a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
Ed Steinberg, Director of the Exceptional Student Services Unit, updated us on special education. Special education is undergoing a reform movement. There had been criticism of how special education was being administered in President Bush’s commission studying it several years ago. The recommendation was to focus on outcomes rather than compliance. General education was criticized for ostracizing special education students. NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requires special education to be included in AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress). IDEA 2004 (Individual with Disabilities Education Act) changed the landscape by requiring Response to Intervention (RTI), which is supposed to shorten the lengthy, expensive set of testing procedures, called informally the "wait-to-fail" model, which is the IQ/achievement discrepancy model. The claim is that students who haven’t learned to read successfully wind up in special education and don’t have an actual disability. The connection between behavior and illiteracy is being looked into. CDE will be looking into making changes in the state’s ECEA (Exceptional Children’s Education Act) to fit the new IDEA law and regulations. RTI can be a process for schoolwide improvement and not just a special education program. The definition of RTI can be called an "ongoing process of using data on student performance to guide decision-making." RTI has six essential elements:
Parents are more effectively involved in RTI. Another aspect of RTI is the multi-tiered intervention process, with early intervention, targeted intervention, and finally intensive intervention if the earlier ones did not work.
Challenges to RTI implementation have to do with low expectations; difficulty with collaboration; the cost, time, capacity, and willingness for "retooling"; funding needed – in fact, there is a potential dilemma, because fewer students being staffed as "learning disabled" will decrease special education funding, and there is a question about how psychologists, who do less testing, will use their time. Ultimately, RTI implementation is "building the plane while it’s flying." Alternatively, "ready, fire, aim!" "We know how to teach kids and we know what works," said Dr. Steinberg. CDE has an RTI Implementation Team that includes most of the units at CDE, as well as outside people including CSEAC and superintendents.
Colorado is significantly ahead of other states in implementing RTI. Some districts started implementing it before all the regulations were passed. One of them is Fountain-Fort Carson District 8 (FFC8). The superintendent, Dwight Jones, presented to us that he felt his district had been focusing too much on very low-performing students, and RTI has helped bridge the gap to higher-performing students who were actually still having problems. FFC8 incorporated ideas from Good to Great. RTI involves everyone, including the superintendent. FFC8 is a site-based district to a large extent, and RTI has demanded a "cultural shift." Special education students are more mainstreamed, and if they are pulled out for special instruction, it still needs to be different, not "an island unto itself." They spent a lot of time explaining to parents what they were planning and listening to parents for what students needed. "CDE has been a wonderful partner" to train and lead FFC8 as they have gone through the process of implementing RTI. It provided the structure and framework to take many things they were already doing, such as progress monitoring, and helped the district establish a comprehensive continuum of supports and services to all students. The district provided staff development in all buildings on RTI philosophy and expectations. Former Assistance Superintendent Mike Miles helped in formulating the process in an RTI Implementation Guidebook. They did a lot of training of teachers on the problem-solving process. Resources needed are as follows: curriculum aligned with standards; flexible grouping and instruction delivery; research-based interventions and teaching strategies; a universal screening system; direct measurements of achievement (benchmarks); and a data management system. Need to determine what to do at each tier of intervention. Need time for dialogue, interventions, and process monitoring. Determine who will provide the interventions and who will monitor progress. Systems change requires consensus, infrastructure, and effective implementation. Staff development is vital!
Allison Layland, a consultant on CDE staff, shared with us a plan for closing the achievement gap (CTAG) through literacy, which was developed by her along with Peggy Littleton and me after we attended the National Governor’s Association’s national conference on middle school literacy. We were charged with creating a plan for improving middle school/ middle grades literacy. We realized that it required integrating more than just literacy. About half the schools identified with a significant achievement gap in Colorado are secondary schools. High schools are the slowest to implement RTI. Currently, CDE has various efforts for technical assistance, be it for districts on Accreditation Watch, Title I school on Improvement, Reading First, and early childhood. The Exceptional Student Services Unit at CDE works with districts and schools on implementing RTI. CDE is putting a lot of effort into CTAG through other efforts as well, such as early childhood. We are proposing an integrated cross-unit CDE team to coordinate and collaborate on technical assistance, with a focus on literacy, to help schools needing to address an achievement gap. We will help them integrate current research and best practices through providing professional development. CDE will partner with the schools to do professional development and collect data for evaluation. It will involve leadership development for use of staffing, analysis of research and data, use of screening tools, as well as targeted intervention programs, intensive intervention programs, and progress monitoring. CDE will provide monthly follow-up coaching. There would be end-of-year review to determine changes that need to be done for sustainability. We are building a cadre of coaches throughout the state. This will create schools that become models for others. There needs to be inter-unit collaboration in CDE to provide technical assistance. CDE will share data through Accreditation, Title I Improvement, CTAG, etc. It will enable us to create a mechanism for communication in CDE that will result in better CTAG. CDE is developing this inter-unit team and tools to use in the field. Layland will prepare an overview for superintendents and principals so they can see what we’re doing.
