The Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE) — a young, small, but growing (Hey, sounds like me!) non-union teacher membership organization — this week released the results of a member survey on some key education policy issues facing our state. With a Spring Break Friday sailing me away into lazy oblivion, today seemed like the perfect opportunity to step back and see the informed opinions of more than 100 Colorado teachers.

Without further ado on this quick-hit post, here are some results from the PACE member survey:

• 89 percent “agree with giving teachers a portable pension option,” an overwhelming landslide result that contrasts with the number one political agenda item of the state’s largest teachers union, the Colorado Education Association;
• 80 percent believe that school districts and teachers unions should open negotiations to public view — as Colorado’s third largest school district undertakes the practice and the state legislature weighs the issue;
• 69 percent support multiple count dates to determine student enrollment for funding purposes (the very first recommendation in Colorado’s new digital learning policy roadmap), while only 8 percent want to keep the existing October 1 system; and
• 69 percent take the view that 3rd graders who are not proficient in reading should be retained to repeat the grade, while “Early notification and attempt to involve parents when a student scores low on reading assessments” got the strongest response as the most important literacy policy to pursue.

Interesting results to chew on. Makes you wonder what would happen if other Colorado teacher organizations surveyed their members on issues like these — what outcomes would we see? All right, don’t think about it too long. Time to go back out into the sun and play before that spring break comes to an end.