Education Spending Transparency Doesn’t Require Massive Tax Hike
Colorado potentially faces a wasted opportunity in undertaking a push for greater school financial transparency. If state leaders talk up transparency as a new project and in vague terms, then they may miss the benefit of lessons already learned and fail to create a genuinely useful online tool. Part of Amendment 66’s billion-dollar promise was […]
Amy Oliver Show: School Funding at Forefront of K-12 Legislative Business
Todd Engdahl of Chalkbeat Colorado highlights the school funding and other K-12 policy debates emerging at the State Capitol as the legislative session gets underway.
Denver State’s New Largest School District; Falcon 49 Open Enrollment Soars
Yesterday we officially learned how many students showed up to Colorado public schools at the beginning of October. The enrollment figures made a little bit of a splash. Why? The news that for the first time in many years Jefferson County R-1 no longer serves the most students. But just barely: As expected, the new […]
A Little Progress on Students First Policy Report Card No Reason to Stop Going
Some people may wonder why I like talking about report cards on schools and state education policies so much. Well, the answer is simple: Because they’re not MY report cards that MY parents have to sign. It’s hard for me to be objective about that “Unsatisfactory” mark I got in finger painting. Seriously harder than […]
“If I’ve Told You Once…”: K-12 Financial Transparency Isn’t New to Colorado
The message of school financial transparency is great. The goal is admirable and frankly, should be a no-brainer in this complex technological age. But if Colorado leaders ignore what already has been done, we needlessly put ourselves a step behind in ensuring taxpayers are aware of and have ready access to complete and meaningful information on revenue and spending. Let’s not pretend K-12 financial transparency is a new idea, or unknown in practice, here in Colorado. Is that too much to ask?
Shouldn’t Dougco Score Higher on Brookings’ Choice and Competition Index?
A story in yesterday’s Chalkbeat Colorado brought my attention to a newly released Brookings Institution study called the 2013 Education Choice and Competition Index. Well, that certainly got my attention. Rather than rate states, Brookings developed a rubric to grade 100 of the nation’s largest districts on “thirteen categories of policy and practice” related to […]
Amy Oliver Show: The Latest Colorado School Grades Are Out
Kristina Saccone from Colorado Succeeds explains how to find the latest grade for your school’s performance, and how parents can get involved to help the school improve or to choose another educational option.
Evidence Doesn’t Back Keeping Kids “English Language Learners” Longer
Yesterday I talked about the new legislative session and some of the issues I will be watching. On the list is a discussion of changes to programs that serve students from families who don’t speak English as a native language. The Chalkbeat Colorado legislative preview mentioned what sort of action might be in the works: […]
K-12 Legislative Session Look Opens New Chalkbeat Colorado News Site
Well, that’s new. You get used to the name, and to the appearance, of a website you visit almost on a daily basis. Then one day, a Tuesday early in January, it changes. Ed News Colorado as we knew it is no more, but now is part of a four-state online education news service. From […]
Easy for Me to Help Point Colorado Parents to Timely Info on Open Enrollment
I love it when people make my job easier. (What? Ok, no, blogging here isn’t a “job,” child labor laws being what they are and all.) It’s even better when that aid comes from one of my Education Policy Center friends. Marya DeGrow has written two timely posts for the new Colorado School Grades blog […]
Can Schools Boost Brain Skills for Reading, Not Just Raise Test Scores?
Thanks once again to the edublog linking queen Joanne Jacobs, a December Scientific American column by psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman caught my attention. And it should yours, too. The author unpacks a study of Boston students that found while some schools improved performance on standardized academic assessments, they didn’t really improve measures of cognitive ability. […]
Colorado K-12 Policy and Trends: Eddie’s Eight Emerging Questions for 2014
Unbelievably, another new year is already underway, and I’m left to ponder what kind of hopes it holds out for Colorado kids and families seeking the best educational opportunities and outcomes possible. While I recover from the blissful batch of toys, games, and goodies, it seems like a perfect time to ponder what might emerge […]