Suckla asked if this is already being done. Layland said no. Suckla asked if we have adequate staff to do it; Layland said that we do. Steinberg said that this is a parallel process to what is going on in districts for RTI implementation; we might need some changes, but we might be able to use our current resources by eliminating the duplication of work done in different CDE units. Middleton said that she is excited by this model. Munn asked how this differs from the School Support Team (SST) model. Layland said SSTs are for Title I only, and SSTs do an audit, rather than following up with technical assistance and doing follow-up with evaluation. Munn feels that this is a fundamentally different approach to CTAG than we’ve used, focusing only on literacy. Layland said that this will enable us to identify what has not been working and has created a gap. DeHoff said that little would need to be changed to fit the CTAG model. Literacy affects all academic areas. This approach would tie together all the efforts going into schools. I said that literacy and poverty are connected. I told the Board that I have pushed hard for this plan to be comprehensive and involve more than literacy. It won’t necessarily require additional CDE staff, but it will take money for the teams working with schools to provide professional development and assessments and data, thus it fits in with our request for CTAG funding. Moloney cautioned us to go slowly and said that this is not necessarily foremost on our priorities.
Leaders from the Alliance for Quality Teaching (AQT) made a presentation to us on a report they did recently regarding the "teacher gap," which is defined as the likelihood that a poor/minority student will be taught by a less qualified teacher. Teacher quality has the most important impact on student achievement, research shows. Teacher quality involves experience, subject-matter knowledge, ability, and preparation. A high-quality teacher can eliminate the impact of low socio-economic status. Data for the report comes from CDE, CCHE, and research. Not having a unique teacher identifier makes doing some of the research difficult, and the Alliance would like us to consider creating one. Colorado’s teaching force is diverse. Only half of new teachers have been prepared in Colorado, and of that group, one-third are prepared through alternative licensure. High school Math is likely to become an area of future shortage. Fortunately, however, it is unlikely that there will be a retirement crisis in the near future, because there are many young teachers now, in fact more than there were in 2000.
The teacher gap is widening. The gap varies among districts. The number of minority students being taught by "novice" teachers (3 or less years of teaching) has increased, as well as the number of students on free/reduced lunch. CSAP data shows a great correlation between low student achievement and novice teachers. It was recommended that there be convened a Teacher Gap Commission to study how the teacher gap can be closed and develop tools to close it. The Alliance would like to see legislation to direct funding to CDE and CCHE to develop a unique teacher identifier to improve data collection and analysis.
Middleton said that she hopes we will use this as a way to look at teacher quality in a broad way. Polis echoed that. Littleton agreed too, especially in light of our efforts to close the achievement gap. AQT will be continuing its study. The report includes a piece on attrition that they didn’t have time to go into. Angelika Schroeder warned us that we shouldn’t develop separate data systems that are not aligned. Polis cautioned that there is no direct proof that longevity of teaching creates quality. Schaffer agreed. He asked if there are any states with direct measures of teacher quality; AQT said that there are some states working on it, such as Florida, Tennessee, and Texas. But Colorado doesn’t have a sufficient data system for us to study it. DeHoff said that the only true method of determining teacher quality is student achievement, and if we have teacher identifiers, we can learn better the connection between teacher quality and other factors. He urged us to keep moving in the direction of deregulation, because research shows that licensure isn’t the answer.
It was reported that Lt.Gov.-elect O’Brien , on behalf of the new Ritter administration, has reached out to Moloney and Suckla to work collaboratively. Ritter will be at our meeting tomorrow at 10:45 a.m.
Audit ComMITTEE Report: Senator Windels visited with Moloney yesterday to discuss how legislation could help us deal with online education, in light of the recommendations made by the Audit Committee this week; apparently Windels is forming a committee facilitated by the Donnell-Kay Foundation to discuss the issue and make some recommendations. Karen Stroup, chief of staff, spent an hour talking with Rep. Pommer about the issue. Suckla said there will be a formal presentation and discussion about the online audit at our meeting next month. Middleton offered to make a presentation that she made a few years ago about online education. Other information might be presented by stakeholders. Polis asked what we will do in the next 30 days. Suckla said that we have our legislative priorities, which include hiring a staff person for online. Middleton said that we might consider making some emergency rules to show that we’re taking some action, including a moratorium on new online schools. I agreed that "immediate action" was strongly referred to us by the Audit Committee, and because it takes time to construct good rules, even emergency ones, a resolution is a good idea to show the Legislature that we are going to respond to their stated urgency.
