a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
SUCKLA: Asked Regional Manager Michael Clough to help her present a recognition to a student who did a very heroic thing.
LITTLETON: Has been working hard on planning the Reading Summit, which was this past Monday; it was very successful. Attended both Reading First conferences, as well as an event in Colorado Springs with Reid Lyon about what works in literacy. Spoke at a Math Olympiad at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs and handed out awards for high school kids around the country.
BERMAN: Had the opportunity to go to Grand Junction to attend the Western Superintendents meeting. It was very educational to hear what Western Slope superintendents have to say about their issues. Felt it was a good use of time. It was good to hear their perceptions about the issues and what they want in a new commissioner.
DEHOFF: [No report.]
SCHAFFER: [Absent all morning.]
HUDAK: Reading First, CASB Classrooms, Integrating Immigrants, 4 ways to solve problems.
MIDDLETON: Visited Martin Luther King Early College school, grades 6-12; was happy to see how they helped turn around a middle school that has had problems. Would love to have the Board see a presentation on what they’re doing. Went to a presentation by the 21st Century Partnership and was interested to learn about 21st century skills and what states have incorporated them into their curriculum. Also went with Gully Stanford to a meeting about Transitions to Success. Pointed out that there are several groups working on similar projects for 21st century learning and P-16/20 issues.
BUDGET: We need to submit to the Joint Budget Committee our "Strategic Plan" for our priorities for next year’s budget by July 13 and our decision items by August 1. We had a discussion about what our priorities should be. Berman asked if we are being premature in doing this, since we will have a new Commissioner and presumably new priorities. Suckla said we can ask for changes later, but something needs to be submitted right now. Middleton said we should recommend funding for any of last year’s budget priorities that weren’t funded. Vody Herrmann, director of School Finance, suggested that we ask for adjusted per year funding for school capital construction on the lawsuit settlement so that the full $190 million is paid off within the next 4 years. We had a long discussion about what to prioritize in categorical funding and decided to support increases to meet districts’ needs. For data, we will put a "place-holder" to do what is needed when the study from HB 1270 is completed.
LEGISLATION: For a complete summary of the bills affecting school finance, see the CDE website at http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdefinance/LegislativeSummariesFY2007-08.htm.
Here are the bill results based on our Legislative Priorities—
Local Share – SB 199 (the School Finance Act) provided a freeze on local property taxes. Staff explained to us that this will not change the amount of money that local districts get from School Finance, but it will save the state General Fund from putting a larger percentage into funding districts. The state will have additional money due to increases in property values, but the Legislature did not yet determine how the money would be spent.
School Trust Lands – SB 102 was defeated, which would have discontinued the supplanting of revenues from school trust lands in the state General Fund. HB 1145 increases the potential for revenue to be generated from renewable energy.
Comprehensive Funding for Assessments – SB 239 continued state funding for CSAP, CELA, and the ACT.
Capital Construction – HB 1049 and HB 1239 increased the capacity for districts to finance their capital needs. SB 41 requires development of facility and safety priorities to use when awarding state capital construction grants; it pays for additional CDE staff to work on this and changes the committee that recommends the recipients of the grants. SB 239 (the "Long Bill") funds $20 million for the school capital construction lawsuit settlement.
Exceptional Student Services Funding – SB 199 prioritizes high-cost special education in categorical funding to out-of-district students, but allows funding also for in-district students.
Categoricals – SB 239 emphasized funding for English Language Proficiency Act, giving it a higher percentage, but Special Education still got a reasonable amount of funding. Now, in addition to the SBE, JBC, and Governor’s office "weighing in" on how categorical funding is allocated, the Joint Senate and House Education Committee get to weigh in. Gifted and Talented Education got an inflationary increase, but HB 1244 did not provide additional funding to accompany the mandate that districts serve G/T kids.
Closing the Achievement Gap – No action taken to fund closing the achievement gap programs.
School Conversion – No action taken to give the SBE more authority on this.
