HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES – JANUARY 2008

SBE Work Session (Wednesday, January 9, 2008)

• LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS – The Technical Advisory Panel for the Longitudinal Analysis of Student Assessment (TAP) has come up with a growth model for accountability which is required by state statute to eventually become the means for rating schools on the SARs (School Accountability Reports). In addition, the U.S. Secretary of Education has ruled that all states can apply to use a growth model for measuring AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress), and CDE will be applying now that we have a plan. The model measures gains students make from year to year on CSAP, even when they don’t move up to a higher proficiency category (such as from Unsatisfactory to Partially Proficient). The "status" of the school (based on the percentage scoring Proficient or Advanced), in addition to the amount of growth the students make overall, will put schools into one of the following categories: (1) Excelling - high status, high growth; (2) Sustaining - high status, low growth; (3) Improving - low status, high growth; or (4) Underperforming - low status, low growth. State law also requires a growth model for individual students to show how much growth is necessary for them to become (or remain) Proficient or Advanced on CSAP. For this, the TAP has designed a model similar to the charts pediatricians use to describe babies’ growth, with percentiles that show comparisons to all students in the same grade based on their CSAP scores.
• DATA AND TECHNOLOGY – CDE is working on a number of initiatives related to data and technology. First, the CDE website is being updated and revised; the new one will go "live" in February, hopefully. Second, CDE has completed the "Data Dictionary" that describes the terminology associated with data collections at CDE; the information there is most useful to individuals who work with data. It is currently on the CDE website and will be updated and improved over time. Another data initiative is CEDAR (Colorado Education Data Analysis and Reporting), an online data reporting and analysis tool for school districts and CDE personnel; there are two people in each of 167 school districts authorized to use CEDAR to access data from CSAP, AYP, and Accreditation reports. The final initiative is the "Colorado Parent Network," which will give parents an online password-protected information tool to access their children’s CSAP, CSAPA, and CELA scores. It will use parent-friendly wording, in several languages. It will describe the content standards and the state assessments. It will be customized for all possible test results, so that parents can access suggested activities to strengthen their children in weak areas, as well as links to additional resources and everyday activities. In May, CDE will take it to districts and parent groups (including PTA) – as well as to CASE, CASB, CEA, and the press – for explanations, demonstrations, and further input. It will debut when we have the next CSAP press conference in late July or early August. Florida is the only other state that has something like this.

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, January 10, 2008)

• ACCREDITATION – CDE staff will be proposing a new method of determining the Accreditation status of school districts which will be more objective, understandable, and transparent and will be based on input from districts and superintendents around the state. It will be proposed to the SBE in February.

• LITERACY AND TEACHER PREPARATION – Commissioner Jones is disbanding the Reading Directorate and incorporating some of its members and mission into a new organization he is creating, the Colorado Literacy Council, which will include experts in English Language Acquisition, will be more transparent, and will advise CDE in a variety of areas, including educator licensing and innovative literacy programs, as well as systems for reviewing the literacy aspect of teacher preparation.
• RULES FOR ONLINE PROGRAMS – We passed Emergency Rules for Quality Standards for Online Programs, including the establishment of timelines and processes for application, reporting, certification, and monitoring of online programs in Colorado, as required by SB 07-215. The rules were based on the recommendations of the Online Advisory Board appointed by the Governor, as well as input from many stakeholders and experts. We made numerous changes to the proposed rules before passing them, mostly technical fixes, except for deleting "and are culturally relevant to students" from the standard that online programs’ "instructional strategies, practices, and content address various learning needs and styles" (on a party-line vote with the Democrats objecting). The Permanent Rules will be passed at next month’s meeting.
• SCHOOL CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION – State Treasurer Cary Kennedy came to meet with the Board (the first time I recall the Treasurer personally coming!) to ask for our support on BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today), the proposal she created with Senate President Groff and Speaker of the House Romanoff. It will take about a third of the State School Trust Lands revenues projected to be generated from interest, royalties, and leases to leverage a great deal of money through COPs (Certificates of Participation) for school capital construction in areas of the state where districts are unable to generate sufficient funding from bond elections to repair or replace buildings with significant health or safety problems. The program would be administered through CDE similarly to the fund currently provided by the Legislature for the Giardino lawsuit settlement. BEST would pay off the remainder of the money owed in that settlement and eliminate the need for $20 million per year to be allocated from the State General Fund for it.
• HIRING OF LAW FIRM – We formally approved the decision of the Commissioner to retain the law firm of Sherman and Howard, LLC, to deal with the lawsuit against the State Board of Education brought forth by the Mesa County Board of Commissioners, et al., regarding the "mill levy freeze" passed by the Legislature in SB 07-199.

CHARTER SCHOOL APPEAL (Wednesday, January 9, 2008)

• In the case of the Owl Creek Community School’s appeal of the denial of their application to become a charter school in the Ridgway School District, the SBE affirmed the district’s denial on a vote of 6:1 (Schaffer dissented).

UPCOMING EVENTS

• January 14 through May 12 – Every Monday morning during the session of the State Legislature, from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m., the SBE will meet with our Legislative Liaison to discuss legislation.
• January 15 – SBE dinner with members of the House and Senate Education Committees at 5:30 p.m. at the Rose Community Foundation.
• January 17 – Meeting with the Joint House and Senate Education Committee at 1:30 p.m. at the Capitol.
• January 18, February 8 and 22, March 14 and 28, April 11 and 25 – As a member appointed by the Governor, I will be participating in meetings of the Teacher Quality Commission from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on these dates.
• February 13 – SBE Work Session, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• February 14 – SBE Regular Meeting, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. (at least).
• February 14 or 15 – I will be receiving the Friend of Foreign Language Award from the Colorado Congress of Foreign Language Teachers.
• February 19 or 21 or March 3 or 4 – I will be on a panel at the Adams County Special Education Summit at 6:30 p.m. at the College Hill Library, Front Range Community College in Westminster (sorry that the date is uncertain at this time).