a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
The Governor's office is focusing on spreading technology opportunities throughout the state, related to economic concerns. Colorado is in the number one position in America for the private sector work force in the technology field. The Governor's office is dealing with issues related to technology such as privacy and avoiding Internet taxation. They are working to give Colorado a digital government - making it more efficient, accessible, and less costly. They are looking for an appropriation in the next Legislative session to complete the process. Related to education, there is a need for a bigger supply of skilled workers. The Governor's Colorado Institute of Technology was created to double the number of 4-year college graduates skilled in technology. Funding originally came from Qwest, Sun Microsystems, et al. The effort focused on providing funds so universities can pursue programs that CIT wants to achieve, such as recruiting the best instructors. They have piloted with some success programs for kids on the other side of the "cultural digital divide."
High Tech High initiative - Bill Gates was asked for $10 million for CIT. Gates said that all his foundation support is for K-12. High Tech High is a charter school in San Diego with 400 high school students, 63% black and Hispanic, in operation for the past year, with advisors that work with 13 kids and their families. Would like to establish a similar school at the HEAT Center at Lowry, the facilities of which are currently much under-utilized, through DPS as a charter school. Want to work with CDE and SBE to help create a new model to test different concepts for other schools to emulate. David Greenberg, present CCHE Commissioner, is spearheading the effort. How SBE can help perhaps is developing technology standards. DeHoff pointed out that there is a need also to train teachers on technology.
The High Tech High will have a professional development component for their instructors. There is a Gates grant (from the Fund for Colorado's Future, in cooperation with CDE) for training administrators in technology and "data-mining." A third Gates grant will be coming to Colorado for software in public libraries to help K-12 students learn computer skills. Technology is both a tool and a discipline. We need to encourage students to pursue studies in more math and science. Can't really have technology studies without Algebra.
Polis mentioned that he's been working on creating a virtual high school and would like to see if it can be worked into this project. Polis has adapted his original plan to allow students already enrolled in high school to take additional courses online that aren't available as part of the school's curriculum. In Florida, the state provides this kind of thing. The Colorado On Line Options discussed at the Board Retreat already provide this. A proposal was submitted in the CDE budget process for COLO. Polis will meet with Eric Feder from CDE to work out the specifics of combining their ideas/programs. Stanford suggested that SBE give priority to making technological options available to all of Colorado's school districts.
Polis also mentioned that he has found out about a company that can grade writing by computer; this would make a significant difference in the time it takes to get CSAPs graded. Elmer's Assessment Committee will be asked to look into it.
The meeting the other day with State Senators and Representatives, deans from higher education institutions in Colorado, etc., at which SBE members Stanford and Hudak were present, was productive. Foster passed out a draft of the survey to be done of first- and third-year teachers, which is being used for the requirement for the evaluation of teacher training programs from SB 154. There are about 2000 teachers to be surveyed, and it is hoped to get at least a 50% response. The survey being used has been around for about 10 years, but now the SB 154 requirements need to provide valid feedback about whether the new teacher-training standards are helping prepare teachers better. The survey is conducted over the telephone. The results of this will be a baseline, since the current first- and third-year teachers were not trained with the new SB 154 standards.
DeHoff mentioned that a report by the U.S. Department of Education, "Teacher Preparation Research: Current Knowledge, Gaps, and Recommendations," shows no correlation between the kinds of subject matter preparation, pedagogical preparation, student teaching, or other strategies used and the most qualified teachers. Stanford pointed out that the more data we can collect from many sources, the better we can evaluate. We need responsible, reliable data.
Redo of PLACE exam is in progress, but it is going very slowly; the contractor is taking a long time. The current PLACE test doesn't meet the content standards (ex., there are no questions on history for elementary teachers). What can be done to speed up the process so we have a worthwhile test? We might look into a Colorado-written test.
Moloney said there is a "phenomenal partnership" between CDE and CCHE to work on these issues.
