a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
HUDAK: One of the most significant things I've done since the last board meeting is attend the conference of Education Leaders Council (ELC). This is the national group that was organized to promote school reform and accountability. Their agenda is basically a slate of reforms that have been implemented in Texas and Florida, many of which also in Colorado. Essentially, they promote setting high academic standards and holding public schools accountable for the standards by giving assessments. Their rallying cry, repeated often throughout the conference, is to "leave no child behind." They have embraced President Bush's plan for education reform with the same name. An important aspect of what the ELC supports is reporting data from testing to parents. The ELC believes that if parents find that their local public school is performing poorly, they should have other choices. Thus, the ELC promotes charter schools and supports vouchers. This last aspect is where I part company with them. I believe that if we are truly to leave no child behind, then we owe it to parents to ensure that their local public school provides a quality education. I do believe that choices should be available within the public school system, but not that taxpayer dollars should be used to subsidize non-public schools. One of the keys to providing a quality education is quality teachers. I am very pleased that Colorado has begun working vigorously in this area. We have started by providing some funding for professional development and incentives for hiring teachers in hard-to-recruit areas. Today we will be passing the emergency rules for the latter of these. The State Board has convened a committee including Gully Stanford, Randy DeHoff, and Gene Campbell to come up with additional strategies. But I also know that another aspect of quality education, in fact one of the most significant, as research consistently shows, is parent involvement. Rather than giving parents a way to flee from a school with challenges, we would benefit much more from giving them a stronger role in working with the school to make improvements. This is why I have been so active in PTA and on school accountability committees. Recently I have been working with the Coalition to Close the Learning Gap, to help with the part of their action plan to increase parent involvement. I'm excited about these efforts for real education reform that are taking place, and I commend this Board for its work on them. There is one other issue I need to mention. I know that I have been one of the strongest critics of the School Accountability Reports, but it is only the rating of schools based on one kind of static measurement that I oppose. I believe it is helpful to give parents information, and I have long been a supporter of the reports that the school and district accountability committees have been required to make to the public, which contain most of the same information as the report cards, as well as much more detailed information on test results. I appreciate all the "brain damage" that people in the school districts and CDE have gone through to produce accurate information on the report cards, and I commit to you that I will work on helping to improve them in the future.
BURNETT: (Absent)
CHLOUBER: Met with CCHE this morning and its director Tim Foster. The feeling is that we are working to have the very best teacher preparation in the nation. There was a discussion about the PLACE test and how we're working to have a more seamless system of K-16. This might have been the first time that we were invited to CCHE. They are welcome to visit with us. Noted that she has never heard the ELC speak directly in support of vouchers.
DEHOFF: Went to the ELC conference, and before that the conference of chairs of all state school board associations. At the latter, a panel including the former chair of NEA complained about the politicization of education - DeHoff feels that this is because there are more voices like those in the ELC. It comes down to what is our role: preserving the system or meeting kids' needs? Where the system gets in the way, you change the system. If something isn't working, it should be changed. What we've done in the past is clearly not working. The charter school movement has happened because parents weren't allowed to be involved in regular public schools, and since they aren't allowed to get involved there, they formed their own schools. He and other board members met with the CASB board recently. They are hearing concerns from parents that we shouldn't overlook the arts in our efforts to improve reading and math scores; parents want a broad education for their children.
ORR: Went to ELC conference as well. It wasn't the best one he's been to, but the speech by Florida's Lieutenant Governor was very good, covering his experience with President Bush on September 11 being at an elementary school when the President was informed about the events taking place. Appreciates the reform efforts being promoted by the ELC. Also didn't hear them say that they were for private schools or vouchers. Their concern is for kids, for reform, and for accountability. Commends members of the department on the work done in the past year on getting the SARs out and dealing with the arrows that have been thrown at the department for the lack of accuracy. Can't imagine getting 250 million bits of information out as CDE has done. Out in the field, has always been referred to as "Ms." Clair Orr. When you point your finger, there's always three fingers pointing back. We need to be the shock-absorber for the criticism.
POLIS: Seconds what Orr said in congratulating and thanking people in CDE who were instrumental in completing the monumental project of the SARs given to us by the Legislature. Recently did a mailing about the SARs, which gave him an opportunity to engage in a dialogue with people through e-mails and phone calls. People appreciate the transparency about what's going on in schools. We should make them more available to non-parents; it is vital when, for example, districts wish to pass a bond issue or mill levy override. Is currently working on a mailing to principals about steps that they can take to ensure that no students are discriminated against because of their ethnic heritage due to the recent national events. It's too easy for 10-, 12-, or 14-year-olds to pick on other children of certain ethnic descent or religious faith.
