a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
Teacher Pay Incentive Rules: The JBC has rescinded the funding for this program, so doing the rules would give a mixed message that there really is money, which there isn't.
Legislation: (1) HB1176 - Limits the SBE's responsibilities and discretion in licensing of teachers who have committed a felony of any kind at any time. It has a fiscal note of 1.5 FTE. (2) HB 1159 - Certification of paraprofessionals - was going to mandate that community colleges have programs that certify paraprofessionals; changed to "strongly encourage."
Approval of Teacher Preparation Programs in Private Institutions: State law is silent about approval of private teacher preparation programs, but since CDE licenses teachers, the burden of approval is on us. We must come up with some criteria for approving the programs, including the standards for their program, like the 8 standards that apply to the public institutions. We can do it with the help of CCHE - but can use a national accrediting organization. Site visits will still have to take place. The content of the courses would not have to be the same as the public institutions, but something comparable. The two programs that we are asked to approve tomorrow are in this category - University of Phoenix and Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. We will approve programs only if they meet the state content standards and teacher preparation standards.
There is little alignment between No Child Left Behind, Accreditation, and SB 00-186. All three require accountability in a different way, so the HR1 Hub Committee has brought up concerns about how the requirements of NCLB are different. There was a bill (SB 64) to make some changes to the SARs to improve alignment and make some of the information more understandable, but that bill was killed. The SAR Task Force is ready to be reconvened at any time that we need their assistance. Accreditation is of most immediate concern because it must include all the accountability programs. The regional managers are working to help districts with all three areas through accreditation efforts. CDE has been reassuring people that some of these things will change as time goes by, and they shouldn't panic. Some districts have expressed concern that they are supposed to issue reports to the community on October 1 and December 1 (required from two different laws, the old accountability law of 1989 and the accreditation law), but through accreditation, these should be combined into one report in December, which can go out with the SARs. These reports can give more information about what is going on in the district than is just in the SARs. Our focus is on accreditation and channeling all the information that needs to be reported through the accreditation reports.
Tomorrow, Senator Arnold's bill is up to change some of the deadlines related to CSAP and SARs.
Regarding our state plan for NCLB, we send information to our Congressional delegation. They may have perceived that we haven't been doing much on it, but that is only because our accountability plan has just recently been approved. However, we should be more assertive about sharing with our members of Congress what we've been doing. They should know that we have a special pipeline to the U.S. Department of Education through Pat Chlouber and the good relationship we have with U.S. Undersecretary of Education Gene Hickok.
HB 1250 - Sinclair's bill to remove the SBE's ability to decide to whom to grant the Science and Technology grants is up today, and DeHoff will testify to dispel some of the misunderstandings about the SBE's right to make the grants.
BUDGET: There was a big attempt to save the $500,000 for the school breakfast program; we hope that even if the appropriation is removed, the statute allowing an appropriation for that reason will remain. Next year's budget will require even more huge cuts, and the JBC would like our input. Figure-setting for next year's budget will begin in the middle of March. Orr pointed out that "job one is educating kids - services like transportation may have to be cut." Karen Stroup pointed out that transportation funding is covered as a categorical, but it's up to local districts how they use that money. Suckla pointed out that we need to fight just to preserve our existing programs and should discourage the Legislature from coming up with any new programs to fund. Moloney suggested that it's important for us to coordinate our voice on this issue with the other educational stakeholders; we're having dinner tonight with CASE, CASB, and CEA, and it is a good opportunity to start that discussion. Munn suggested that we come up with a process to provide feedback to the JBC - we could discuss it at the Board Retreat. Several bills are moving funding from state funds to NCLB; thus we have less flexibility in how we allocate staff. In the future, we may have to look at what programs in CDE we want to continue. Munn asked if we could get a legal opinion about whether the Legislature has the right to tell us how to use NCLB funds; Moloney warned that the Legislature could react by cutting other funds. Polis asked if we are in charge of levying any fees, like for the GED, which we could raise. Stroup said that raising fees too high would destroy some of the programs. We can collect any money we want, but in order to spend the money, the JBC must appropriate the funds for those purposes. DeHoff said that we have the ability to come up with data to prove that programs are successful.
HB 1176 - Implies that the Board won't exercise sound judgment in deciding on revoking teachers' licenses. Also gives the court the determination if an incident was domestic violence, and forces the revocation of a license if teachers fail to submit their fingerprints in a timely manner. Takes away the Board's responsibility to do a thorough investigation. We came to consensus to oppose this bill, as well as the other two similar ones. We will send a letter to the Legislature stating our position.
SCHOOL CHOICE: Although our board is divided on vouchers, we might try to come to consensus on the school choice issue in a broad way, so that the SBE is not silent on this current issue that is one of the biggest in this legislative session. Since it is likely that the Legislature will pass some kind of voucher bill, it might be helpful if the SBE gave some principles that govern school choice. We will continue this discussion at the Retreat.
The Online Learning Task Force was directed by the Legislature to study issues of funding, quality, access/equity, and accountability of cyberschools. Recommendations are being made in each of these areas. The Task Force consists of people very interested in the topic, including cyberschool principals, library personnel who help provide access to technology, legislators, etc. They point out that we need to differentiate between "online learning" as supplemental courses taken by a student in a brick-and-mortar school and "cyberschool" as a school where all learning is virtual. The Task Force is studying cyberschools primarily. Issues that have come up include the "shuffle" of students into cyberschools by enrolling in a regular school up until count day, October 1, and then transferring to a cyberschool. Another issue is the difference between a home-schooled student learning online and a cyberstudent.
The rules that the SBE passed for cyberschools have done a good job of increasing accountability. More cyberstudents will be taking CSAP this year. The Task Force will be recommending a removal of the cap of 135 new students from home and private schools, but it will also be recommending improved ways of holding the schools accountable through SARs and accreditation. They are also suggesting that there should be some kind of screening of students before they are admitted into cyberschools, to ensure that they will be able to succeed in that kind of learning. They have studied the actual cost of delivering a good cyber-education and found that it actually exceeds the base PPOR (to prevent cheating and have adequate interaction between the students and teachers), and they will recommend a funding formula for cyberstudents with a base and factors that reflect actual cost.
The number of cyberstudents has tripled within the last year, much more than online students. There are three new cyberschools that are being created for next year. An issue is the cost of providing a satellite or land lines that can provide connectivity at a speed that is needed for reasonable use. High-speed data lines are preferable to regular phone lines. Libraries need better funding so they can provide this kind of access.
CDE is looking at accountability not only in terms of CSAP but also in closing the achievement gap and helping students move forward. It also has an important role to play in teacher professional development and thus higher education. We might want to consider creating an additional Regional Service Team at CDE for cyberschools.
Karen Gerwitz has been taking parliamentary training, and the group (Mile High Parliamentarians) looked at our operating procedures as sample task and made a few suggestions. To "Elected Officers," they suggest we add "and until their successors are elected" (P. 3). For "Election Procedure," they suggested simplifying all the ballots, eliminating all the parts about "multiple candidates" and going directly to "If there is not a majority vote after ___ ballots and a chairman is not elected, . . ." We decided to fill the blank with 5.
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