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Newly-appointed Sen. Michael Johnston, D-Denver, has been named to a prestigious bipartisan panel charged with recommending improvements to the country's most significant public education law.
Johnston, the former principal at Thornton's Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts, will join the Aspen Institute's Commission on No Child Left Behind.
The commission will study how to improve low-performing schools, teacher effectiveness, standards and assessments, and graduation rates.
The panel meets for the first time Sept. 2 at Howard University in Washington, DC.
Other members of the commission include former Health and Human Services secretary Tommy Thompson and former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes.
Showing posts with label education reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education reform. Show all posts
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Friday, May 2, 2008
Teacher Merit Pay Program Added to School Finance Bill by Senate
The Senate, sticking to its guns on a bipartisan bill to implement performance pay for teachers in Colorado, added an amendment creating the program to the annual school finance bill Thursday, sending a rebuke to the House after a committee of that chamber killed an independent bill on the subject.
Sens. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, Sue Windels, D-Arvada, and Peter Groff, D-Denver, convinced their colleagues to add the substance of SB 65 to HB 1388. SB 65 had been killed in the House Appropriations Committee.
The pay plan would establish a $2 million fund to help launch efforts by school districts to cultivate and retain teachers based on their performance.
SB 65 aimed to make $2 million available in seed money to all Colorado school districts for programs that those districts design to reward their teachers. The bill set some basic criteria, such as that the programs must be designed to help close the achievement gap between different groups of students. However, any district applying for some of the seed money would be free to come up with a specific program that best addressed its circumstances.
Denver Public Schools recently implemented a performance-pay program on its own, and Douglas County Schools also have such a plan in place.
Gov. Bill Ritter has indicated his support for Spence's proposal to implement performance pay programs for public school teachers.
Sens. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, Sue Windels, D-Arvada, and Peter Groff, D-Denver, convinced their colleagues to add the substance of SB 65 to HB 1388. SB 65 had been killed in the House Appropriations Committee.
The pay plan would establish a $2 million fund to help launch efforts by school districts to cultivate and retain teachers based on their performance.
SB 65 aimed to make $2 million available in seed money to all Colorado school districts for programs that those districts design to reward their teachers. The bill set some basic criteria, such as that the programs must be designed to help close the achievement gap between different groups of students. However, any district applying for some of the seed money would be free to come up with a specific program that best addressed its circumstances.
Denver Public Schools recently implemented a performance-pay program on its own, and Douglas County Schools also have such a plan in place.
Gov. Bill Ritter has indicated his support for Spence's proposal to implement performance pay programs for public school teachers.
House Clears Resolution Calling for Study of Merger of Departments of Education, Higher Education
The state's Departments of Education and Higher Education might end up being merged into one department if an interim committee created by a resolution cleared by the House Thursday makes it into the law books and the panel recommends that structural change to the executive branch.
HJR 1027 was approved on 56-6 vote Thursday. Opposition came only from two Republicans - Douglas Bruce of Colorado Springs and Ken Summers of Lakewood - and four Democrats - Anne McGihon of Denver, Karen Middleton of Aurora, Cherilyn Peniston of Westminster, and Nancy Todd of Aurora. Middleton is a former member of the state Board of Education and Todd and Peniston are former teachers.
The resolution now moves to the Senate. It is sponsored by Rep. Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial.
HJR 1027 was approved on 56-6 vote Thursday. Opposition came only from two Republicans - Douglas Bruce of Colorado Springs and Ken Summers of Lakewood - and four Democrats - Anne McGihon of Denver, Karen Middleton of Aurora, Cherilyn Peniston of Westminster, and Nancy Todd of Aurora. Middleton is a former member of the state Board of Education and Todd and Peniston are former teachers.
The resolution now moves to the Senate. It is sponsored by Rep. Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Senate Gives Preliminary OK to CAP4K, Adds English Proficiency Requirement
Gov. Bill Ritter's signature education initiative gained preliminary approval in the Senate Thursday after lawmakers decided to require school districts and charter schools to assure that all students are proficient in the use of the English language.
The measure, which has bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, would require schools to track the readiness of students entering high school, mandate that credit be given by means other than "seat time" in a class, and update the state's curriculum standards.
