Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Last week Todd Engdahl raised some questions about a state legislative Democrat proposal to further weaken taxpayer protections in the state constitution while providing no real change in return:

Reasonable folks long have fretted about the Colorado Constitution’s conflicting fiscal requirements, but would such a plan supply the necessary fix? The story doesn’t indicate that it addresses troublesome property-tax provisions.

More to the point, could the Romanoff plan fly this year? The 2008 session is rapidly approaching its mandatory adjournment date, and Romanoff also would need some Republican votes to gain the two-thirds majorities necessary to send the plan to the voters. And, according to the story this morning, Gov. Bill Ritter is non-committal about the idea.

Well, today comes news from the Denver Post that shows Todd’s doubts were well-placed:

The pact should have gone something like this: Republicans agree to let government keep more tax dollars by relaxing portions of the Taxpayer’s Bill of…

A new proposal in the state legislature would dramatically change Colorado’s K-12 assessment system.  This proposal, the subject of much debate in last fall’s P-20 Council meetings, would align state standards with the ACT college admissions test, downplaying the importance of the CSAP.  The Post reports:

Supporters said the change would better prepare Colorado schoolchildren for college and for life after school.

"The Senate took a historic step today in improving, modernizing and strengthening student assessments," said Sen. Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction.

The move means state grade-level standards will be set so that each year students move closer to comprehending the issues presented on ACT tests.  …

The change came during floor debate Thursday morning over Senate Bill 212, which requires that the state align K-12 educational standards with college requirements so that students can make a seamless transition. But the bill did not specify what the standards should be and…

It is difficult to tell from press reports whether or not Speaker Romanoff’s plan to propose to voters a way to simplify the state Constitutional constraints has a realistic political chance of moving forward.

On the plus side, the Denver Post did editorialize positively about it today, Romanoff does have a Republican co-sponsor, and he doesn’t face a bunch of competing proposals this year.  On the negative side, it requires two-thirds votes, the governor is non-committal, and the late introduction leaves little time to build a supportive campaign.

Regardless of the political prospects, it is also hard to tell if this is a good solution.  In some sense, given the current Constitutional contradictions and vise-like grip on the state budget (and therefore the virtual irrelevance, in a budgetary sense, of the legislators themselves, in terms of representative government), virtually any proposal is likely to be an improvement.  And, achieving comprehensive reform in a time…

Comes now news that House Speaker Andrew Romanoff may propose a constitutional amendment that would eliminate TABOR spending limits and replace Amendment 23’s mandated spending with a K-12 trust fund. (See story in that little tabloid paper.) TABOR’s requirement that voters approve tax increases would be retained.

Reasonable folks long have fretted about the Colorado Constitution’s conflicting fiscal requirements, but would such a plan supply the necessary fix? The story doesn’t indicate that it addresses troublesome property-tax provisions.

More to the point, could the Romanoff plan fly this year? The 2008 session is rapidly approaching its mandatory adjournment date, and Romanoff also would need some Republican votes to gain the two-thirds majorities necessary to send the plan to the voters. And, according to the story this morning, Gov. Bill Ritter is non-committal about the idea.

Even more to the point, getting the plan passed by voters would require the kind of well-planned, well-financed,…

Last week I gave a speech to the Washington State Association of Career and Technical Education Administrators that touched on Senate Bill 212 (CAP4K) concerning Alignment of Preschool to Postsecondary Education,as an example of public policy infatuation with higher education.

A member of the audience, Wes Pruitt, policy analyst for the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, shared with me two short critiques of the reports which underlie SB 212’s claim that “to be successful in the workforce and earn a living wage immediately upon graduation from high school, a student needs nearly the same level of academic achievement and preparation that he or she would need to continue into career and technical or higher education”.  

These critiques were written by Bryan Wilson, Deputy Director of that same agency.  They address the research studies  from Achieve, Inc. and ACT which are used to justify college readiness for all.  They are…

Rona Wilensky, a long-time Colorado educator, weighs in again with her dissenting view on the governor’s CAP4K plan, which now exists as a leaving, breathing bill: Here’s Rona’s take:

The new version of CAP4K is clearer than the last one, eliminating the conflated focus on both academic and 21^st century skills (by opting to focus primarily on academic skills and only including 21^st century skills to the extent “practicable”), further lengthening the time lines for the development of new standards, clarifying the relationship between standards and “post secondary and workforce readiness”, as well as the relationship between this initiative and the Graduation Guidelines Development Council.