Schaffer suggested quickly assembling a task force to move at least on a parallel track with Windels’ effort for a late bill on this. Schaffer said that the audit report answered only the questions that were asked, and there might be more. He said that we are the best group to facilitate and "referee" this conversation. DeHoff said that he thought the only really urgent piece was financial oversight, and CDE staff can take care of that right away. He thinks that the group Windels is convening "has a pre-determined outcome in mind." Moloney said that it is not in our interests to work at cross-purposes with Windels, and the group she is convening includes a balanced, representative group. Schaffer said that he thinks the SBE should take leadership on this, and Suckla and DeHoff did too, stating again that he feels the group convened by Donnell-Kay would be biased. I said that while I disagree on Windels’ group being biased, I agree that we should take the lead and act soon. Schaffer said that a task force of ours could determine model legislation, regulatory review of our options, policy guidance to school districts, and policy guidance to charters and other online providers. DeHoff said the group should include people who are knowledgeable about online schools. Middleton suggested two Board members. Schaffer suggested that we leave it up to the Chair and Commissioner to put this together. Suckla encouraged us to submit ideas to her for who should be on it.
Stroup said that she tried to convey to Rep. Pommer that the apparent attitude people seem to have that nothing is being done is unfounded. CDE has an auditor working in the Vilas school district; if money has been spent inappropriately, it will be returned. I pointed out that last month we approved payment of monthly funding to the district later than normal because the district’s estimate exceeded what CDE believed was correct. Stroup emphasized that a lot goes on in CDE for oversight. Regarding Accreditation Probation, she said that CDE put the district on probation before the audit report was released. She said the characterization that nobody knew until the audit that problems existed is faulty.
Suckla suggested that our Board review the improvement plan for the Vilas district, although such a thing is not ordinarily done. (The Regional Manager and CDE staff usually are the ones to deal with those.)
Munn said that our philosophical approach has been to treat online schools the same as regular schools, and his reading of the audit is that the approach didn’t work. DeHoff disagreed with that. Polis also disagreed. Moloney commented [I couldn’t glean what his point was; he seemed to review the history of the process]. I agreed with Munn, pointing to the recommendations of the Audit Committee about the need for policy and guidance, standards for teachers, oversight and management, etc., specific to online education. Middleton agreed that online delivery is fundamentally different from regular schools. Polis said we should care only about results and not about the method of delivery. DeHoff said that the only way he has ever thought online schools were like regular schools was that they should be accessible equally. He said that he has talked about the problem of "seat time" and said that we need different licensure for online teachers. Polis said that the accountability should be the same.
Munn said that the findings of the audit report clearly showed that students in online schools are achieving less well than students in regular schools. Therefore, he concluded, "It seems irresponsible for us to have as part of our legislative agenda a statement that more kids should be able to get in." Moloney said that CDE argued with the Audit Committee about some of their findings and pointed out that there is not much data to prove that these schools do less well. Polis said that he thinks it is important for our legislative priorities to restate our core principle about equal access to public schools. Munn said that he is unhappy with what the audit showed, and we should be reactive to that. Suckla said that removing the priority statement about access to online education would be highly reactive. I suggested that we change it or add something indicating our willingness to incorporate some oversight. Suckla liked that idea. She assigned Polis, Munn, DeHoff, and me to come forward with verbiage by tomorrow.
PERFORMANCE MEASURES: In our meeting with the Joint Budget Committee yesterday, it was made clear to us that the JBC would like us to provide them with performance measures regarding CDE; i.e., what are our goals and objectives for CDE, how are we going to measure them, and what will it cost. Middleton suggested that we just put dollar amounts to everything on our agenda. Discussion ensued about how much should be asked for to do the data piece, which would involve CEDAR as well as other data capacity-building. Stroup will come to us with dollar amounts.
Jo O’Brien presented a new draft of the Science standards, with a large amount of documentation of the recommendations made by various groups at various times, clearly indicating the changes made based on them in terms of reorganization.
O’Brien said that our Science standards have received good marks (a B) by several different reviewers. Schaffer asked if the Alignment Council gave us good marks. The Alignment Council compared our standards with the ACT standards and made some recommendations, but they didn’t give them a poor rating. Their main recommendation was to set separate expectations for each grade level, 9th through 12th. The stakeholder input matched much of the criticism given by the Alignment Council.
The Listening Tour of science teachers and experts around the state showed the following:
As a result of all input received, CDE has come up with a draft that does the following:
The changes were made based on focus groups’ input and goal of eliminating redundancies. Again it was stressed that no changes were made to the evolution topics.
