It’s hard to believe, but another long year of being age 5 is nearly past. January doesn’t seem that long ago, but here we are again, on the brink of new calendars and check-dating confusion. The year 2015 is just around the corner. But for now, it’s time for a little reflection on some of the big Colorado education stories I’ve mused on in 2014.

What better way to wander quickly down Recent Memory Lane than to hit the highlights? I’ve picked a favorite blog post of mine on Colorado education happenings from each month, to relive a year that took us through everything from the throes of a Common Core backlash and a dramatically contrived backlash against the Jeffco school board to the initial defeat of a union-pro tenure lawsuit and the long-awaited arrival of Dougco’s Choice Scholarship Program before the Colorado Supreme Court.

Because we’re in the middle of the holiday malaise and most of you already have short attention spans to begin with, I’ve decided to break it up into two parts. Tomorrow I’ll bring you home with the second half of 2014, but today join me as we meander from January through June:

• January: With the help of Education Policy Center friends and our terrific (and older than I am now!) School Choice for Kids website, it was easy for me to help point Colorado kids to timely information on open enrollment.
• February: My ears perked up to hear that old open negotiations momentum looked like it was back in Jeffco, not knowing that despite a union-staged impasse that would come, the state of Colorado eventually would open the door with 104!
• March: Don’t know if I was late to the party or not, but I first asked whether the wheels were starting to come off Common Core in Colorado, and (in case you didn’t hear) it’s not exactly a thriving, popular policy at the moment.
• April: Yes, it was for April Fools’ Day, but my off-the-wall post about new Independence Institute ownership and my sudden rebranding as little Ed Koch was too good (if I say so myself) not to go check out one more time in 2014.
• May: On a far more serious note, the international report shining a light on Colorado’s education performance gap was both enlightening and unsatisfying at the same time — a reminder of how far we still have to go.
• June: There were more reasons than just summer vacation to give high fives all around, namely the Denver District Court’s major smackdown of a Colorado Education Association lawsuit to protect and promote tenure.

Now, that this post hopefully has whet your appetite for more, you can look forward to tomorrow’s exciting conclusion of the top posts of 2014.