The Senate adopted an amendment by Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, that would add to the curriculum standards a requirement that all students show proficiency in spoken and written English before receiving a diploma. However, it leaves the mechanism for achieving those standards and verifying that a student has achieved them to local school districts and charter schools.
"The goals in SB 212 are not enough--we need to hold districts accountable for reaching and teaching students to speak English," Mitchell said. "If a student spends days, weeks, months and years, in a public school and is eligible to receive a diploma but hasn’t been taught to speak English, its not the student's fault, it's the system's fault. We are failing those students."
SB 212 also phases out the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) for ninth and tenth graders over time, replacing it with the American College Test (ACT).
The bill faces one more vote in the Senate before moving on to the House. Its primary sponsors are Reps. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, and Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, and Sens. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Joshua Penry, R-Fruita.
The measure, which has bipartisan sponsorship in both chambers, would require schools to track the readiness of students entering high school, mandate that credit be given by means other than "seat time" in a class, and update the state's curriculum standards.
The Senate adopted an amendment by Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, that would add to the curriculum standards a requirement that all students show proficiency in spoken and written English before receiving a diploma. However, it leaves the mechanism for achieving those standards and verifying that a student has achieved them to local school districts and charter schools.
"The goals in SB 212 are not enough--we need to hold districts accountable for reaching and teaching students to speak English," Mitchell said. "If a student spends days, weeks, months and years, in a public school and is eligible to receive a diploma but hasn’t been taught to speak English, its not the student's fault, it's the system's fault. We are failing those students."
SB 212 also phases out the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) for ninth and tenth graders over time, replacing it with the American College Test (ACT).
The bill faces one more vote in the Senate before moving on to the House. Its primary sponsors are Reps. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, and Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, and Sens. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Joshua Penry, R-Fruita.
Friday, March 28, 2008
CAP4K Clears First Hurdle
Gov. Bill Ritter's far-reaching proposal to re-structure the state's public education system won approval from a Senate committee Thursday, clearing its first hurdle on the way to the lawbooks.
SB 212, which incorporates the governor's "Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids (CAP4K)", was approved by the Senate Education Committee on a unanimous, bipartisan vote.
CAP4K, which Ritter introduced at a press conference last month,has four principal elements:
1. The state Board of Education and Colorado Commission on Higher Education would be required to establish definitions of school readiness and college and workforce readiness.
2. The state's Model Content Standards that guide the high school curriculum would be expanded and improved. They would apply to all grades from pre-school to the first year of college (standards currently only exist for grades 3 through 10) and align those standards with the content and skills needed for success after high school.
3. The school readiness assessment program would be based on a goal of assuring that all students who graduate from high school are ready for college and/or the workforce.
4. Post-secondary institution admission policies would be modified to allow students to earn credit by proving their proficiency in a particular subject as opposed to limiting the circumstances under which knowledge can be assumed to a student's completion of a course.
Among the means used to assess student proficiency would be a series of subject-based examinations that would replace the CSAP tests.
SB 212 now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The bill's bipartisan prime sponsors include Reps. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, and Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, and Sens. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Josh Penry, R-Fruita.
SB 212, which incorporates the governor's "Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids (CAP4K)", was approved by the Senate Education Committee on a unanimous, bipartisan vote.
CAP4K, which Ritter introduced at a press conference last month,has four principal elements:
1. The state Board of Education and Colorado Commission on Higher Education would be required to establish definitions of school readiness and college and workforce readiness.
2. The state's Model Content Standards that guide the high school curriculum would be expanded and improved. They would apply to all grades from pre-school to the first year of college (standards currently only exist for grades 3 through 10) and align those standards with the content and skills needed for success after high school.
3. The school readiness assessment program would be based on a goal of assuring that all students who graduate from high school are ready for college and/or the workforce.
4. Post-secondary institution admission policies would be modified to allow students to earn credit by proving their proficiency in a particular subject as opposed to limiting the circumstances under which knowledge can be assumed to a student's completion of a course.
Among the means used to assess student proficiency would be a series of subject-based examinations that would replace the CSAP tests.
SB 212 now goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The bill's bipartisan prime sponsors include Reps. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, and Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, and Sens. Chris Romer, D-Denver, and Josh Penry, R-Fruita.
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