direct Colorado to join, as a governing board member, a consortium of states developing a common set of K-12 assessments in reading, writing, and mathematics, instead of maintaining a proprietary system - makes sense, doesn't it? Unfortunately, not everyone is in agreement and the bill has now become a major topic of debate in the state.
Colorado currently develops and uses its own, proprietary K-12 assessments, which are neither used nor recognized by other states. The proposed legislation means that Colorado would cease to produce its own tests, and instead become one of a number of states to design, implement, and use a set of common assessments.
Over the past few weeks, there has been growing tension among elected officials around the possible passage of this bill. And the saddest part is that, unfortunately, the tension here is not over which assessment might be more useful to students and universities, but rather who will call the shots. Last week the Republican members of Colorado's State Board of Education voted to oppose SB 12-172 by a party line vote of 4-3. This was a sign of strong opposition from Republican members. The Board of Education - elected separately from the state legislature - rarely takes an active stance on pending legislation. These Republican members voted against the bill to maintain the historical precedent of local control, and to challenge a growing perception within their ranks of an encroaching federal role.
DFER supports SB 12-172 for some simple reasons. The easiest is fiscal: the proposal to develop proprietary tests for CO has a $26 million price tag - of which the recent budget approves only $6 million. Given Colorado's current fiscal condition and continued education cuts, $20 million is a considerable budgetary hole. Combining efforts with other states to both develop and use assessments would be far cheaper. The money to develop a Colorado-only test could and should be better spent.
Quality or Choice for Colorado's Schools?
March 30, 2012
By Moira Cullen, DFER Colorado State Director
As many may already know, Colorado was recently granted a waiver from NCLB by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. We think the waiver makes sense given the development of Colorado's improved local accountability. However, exercising this accountability may lead to a developing tension as to whether education reformers should favor school choice or school quality. Moveover, what happens if the Feds emphasize quality while a state favors choice?
In many ways, the tension between choice and quality is actually a contest between principle and pragmatism. A long slew of education advocates see school choice as a central and fundamental principle of reform. School choice, and the accompanying market mechanisms, will lead to better schools. Quality will be self-correcting, as schools with poor results will fail to attract families. Choice is paramount to quality.
On the other hand, pragmatists believe that our education institutions - be they at the local, district or state level - have a responsibility to ensure that children are receiving a quality education. Parents sometimes make bad choices, and there needs to be standards to protect students. They believe quality is paramount to choice.
NCLB waivers grant states the ability to provide their own accountability standards. But what happens if the accountability granted in the NCLB waivers is applied to further the principle of school choice and not the pragmatism of school quality?
Up until recently, the tension between choice and quality was largely hypothetical. However, in large part thanks to the efforts of education reform, quantitative metrics of quality are increasingly available. The ability to objectively compare schools has made the tension between choice and quality less abstract. Partly under pressure from Federal mandates such as NCLB, many districts are now considering closure of chronically low-performing schools.
REPUBLICAN FY 2013 BUDGET PROPOSAL
March 29, 2012
REPUBLICAN FY 2013 BUDGET PROPOSAL
DRAMATIC AND RECKLESS CUTS TO EDUCATION SPENDING
Yesterday, the U.S. House of Representatives began debate on its budget proposal for FY 2013, the upcoming fiscal year that begins October 1st. The debate resumes on the House floor today.
In Colorado:
• Almost 3,000 children will be eliminated from the Head Start program;
• Nearly 21,000 students with disabilities' costs will shift to states and districts as part of cuts to IDEA; and,
• Approximately 50,000 students from historically disadvantaged groups will have reduced or eliminated services due to Title I cuts.
Read more here.
Colorado on the Move
February 29, 2012
(Image by Zach Dischner)
By Moira Cullen, DFER Colorado State Director
Colorado's school reform activity this winter has been as tumultuous as the state's weather with a few big snowstorms and wild swings in temps from 60's to below zero. DFER Colorado has worked on multiple fronts, including: pushing for accountability on school turnarounds, a new digital learning bill, in-state college tuition for undocumented students, the adoption of SB 191 rules for teacher evaluations, new charter authorizer legislation, and a series of events on school reform.
As a sign of DFER's impact, a blog post on school turnarounds and the federal School Improvement Grant program prompted a recent three-part series in the Denver Post. The series highlighted the difficulty of turning around low-performing schools and showed how many districts are ill equipped to effectively use these funds. DFER CO has some hope that the Colorado Department of Education will revamp the accountability for school districts but we worry that millions will be wasted on poorly designed plans and consultants.
Moreover, DFER CO recently testified in support of the Digital Learning Bill HB 12-1124, which would establish a study to set guidelines for best practices for online and blended learning schools. The bill sailed through the Colorado House of Representatives 64-0 and is now off to the Senate.
As if that wasn't enough, the ASSET Bill SB 12-015, which will enable undocumented CO high school graduates to have access to in-state tuition (sponsored by DFER CO Board member Senator Mike Johnston), continues to gain momentum as more organizations and individuals lend their support. We are hopeful that a number of Republicans will offer their support for two reasons: economic development and a sense of fairness. The economic reality is that CO needs more college grads and denying students an education because of the immigration status of their families makes no sense. Why should children have to pay for what their parents have done?
On another note, DFER is proud to support three charter bills: HB 12-1255, SB 12-61, and SB 12-67. Two of these bills have moved out of Senate and are on their way to the House. Collectively, they will strengthen charter applications, increase transparency (while streamlining renewal or revocation decisions), increase objectivity in authorizing, and push authorizers to improve practice through incentives.
Better Schools Aren't a Partisan Issue
February 1, 2012
By Joe Trippi
(From Huffington Post, January 30th, 2012)
How do we give our kids a better education than we've been giving them? It's a question that is leading to a rare bipartisan conversation these days with some big figures in the Democratic party, like Cory Booker in Newark, Antonio Villaraigosa in Los Angeles and Andrew Cuomo in New York, actually leading the discussion. And they're not alone in the Democratic party as I saw this past week in New Orleans and Denver.
What's going on here?
The tough reality we've got to face is that too many of our schools are failing. And if you have a kid in one of those schools, you can bet that you're going to be pretty upset that your kid isn't getting the skills they need to live a successful life. That's where this conversation begins -- with the parents of kids in those schools who demand a better education for their child.
More people are also getting involved. After all, there are serious consequences when a kid doesn't succeed in school, both for themselves and the community they live in. If a kid gets through high school without being able to master basic math, science and reading, that kid is going to have difficulty finding a job. And good luck finding a business that will locate in a community that doesn't have workers with those skills. So you're starting to see a lot of businesses get involved in this conversation as well.
The great thing about this discussion is that there's not going to be just a one size fits all fix. That model isn't working. So there's room for everyone to participate and put every idea on the table. Even if you think public schools are great, can't we improve them? The solutions may vary by town, city and state.
Many communities have decided that the key is to empower parents to choose the best school for their child rather than that child being forced to attend the nearest public school no matter how low academic achievement at that school is or how bad of a fit it is for that child. If a solution is going to work for a child, their parent has to have the power to choose that solution. That's why instead of arguing over or promoting a particular fix, last week people across the political spectrum came together during to promote giving parents more choice in choosing what works best for their child during National School Choice Week.
Last Saturday, National School Choice Week kicked-off in New Orleans with a huge rally. James Carville, who spoke at the event, was so proud of the progress schools have made in that great city since Katrina. "You can't have the kind of successes that we're seeing here, the kind of improvements we're seeing in our schools, without people taking some considerable risk," he said.
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