NCATE (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education) and TEAC (Teacher Education Accreditation Council) are both accrediting institutions, and there seems to be controversy about which is preferable. NCATE-accredited colleges in Colorado are Adams State, CSU, Metro, CU Boulder, CU Colorado Springs, UCD, and UNC. There are a couple of TEAC-accredited, Fort Lewis for one. Do we need to require our 16 teacher education colleges to get accredited by NCATE or TEAC? It might be more a question of teachers who come to Colorado from out-of-state colleges - if they come from an accredited college, we could consider that their qualifications to be equal to those trained in Colorado. We still need to work out the issue of reciprocity with other states. There is also the issue of recognition of National Board Certification. We should avoid becoming engaged in the crossfire among the three accrediting groups. We should look into the best aspects of all three and considering putting together our own accreditation.
OSPB (Office of State Planning and Budgeting) has put together its preliminary figures for the 2002-2003 budget cycle. Funding for longitudinal data collection is included, as well as all the new programs included in legislation this year: capital construction for charter schools, summer school grants for low-performing schools, full-day kindergarten pilot program, teacher incentive pay program for low-performing schools, study on English Language Acquisition, study on ACT, 8 additional CSAPs required by SB 186, new Spanish CSAPs. In addition to all these new programs are those that are being continued. It is questionable whether the additional FTE provided are adequate for CDE to accomplish all the new tasks. May need to make clear to the JBC just what the staffing realities are. However, CDE is also reviewing all the requirements of CDE staff and the use of staff to see if more efficient use of staff can be accomplished. Our budget goes to OSPB first and is combined with theirs and ultimately the Governor's. Of course, this past year, the JBC asked SBE what our budget alone was, and they would like to see it from us from now on every year. We have until November 1 to turn in our final budget to the JBC, but the basics are due to OSPB on August 1. SBE will make recommendations for the best ways to use the Education Fund (from Amendment 23) money.
The Assistant Commissioner Roscoe Davidson and Regional Directors/Teams will be meeting with district superintendents and BOCES directors for their annual reviews for accreditation.
Shared the "Uncensored" report from last April's youth conference that he convened. It is based on pulling together over 1000 kids from around the state to discuss with them their thoughts on the problems and solutions for education. It was quite a diverse assortment of students participating; they were not just outstanding achievers. It was done because education reform has been discussed by parents, politicians, and educators, but rarely has there been input from the customers - the students themselves. It was by students and for students. DU partnered in sponsoring the project; the facilitators were DU students. The resulting report was designed to be a document that parents would read. Some results would not surprise educators, but it should be most informative to parents. Everything in it is from the kids' perspective. The data was professionally analyzed. Every effort was made to be as objective as possible. Have had a series of meetings to get the report out to the public. Kids were skeptical that adults would not take it seriously. Report has been endorsed by a number of groups, including Colorado PTA. Eight Teachers of the Year have endorsed the report and said that we need to get as many people as possible to see it. Hoping to have it printed in a Sunday issue of The Denver Post, and Channel 9 has agreed to cover the release. It wouldn't hurt to have SBE write a letter to accompany the report, as there is one from Colorado PTA.
On July 25, at 11 a.m. at CDE, we will hold a press conference to release the CSAP scores from this spring's testing. Districts will have the results on July 20, and on July 24, the press will be given the information and their editorial boards briefed, so they are ready to cover the information accurately. It is important to stress that these are just the CSAP results, not the weighted and disaggregated results that are used for the rankings for the Report Cards.
A draft has been prepared of the booklet with the report on last year's conference. It will be distributed to all schools when ready, as well as all attendees. Some will be made available for this year's conference, as well as local school board members and people associated with the conference nationally. We will print between 5000 and 7500.
The Black Alliance for Education Options from Denver recognized disparities between black and white students on CSAP and were concerned that it might have resulted from discrimination in teaching. The Civil Rights Commission thus commissioned a study, and four Denver schools will be included, as well as focus groups and symposia. The results of this would be well used if the Closing the Learning Gap Coalition took them to work on their action plan. However, members of the Coalition are on the DPS school board as well as the attorney who made the threat of a lawsuit about the situation. When the report is completed, SBE can use the "news" to foster our agenda for raising student achievement.
In the matter of the Boulder Valley Board of Education imposing conditions on Summit Charter School, the 3:3 tie on the vote to remand (Hudak, Stanford, and Polis dissented; Chlouber, Burnett, and DeHoff concurred; Orr was absent), resulted in the decision of the local board being found to be in the best interests of the pupils, the school district, or the community.
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