Denver Public Schools has been looking into why they lose so many good teachers and have difficulty attracting new teachers. They would like to have the Teach for America program, which should attract 50 new teachers a year. It can help bring in more teachers of color.
Teach for America is a 16-year-old program that recruits recent college graduates who are asked to make a two-year commitment to teaching in a district with a need for teachers in low-performing schools. They recruit the top college seniors who might not have considered going into teaching. The current corps has an average college GPA of 3.5. There is a "very selective" process – including demonstrated past achievement and perseverance in the face of challenges. TFA operates rigorous 5-week summer preparation institutes to help corps members develop the foundational knowledge, skills, and "mindsets" to be effective teachers. About two-thirds of TFA’s alumni are still in teaching, many in administrative roles. About two-thirds of KIPP Academy teachers are TFA alumni. The evaluation of trainees includes an identification of teaching skill proficiency with broad principles and key skills. Administrators are informed of incoming TFA teachers’ proficiencies in order to prepare to help in the areas that the new teachers need help with. TFA provides a two-year program of teacher support and professional development. Ongoing evaluation takes place to determine if their students are making academic gains. The corps members are being placed in the highest need schools. TFA teachers have shown greater success on their students’ test scores than the other teachers in their schools.
TFA candidates must be included in a state-approved alternative licensure program, and they ultimately become licensed. DPS-approved mentors would work with the TFA teachers (since mentoring is required by state law as part of induction). DPS intends to place these teachers (a minimum of two per school) in the neediest (poorest) schools that have the greatest difficulty finding teachers and filling vacancies. Munn expressed concern about how many of these teachers will be concentrated in schools.
DPS is asking for a waiver from the alternative teacher licensure rules for 30 credit hours. I asked if they would be willing to have the literacy component reviewed by the Reading Directorate, and I pointed out that the other district receiving waivers on AL will be reviewed by the RD. They said they would consider it.
Moloney made an emotional statement about the importance of tapping the idealism of young people.
Gene Hainer has been in the state library for 12 years and has been the director for the last year. He said the State Library has a fabulous staff. Its responsibilities are service to school, public, special, and academic libraries. State statute has guidelines for this service, including what constitutes a good library. We can’t tell libraries what to do, but we can offer them good information for improving library services.
The emergency rules we will be considering tomorrow follow the law closely (rules for the Administration of the Grant Program for Accessible Educational Materials for Students with Disabilities). There is only one organization in the state that is able to meet the terms of the law, but CDE will do its best effort to consider any available vendor.
Moloney commended the work of the State Library in dealing with the huge budget cuts to libraries.
Hainer discussed the recent decision to dissolve CoLAB (Colorado Library Advisory Board). He guaranteed that the SBE will continue to be informed about important library decisions. Federal legislation eliminated the requirement for a state library advisory board several years ago, but only recently did people in the state decide that its existence was no longer necessary. Advice, when needed, can be brought forward to CDE by people in the Colorado Association of Libraries. Schaffer said that he is "not a big fan of the Colorado Association of Libraries," because of some of their advocacy efforts in the past. Hainer said that the State Library intends to hold focus-group-like meetings around the state to seek input, as well as hold annual meetings to discuss key library topics. Also, he plans to create committees with specific charges, as needed. DeHoff said that citizens who have served on CoLAB are the kinds of people who will be active with libraries on the community level.
Hainer is asking for $162,000 for the Virtual State Library to maintain the interlibrary services.
CDE has produced an excellent DVD explaining how school libraries can collaborate with teachers to improve student achievement, which has some data about the success of this in the state in the past. Hainer provided a data sheet from Adams 12 showing the high student achievement in schools with the highest library budget, greatest circulation of books per student, and highest performance of school libraries on library standards.
He brought us a "message" from district technology people urging us to keep the technology indicator in Accreditation. They believe that information technology is vital for student achievement and future success.
NCLB has a reporting requirement for 8th grade technology literacy. It is unclear how Colorado is dealing with this component. There has been strong leadership in the state on including information technology in schools.
Suckla said that the CASB conference was excellent, particularly the general sessions. She referred to the last presentation about a standards-based approach to education in Alaska. She bought the videotape and will play it tomorrow after the Board meeting.
At the CASB conference, Jhon Penn from CDE did a presentation with Randy Black from CASB on strategies that are successful for improving achievement, particularly from rural districts. It involves aligning curriculum to the content standards and using data in a meaningful way.
Ted Hughes from our Capital Construction Grant Program did a presentation about strategy to pass bond elections.
Middleton reported that she attended the DASSC meeting and the workshop on the Civic Mission of Schools.
We ran out of time for any other reports about the CASB conference.
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