STANFORD: Also would like to add his congratulations not only for the SARs, but also for some other items we'll be working on today, such as the Teacher Incentive Grants and other money to school districts. Looking forward to the coming session and working as a board to improve on the "masterpiece" of school reform. The foundation has been laid with the accreditation contracts to measure the improvement of schools in achieving the standards. In the last month had the privilege of sitting down with the stakeholders to discuss how we can work with the CSAP data at the district and state levels for accountability and instruction purposes. The clock is ticking in terms of getting the longitudinal reporting system ready by March 1. Also attended the English Language Acquisition (ELA) conference that Flo Lenhart put on; it was an excellent presentation by CDE of how we have changed from being regulatory-oriented to service-oriented. So that students are getting the instruction, testing, and reporting that they need. We are doing a very good job of implementing the new policies. Today's paper mentions the substantial contribution of the Mexican government of Spanish books. Was very pleased with the reaction of his school districts to the SARs in not denying that they can do better, but going to work on improvement. In the claws of the eagle, our national symbol, there are arrows, but there are also olive branches.
COMMISSIONER: Also attended the ELC. They are strong advocates of choice, but ELC hasn't taken a position supporting vouchers. Many other states have joined into the school reform efforts like Texas, Florida, and Colorado. It is true that the theme of leaving no child behind was often mentioned at the conference. Commends the folks who helped produce the SARs. Colorado's report card is rated the best in the nation by USA Today. Each year we will be better than the previous. Other states have had considerably more problems in putting out theirs. Truly remarkable people in the staff, especially Karen Stroup, to pull off this project. Never seen a project managed in as remotely comparable a way. Jo O'Brien has joined CDE as a member of the Commissioner's cabinet on Learning and Results. She has a strong background in education, in Kentucky and Chicago, and came to Colorado to help the Governor implement his school reform program.
Approved the establishment of the following on-grounds special education schools/facilities, which have met the criteria for eligible facilities as described in the Rules for the Administration of the Public School Finance Act of 1994, as well as the requirements set forth by the Special Education Services Unit:
Adopted emergency rules for the Administration of the Teacher Pay Incentive Program.
[The Teacher Pay Incentive Program, established through SB 01-98 (22-7-607.5), provides money to school districts with poorly performing schools to recruit and maintain quality teachers. The money goes to districts whose schools received an academic performance rating of "low" or "unsatisfactory" on the SARs. Money is provided on a per pupil basis equal to $12,630,000 divided by the total of students enrolled in the eligible schools (which comes out to about $66 per pupil). The minimum bonus amount is $1,000 and is to be used only to reward outstanding teacher performance, offer a recruitment bonus to a teacher holding a master teacher certificate, offer a retention bonus to encourage a teacher in a hard-to-recruit subject, or defray housing and living expenses if an eligible school is located in a community with lack of affordable housing. The State Board is required to designate what subjects constitute hard-to-recruit subjects.]
(1) EMERGENCY EDUCATOR AUTHORIZATIONS
Approved emergency Type III educator authorizations for 95 initially and 49 renewals.
[Local districts may request Type III Emergency Authorization to employ non-licensed teachers, principals, administrators, or special services providers if they agree to provide an induction program. The SBE's approval is based on consideration of whether the district has demonstrated a shortage of licensed personnel and the employment of non-licensed personnel is essential to preserving the instructional program and to the well-being of the children enrolled.]
(2) DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS
(These remain confidential until action is taken by the Board.)
(3) WAIVER REQUEST
Granted a waiver of the PLACE assessments for alternative licensure candidates for the Denver Academy and for West Central BOCES and Uncompahgre BOCES.
[The Denver Academy, West Central BOCES, and Uncompahgre BOCES - all designated agencies for alternative teacher licensure - seek this waiver so that their alternative teacher candidates may accept employment prior to taking the PLACE test, as long as they meet all other requirements for the program. The candidates would then be required to complete the assessment during the school year and prior to receiving their provisional license.]
(1) CAPITAL CONSTRUCTION EXPENDITURES
Approved funding to school districts for capital construction projects from the School Capital Construction Expenditures Reserve Fund in the total amount of $14,238,732.
(2) CONTINGENCY RESERVE PAYMENT
Approved funding for Platte Valley School District in the amount of $192,645.25 as a loan in the amount of the principal amount of lost revenue to Platte Valley School District due to property tax abatements, to be repaid through the recovery of monies from an abatement tax levy, with proceeds expected prior to June 2002; and $39,127.12 as a contingency grant, not to be repaid, representing interest paid from Platte Valley property tax collections that will not be recoverable through an abatement levy.
[The SBE has the authority to make supplemental payments to school districts experiencing financial difficulties. The statute (C.R.S. 22-54-117) allows payments to assist districts with financial emergencies of various types.]
