a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
I apologize for the length of this issue. The SBE meeting covered many topics this month, since we won’t be meeting in June. Also, there were some contentious issues dealt with (“sparks flew” as The Denver Post reported). I urge you to read the full version of my notes for both the Work Session and the Regular Meeting under “Meeting Reports” on my website.
Commissioner Moloney introduced the newly formed Reading Directorate, a group of CDE staff who have some background in literacy, psychology, and reading development. This group was formed to help CDE in areas of policy and practice related to closing the achievement gap in Reading, and they will be reviewing all the proposed teacher preparation programs and Teacher in Residence programs to determine their capability of ensuring that new teachers are able to teach the 5 components of literacy, based on the Colorado Basic Literacy Act. Karen Middleton, SBE member from the 7th CD, expressed concern that this committee was created on short notice when the problem was brought up just a couple of months ago, yet there are many other issues that Board members have brought up about which there has been no action. I said that it is equally important to look at providing professional development for current teachers whose training a long time ago did not include the new information.
The Douglas County School District is proposing to ask to be granted waivers by the SBE to the rules for the Educator Licensing Act, so that the district can license teachers itself for a “Technical Professional License” and provide its own Teacher in Residence program, and for waivers to the rules for Accreditation, so they can write their own accreditation procedures. Jared Polis, SBE member at-large, and Bob Schaffer, SBE member from the 4th CD, said they think it is an exciting and innovative idea. I said that the impact of such waivers would be very significant, that the SBE would be giving up much of what we use to hold the district accountable, and we should be cautious about doing this. I asked what is wrong with our licensure process; they said it requires people to take too many classes before becoming teachers, which is a disincentive, especially for hard-to-fill positions.
Six superintendents from around the state representing CASE (Colorado Association of School Executives) met with us to discuss their paper “A Call for State Leadership – Colorado Superintendents Speak Out,” which was written after they surveyed superintendents all over the state. It begins by saying: “The purpose of this paper is to raise awareness about the need for dialogue between state and district leaders with the goal of improving public education for all students in Colorado.” The presentation stressed the need for there to be a vision shared by both school districts and CDE/SBE, for advocacy from CDE for providing a comprehensive education program “that inspires all students,” for demands made by CDE on districts to be reasonable and appropriate, for expertise from CDE to help districts, and for “dynamic, creative, and inspiring” leadership from CDE. They said that the SBE should work collaboratively with districts, do surveys to find out their concerns, and be more inclusive.
Jo O’Brien, Assistant Commissioner for Learning and Results, updated us on the process CDE is going through for reviewing the Science content standards. She insisted that CDE has sought and received input from people around the state, including teachers, school districts, newspapers, institutions of higher education, and businesses and associations that deal with science. She explained that when people were brought in to participate in the Colorado Validity and Alignment Study, which is done annually to see how well our test questions align with the CSAP questions, they misunderstood the “lumping together” of the standards that CDE did to facilitate the process as a draft of the new standards. There does not appear to be a draft done yet. She anticipates that we will combine/streamline some of the standards in response to concerns that there are too many assessment frameworks, and she expects changes will be made because the standards are “heavy” on Biology but “weak” on Physics, and other states have better models. She asserted that “intelligent design” will not replace evolution in these standards.
We continued our discussion of the paper presented to us at our February Retreat by Commissioner Moloney, in which he outlined 6 proposed priorities. I raised the concern that the SBE has not yet approved those priorities, yet they have been presented to our advisory committees as official. Middleton said she thinks it is inappropriate for Moloney to suggest priorities to the SBE rather than waiting for us to tell him what ours are. She pointed out that the previous day’s presentation by superintendents around the state called for the SBE to use a process of public engagement to determine our priorities. She also raised the concern that at the Retreat we had expected to have a discussion about the leadership of CDE, since Moloney had indicated to the Board in December that he intends to retire sometime this year. She said she was surprised and dismayed to read in Wednesday’s Denver Post that he has no intention of retiring in the near future. Randy DeHoff, SBE member from the 6th CD, expressed concern that Polis had inappropriately “attacked” the Commissioner in the article (Polis was quoted as saying that Moloney’s leadership has been “lackluster”). Pam Suckla, from the 3rd CD, said that as Chair she struggles to maintain control of this Board as we “play politics.” She said that our July meeting will have a different structure to give us time to discuss our priorities.
We approved for a provisional, one-year period the teacher preparation programs at CSU Pueblo and Regis University, as well as the Teacher in Residence programs for Pikes Peak BOCES and Pueblo School Districts 60 and 70. Provisional approval was given pending a review of their literacy programs by the newly formed Reading Directorate in CDE.
We approved supplemental payments totaling $1,550,000 million for Gifted Education, in accordance with HB 06-1368, which has been signed by the Governor.
We approved supplemental payments totaling $20,000,000 for Special Education Programs, in accordance with recent changes made to the Exceptional Children’s Educational Act.
We approved the contract with ACT, Inc., for the total amount of $1,450,031 for this year’s ACT exam. (The ACT is a curriculum-based college entrance examination required by state law to be given to all Colorado public school students enrolled in grade 11.)
Denied exclusive chartering authority to the Poudre School District on a vote of 4:3 (Hudak, Middleton, and Munn dissented).
Granted exclusive chartering authority to the Greeley School District on a vote of 5:2 (Littleton and Schaffer dissented).
Granted exclusive chartering authority to the Thompson School District on a unanimous vote.
Granted exclusive chartering authority to the Falcon School District on a unanimous vote.
Granted exclusive chartering authority to the Eagle County School District on a vote of 6:1 (Schaffer dissented).
Upheld the exclusive chartering authority of the Windsor School District on a vote of 5:2 (Littleton and Schaffer dissented). NOTE: Randy DeHoff recused himself from these hearings because, as the Executive Director of the Charter School Institute, he has a vested interest in districts not having exclusive chartering authority.
In the case of the Rolling Hills Academy Charter School’s second appeal of the denial of their application by the Hanover School District, the denial was upheld because of a tie vote (Hudak, Middleton, Munn, and Polis voted against the motion to remand).
In the case of Ecole Francaise de Denver Charter School’s second appeal of the denial of their application by the Cherry Creek School District, the appeal was dismissed.
June – NO MEETING (usually we have a Retreat in June, but not this year – the Retreat might follow the August meeting).
June 7 – CDE’s Science Standards and Assessments Conference at Keystone Resort.
June 27 – Jared Polis and I will meet with the Boulder Valley School Board at 6:30 p.m.
July 12, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. – SBE Work Session at CDE.
July 13, 9 a.m. – 12 p.m. – SBE Regular Meeting at CDE.
August 9-10 – SBE Work Session and Regular meeting in Telluride.
Copyright © 2001-2007 Evie Hudak - All Rights Reserved