Colorado Legislative Session off to Blazing Fast Start on Education Bills
Today is the start of Colorado’s legislative session, and the people under the Golden Dome are wasting no time getting to work on education issues. With Race to the Top deadlines looming, lawmakers are working to speed some bills through the process.
Right now, the Senate Education Committee is considering Senate Bill 36 — which […]
NEA’s Recent Political Giving Flatters Colorado with a Badge of Honor
Every year the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci undertakes the daunting work of going through the National Education Association’s federal financial disclosure report (hosted online by the U.S. Department of Labor).
In his latest exclusive analysis, Antonucci found the NEA’s contributions to advocacy groups and charities reached $26 million in 2008-09 — nearly double from […]
Just How Tired Will Colorado Legislators Be of Education Reform?
Two days from now Colorado’s state legislature starts the 2010 session. And with a recession cutting into tax revenues, many lawmakers will show up without the enthusiasm to create new programs or boost spending on existing programs. As legislative sessions go, this one has a particularly strange character about it. Tough and unpleasant decisions will […]
Unveiling TFA’s Secrets of Quality Teaching… How Do We Scale It Up?
Writing for the new edition of The Atlantic, Amanda Ripley talks to the Teach for America (TFA) crew about what they’ve learned about quality teaching from their vast stores of data. We know quality instruction can make a huge difference, but you may be surprised to learn what characteristics TFA finds match up with making […]
Families Leaving Private Schools Can Make Strong Choice Advocates
A new USA Today article by education reporter Greg Toppo is featured under the banner of “Recession fuels shift from private to public schools” — more middle-class parents with less money to spend on tuition are making the switch:
Private-school parents typically find that the structure of public schools takes some getting used to. In most […]
Male Teacher? Female Teacher? Boys Really Need School Choice
You can write about education issues a lot, have your eyes focused on the future, and still miss some of the debates that are going on out there. Washington Post blogger Valerie Strauss says that schools need to hire more male teachers, especially in the early grades, for the sake of boys. Citing Richard Whitmire’s […]
Disrupting Class Means Future Change for School System, Teacher Unions
So with this new year of 2010, I’m really thinking all futuristic. Yesterday it was brain skills testing. But what about technological changes that promise to transform our education system?
That’s what Harvard professor Clayton Christensen writes about in his 2009 book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns. If you […]
It’s 2010, the Future is Here, What About More Brain Skills Testing?
Did you miss me while I was gone for a couple weeks there? Okay, hopefully not too much. One of the articles I nearly missed right before Christmas makes the case for a type of reform that could be easily overlooked in the Race to the Top. From December 21 of last year (last decade […]
Merry Christmas: Ending 2009 on a Positive Education Reform Note
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2010 to my mom, a few random basement-dwellers, and the handful of my other regular readers … I will be back on this space on January 4! (Yes, that’s a picture of the world-record largest Lego Christmas tree from Oberhausen, Germany, in 2003. Can you imagine how many presents […]
12/17/09
Newsletter December 17 2009
Santa Visits Cole: Christmas Comes to Inspiring Denver Innovation School
Today’s Denver Post has an excellent story about a generous Christmas deed performed at a truly inspirational school:
Millionaire businessman Tom Gamel stood before a classroom of sixth-graders at Cole Arts & Science Academy on Wednesday, about to blow their minds with a nifty gift, but first, he wanted to impart some wisdom.
“I am a very […]
JCEA Notices Our Political Refund Message to Teachers
Every year the Independence Institute notifies teachers across Colorado of the availability of the Every Member Option political refund. Listen as Jon Caldara and education policy analyst Ben DeGrow discuss the refund option and the flattering reaction of the Jefferson County Education Association (JCEA), the state’s largest local teachers union.
