a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District

HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES –DECEMBER 2006

Happy holidays! Welcome to the last edition of Hudak’s Board Notes for 2006

SBE Work Session (Wednesday, December 13, 2006):

ONLINE AUDIT – On December 11, the State Audit Committee presented its report on online education. The committee had many recommendations, some for legislation and some for changes in SBE rules, in order to improve the oversight of online schools, online education quality, and online school funding. Some recommendations were based on problems with the Hope Online Academy Charter School and its numerous "learning centers." The report advocated for increased monitoring of online schools through Accreditation and the addition of special requirements for online teachers – two things I have been suggesting to the SBE for the last few years.* After a lengthy discussion, the SBE decided to create a task force to determine what legislation to propose, to review our options for rules changes, and to consider policy guidance to school districts, charter schools, and other online providers. Commissioner Moloney and SBE Chair Suckla will determine who the members of the task force will be, based on suggestions from Board members. One recommendation of the Audit Committee that we didn’t really address was to create a code of conduct for SBE members regarding conflicts of interest.
SCIENCE STANDARDS – The draft of the revised Model Content Standards for Science is complete and is supposed to be posted on the CDE website (look at Step Seven here ). The presentation made to the Board by Jo O’Brien is here The SBE was given a hard copy of the proposed draft, along with a version showing the changes, deletions, additions, and changed placements proposed by the Science focus groups, and a version showing additional revisions following input from the public after the previous draft was put out for feedback. I assume that we will hold a public hearing on the revised standards at the January 11, 2007, meeting. Watch for the item on the agenda.
TEACH FOR AMERICA – Denver Public Schools made a presentation to us about "Teach for America," an alternative teacher licensure program they would like to provide, if we will grant them waivers from a couple of teacher licensure rules (NOT waivers from any laws). TFA is a national corps of outstanding recent college graduates who commit to teach in low-income communities for two years. DPS expects to hire about 50 TFA teachers. TFA has existed for 16 years. It will have 2,400 corps members teaching in various cities around the country next fall, with graduates from such schools as Yale, Notre Dame, and Dartmouth; the average college GPA of corps members is 3.5.

* My suggestions came from a conference I attended on "e-learning" put on by the U.S. Department of Education, at which we received materials on standards for quality online programs from the Southern Regional Education Board (see http://www.sreb.org/ ).

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, December 14, 2006):

VISIT BY GOVERNOR RITTER – For the first time, as far as anyone can remember, the SBE was visited by the Governor (-elect) and Lieutenant Governor (-elect). Bill Ritter and Barbara O’Brien came to say that education is one of the highest priorities for their administration and they are interested in working collaboratively with the State Board of Education and the Commissioner (whoever the Commissioner might be, Ritter said, acknowledging that the SBE makes the selection, not the Governor). They reviewed the education issues they are most concerned about, including reducing the dropout rate, closing the achievement gap, and helping our students be competitive in the 21^st century workforce. We gave them copies of our newly approved Legislative Priorities.
ACCREDITATION RULES – Gerry Difford and Phil Fox from CDE told us that superintendents throughout the state would like the SBE to extend every district’s Accreditation contract an extra year, and to delay revising the Accreditation rules, so we can see what changes occur in law in 2007 as the Legislature responds to the new Governor’s "Colorado Promise" to align the accountability systems. We will make a definite decision about this in January.
LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES – We added two important new items to the draft of our legislative priorities, which we have been working on for several months, as follows: "Seek support for a feasibility study of current technology infrastructure and expansion of CEDAR (Colorado Educational Data and Reporting)"; and "support the SBE’s development of model graduation guidelines for Colorado." Also, we changed the statement about online education from the previous two years’ version, "ensure accessibility for all Colorado students to online education," to this: "Ensure fair access to online programs and schools, with appropriate oversight." Munn and I fought hard to get agreement for this change. The final version of our Legislative Priorities for 2007 was then approved. It can be found here
GOOD-BYE TO JARED POLIS – Sadly, this was Jared Polis’s last meeting as a member of the SBE, because the state Constitution allows for an At-Large member only when there is an even number of Congressional Districts, and the state now has seven CDs. Polis said that he has been on the SBE for nearly half of his adult life and that he has learned a great deal from being on the Board, much of it from his fellow Board members. He described what he learned from each of the 12 SBE members he served with. Each of us current members shared our thoughts about serving with him and expressed our best wishes. There will be a "retirement" party on his behalf on January 10 (see below).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

January 9, 11 a.m. – I will be sworn in for my second term on the SBE. Also being sworn in will be SBE members Karen Middleton and Bob Schaffer and other newly elected statewide officials. The ceremony will be held on the west steps of the Capitol.
January 10, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. – SBE Work Session, including election for Chair and Vice Chair of the SBE, as well as presentations and discussion regarding online education.
January 10, 6 p.m. – "Retirement" party for Jared Polis (details are not yet available, but it will be a fundraiser for some philanthropic cause that Polis supports).
January 11, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. – SBE Regular Meeting.
January 22, 6:30 p.m. – I will be speaking at the monthly meeting of the Arvada High School PTA (I was a member of this PTA while my daughter attended AHS).
January 23, 6 p.m. – CSAN and I will be doing a training in Meeker for members of local district accountability committees.

Click here to find out how to listen to SBE meetings while they happen, through "audio streaming," and to find information about SBE meetings, agendas, charter school hearings, etc.