This clarity, however, only further highlights the unchanging core premises of the bill:

• That there is little variation in the level of academic preparedness that a student must achieve in order to succeed after high school, regardless of the student’s aspirations.
• That “post secondary and workforce readiness includes a demonstration…

What a confluence of events this week! First, as Todd Engdahl reports in EdNewsColorado, the Governor looks to finally break the CAP4K suspense and unveil the details of his bipartisan education reform bill tomorrow.

The Rocky Mountain News today adds:

Some members of the state Board of Education voiced concerns about the bill during a meeting Monday with Ritter’s education adviser. The board would play a major role if the measure passes.

No board members flatly opposed the bill. But they questioned the need for a new panel to draft the definition of college or workplace readiness. Several state panels already are studying education.

The “new panel” in question is the Colorado Graduation Guidelines Development Council (GGDC), charged by a piece of 2007 legislation to “develop and recommend to the State Board of Education for adoption (by May 1, 2008) a comprehensive set of guidelines for the establishment of high school graduation requirements.”

GGDC is…

It’s easy to overstate reform efforts that can be like spitting in the wind in a big, slow-moving state education system, but it can also be too easy to be skeptical and under-appreciate some emerging developments.

With those caveats in mind, this is proving to be a pretty active and productive legislative session on the education front, as well chronicled daily in EdNews .

Assuming they all pass and get signed, there are a few significant reforms in motion. The BEST program will inject some much needed money into school capital projects around the state – not nearly the amounts really needed, but anything is helpful here.

The likely expansion of funding for PreK and all-day kindergarten is also welcome and long overdue.

The school innovation bill seems to have hit a remarkable consensus; a month ago, I expected major opposition and likely failure.  While the in-school voting thresholds for autonomy were upped to…

The Denver Post celebrates the recent "moment of unanimity" occasioned by the new Zone of Innovation bill:

Democrats and Republicans found a rare moment of unanimity Wednesday on the Senate floor over a major education bill that would let clusters of schools break free from district rules and state laws to form "innovation zones" and try new educating techniques.

"I think people understand that we can’t continue to educate our children the same way," said Senate President Peter Groff, D-Denver, who is sponsoring the bill along with Republican Sen. Nancy Spence of Centennial.

Senators lauded Senate Bill 130’s sponsors for working to smooth over areas of opposition. The most contentious part of the bill allows schools to break from teachers-union bargaining agreements, but the section was modified to win union support. The bill passed with a unanimous voice vote. It faces one more Senate vote before moving to the House.

This concept…

This should be fun. A bill introduced Monday by a gaggle of Democratic legislators proposes radical changes in the CSAPs - like no more writing tests and no tests at all beyond the 8th grade, except for a national test in the junior year.

I know this is a plug, but get the full story on EdNewsColorado.

So, CAP4K, the governor’s education reform brainchild is still in production backstage while the audience impatiently waits for the curtain to come up. (Or who knows — maybe they’ve grown bored and walked out to get a bite to eat?) Criticisms raised from an earlier dress rehearsal apparently have prompted some significant changes to the script. The problem is the longer the delays the more tension grows between the cast from the two major companies.

How long will the bipartisan coalition stick together? Colorado’s ironclad education triangle is not exactly enthusiastic. CEA and CASE have withheld endorsements and have criticized the initial proposal as “an unfunded mandate,” while CASB seems to be silent. Will one or more of these groups surgically alter the plan behind closed doors and weaken its reform impact or — even worse — find a pretext to undermine accountability by rolling back CSAP with no replacement?

The Denver Post cites some…

Two nearly polar opposite educational approaches are touted in today�s local news pages. Both are rooted in different philosophies, attract different kinds of support, and have fundamentally different demands. Yet both elicit some level of disdain from the education establishment.

Alan explores the better-known piece in his post today, relaying strong criticisms of the first draft of the bipartisan �Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids� (CAP4K) bill. The entire post is worth reading, but a synthesis of the reviews points to a well-intended but vague, overly prescriptive, and heavily bureaucratic proposal that effectively would narrow the focus of K-12 education into the needs and demands of university curricula.

On the other hand, many officials are at least as uncomfortable with an educational approach that gained full-length feature treatment in today�s Denver Post: �un-schooling.� Now, even as the article acknowledges, this style of non-traditional, unstructured home-based learning has been around�and in Colorado�for quite awhile. Following…