Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Hot of the press, this new report from the A-Plus Finance and facilities Sub-committee validates what many people have been saying for a while now: ProComp needs to be reconfigured to pay newer teachers more and to provide meaningful incentives, rather than almost exclusively salary-building components. Read a full story on the report, on the Educaton News Colorado website, by clicking  here.

If former Colorado Gov. Roy Romer wants to draw the attention of politicians and the public to the failings of American schools, holding a Capitol steps news conference may not be the best tactic.

The ever-energetic Romer and a phalanx of Colorado education and political worthies lined up on the west steps Thursday to raise awareness about the need for education reform. (See story here.) The event was part of Romer’s nationwide Ed in ’08 campaign, sponsored by the well-funded Strong American Schools group.

Several reporters lurked on the steps to listen, and a row of TV cameras was rolling. But, the event seemed to yield little coverage in Denver’s MSM (mainstream media, generally used as a term of derision on journalism blogs and discussion groups).

The Denver Post used only two smallish photos and a copy block on page 2 of its second section. There was a sparse four-paragraph story on the…

It is simply impossible, Pastorek has come to believe, for a traditional school system, run from the top down by a central administrator, to educate large numbers of poor children to high levels of achievement. “The command-and-control structure can produce marginal improvements,” he told me when we met last month at a coffeehouse on Magazine Street. “But what’s clear to me is that it can only get you so far. If you create a system where initiative and creativity is valued and rewarded, then you’ll get change from the bottom up. If you create a system where people are told what to do and how to do it, then you will get change from the top down. We’ve been doing top-down for many years in Louisiana. And all we have is islands of excellence amidst a sea of mediocrity and failure.”

This is from probably the best article I have read on…