Jackie Medina, Chair : Introduced the new CDE staff consultant for Gifted Education, Leslie Chislett. The Gifted and Talented Student Education Advisory Committee had three charges; the following are those three and what they have worked on for each. (1) Teacher preparation and professional development: Surveyed Colorado institutions of higher learning concerning pre-service preparation of teachers to work with gifted students; very little preparation is given in this area. Recommendations are for providing more professional development in this area and to provide a supplementary endorsement for licensed teachers (similar to the one in Special Education) for GT. (2) Best practices: Working on accumulating a set of research-based best practices for districts to choose the tools that work best in their community. They are conducting talks about district programming for GT. Screening, monitoring, etc., are costly. There is a lack of consistency and availability of resources around the state. The committee will continue working on this charge next year. (3) Guidelines for how districts can measure and ensure growth of GT students: Worked on a support framework to identify GT students. Made recommendations for the rules on accreditation, many of which the SBE adopted. Drafted expectations for GT students in assessment/accountability contexts. The SBE is invited to attend the next meeting of the Advisory Committee on December 4. They would appreciate an opportunity to meet with us sometime during a work session. Note: A student is considered "gifted and talented" is defined as functioning two years or more above age-mates in intellectual ability (other 5 traits identified in statute).
Assistant Commissioner Bill Windler: We now have the opportunity to work with some legislation that actually has some money with it. Lynn Bamberry from the department helped with this. She organized the Read-to-Achieve Networking Days, which recently went off "without a hitch." SB 129 created the Summer School Grant Program to give assistance to 3rd and 4th graders who received unsatisfactory CSAP scores. Funding is $100 per pupil in a formula-based program. About $946,000 will be distributed. Note that the funding can go to either a school district or "a group of school districts (consortium)" - this enables smaller districts to put on a program when they might not have been able to pull it off alone. In order to ensure that the funding goes out on time, the applications require only projections in March of how many students will be eligible; when the results go out in May, they give the actual numbers. Schools will be able to use results of the 3rd grade CSAPs to make their projections. To determine which 4th graders are eligible, because the CSAP results aren't available until July, teachers will have to base their decision for eligible students on their having been unsatisfactory in 3rd grade and their performance on Colorado Basic Literacy Act assessments in 4th grade. (CBLA requires students on ILPs to be assessed regularly on informal reading inventories; there is a pre-approved list of assessments that districts and schools can choose from.) However, the report to the Legislature on the success of the summer school program won't be able to be done until the following year when the children take the next year's CSAP. The requirements of this program have been consciously aligned with the federal Reading First grant program, as well as Read-to-Achieve and the Colorado Reading Excellence Act. However, the reporting dates and timelines of different programs are not the same, creating a difficult situation, which we might want to look at.
Assistant Commissioner Bill Windler: This is an exciting program begun by State Representative John Irwin, but it was not funded unless occasionally a non-profit organization made a donation. We are glad to see that there is finally funding for these awards. The Irwin award goes to any school with a rating of "excellent." This is the year we're forming the baseline, so the entire $1.5 million will go to the excellent schools. Next year, two-thirds of the money will go to those schools that are most improved, based on the SAR calculations. To schools with 200 or fewer students, $5,000; more than 200 but less than 500, $10,000; and more than 500, $15,000. There will be a ceremony in January to present the awards. Will the schools that were not rated this year be eligible for improvement awards next year? - no, because they were not in the calculations. Perhaps we should reconsider the size categories, since high schools are often so much larger. It was reported in the press that one school received its rating of excellent based on only one student who took the CSAP (Gilpin County Montessori School). Do K-8 schools that achieved an excellent rating at both the elementary and middle school levels receive two awards?
Revisions directed by the Board: Clarify the year that applies to the determination of the school's size, and clarify that the amount of award that goes to a multiple-level school is for the number of students in the level receiving the excellent rating.
Eric Feder, CDE: HB 1365 created a fund within the State Education Fund to provide science and technology centers for the integration of math and science skills and use of technology in real-life applications and activities centering on space exploration, for middle school students. The SBE is to make rules to conduct a competitive grant process to award the funds. The statute set up an Advisory Committee to recommend to SBE whom to give the grants to. The grants are to be appropriated as $500,000 for the start-up of the center and $200,000 (per year) for operation. We are required to appropriate for at least one by January 2, 2002, and grants can continue to be given through July 1, 2011, as long as money is appropriated or the fund receives in-kind donations.
Carol O'Leary, CCESSE (Colorado Constortium of Earth and Space Science Education): Ran a Challenger Center in Rochester, NY, which was highly successful in engaging students, using the theme of space and a proven simulation model. It is applied learning of many subjects besides math and science, as well as workplace competencies. We need two centers because the center is more than a "cool field trip"; it delivers an extensive program for three weeks.
Duane Woodard, Director of Aviation and Space Center of the Rockies (at Lowry): Worked with former Senator Al Meiklejohn to initiate this legislation. House and Senate Education Committees had many of the same questions that our board has had regarding curriculum and availability. Challenger programs have a distance learning component to make it available to rural schools.
[There were other people who gave testimony, but I left the meeting at this point.]
A. PLACE Assessments and Standard Setting
B. Waiver Request - University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
C. Appointments to the Colorado Council for Library Development
[I was absent for this portion of the meeting.]
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