School Accountability Reports – HB 1345 gives the SBE more authority and flexibility in creating the SARs. We could possibly make some of these changes this year, based on the information we already collect, but for new information that needs to be collected from districts, we might not be able to. Our timeline for changes this year would be June or July. We already have a contract with the printer for a certain number of copies, and staff will determine if
School Advisory Councils – No action taken to allow more members in these.
Truancy Rates – No action taken on truancy prevention.
Model Graduation Guidelines – HB 1118 requires the SBE to adopt minimum high school graduation guidelines that districts must meet or exceed. The Governor appoints a committee to recommend these.
Post-Secondary Education Options – SB 148 creates the "Fast College Fast Jobs" program to enable students to complete high school in 5 years and get an associate’s degree or career/technology certificate simultaneously. This "grandfathers in" Sheridan School District’s program that the CDE audit would have required funds to be repaid from.
Online Liaison and Online Education Funding – SB 215 funds a Division of Online Learning within CDE with 3.5 FTE, and it removes current funding restrictions on pupils entering online programs in the next fiscal year.
Supplementary Online Courses – HB 1066 provides state funding for supplemental online courses through Mountain BOCES.
Full-Day Kindergarten – SB 26 provides additional local funding opportunities for full-day kindergarten.
Early Childhood and Family Literacy – HB 1271 allows future funding for family literacy. SB 199 increases the Colorado Preschool and Kindergarten Program slots by 2,000, and it requires districts to create plans to implement a phase-in of full-day kindergarten. HB 1062 expands the early childhood pilot programs and councils.
Libraries – No action taken to restore funding for libraries.
State Board Authority – SB 192 requires the SBE to promulgate rules to implement Read to Achieve program specifics. SB 215 requires the SBE to promulgate rules for new online program administration details.
Data – HB 1270 requires a study of data technology in CDE. HB 1320 requires further development of a data dictionary.
Deb Scheffel from CDE discussed the emergency rules we will be passing at tomorrow’s meeting for Read to Achieve. The rules are necessary for us to develop the RFPs to distribute the $4.9 million allocated for the program (previously it was $16 million). The rules include the criteria for determining eligible schools, application procedures, criteria for selecting grant recipients, and procedures for reviewing the effectiveness of the program. The new law targets K-1 students as well as the 2nd and 3rd graders included previously. It includes funding for administration and evaluation. It focuses money on high-need schools. Very importantly, the rules will also specify the single "valid and reliable" assessment to be used by grant recipients.
There were 3 focus groups to advise CDE on which assessments should be used for the Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA), of which one must be selected for Read to Achieve. The first focus group, a group of administrators, recommended using only DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills). The second one, a group of assessment experts, said that there is no one perfect tool currently available, but if one assessment must be used, it should be DIBELS, although they would rather use a better assessment, if there were one. The third one, reading experts, agreed that there is no perfect tool, and they would like 3 assessments to be allowable: DRA 2 (Developmental Reading Assessment, used by most large districts, including Denver, Jeffco, and Douglas County), PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), and DIBELS. Berman asked what would happen to the large districts that don’t use DIBELS if it is picked for Read to Achieve – would that mean they would have to use a different assessment for Read to Achieve and CBLA? If so, would that possibly make it prohibitive for some districts to apply for Read to Achieve if it’s not the same assessment? Littleton pointed out that DIBELS can be downloaded for free. Scheffel pointed out that Read to Achieve is only applicable for about 50 schools.
DeHoff pointed out that the agenda for tomorrow does not specify which assessments we are being asked to approve or why, and if we are to make a decision, we should have the information in advance. Staff said they would get it for us. [Later in the day, they gave us a memo saying that they are recommending DIBELS for Read to Achieve and DIBELS, PALS, and DRA2 for CBLA.]
Ed Steinberg, Exceptional Student Leadership Unit Director, presented to us CDE’s plan for a "fast-track" endorsement for Special Education, which would become available for general education teachers who are already licensed, similar to the program that Douglas County has with the waivers granted to the district by (a majority vote of) this Board. Seven BOCES have expressed interest in using this endorsement. I said that I am no fan of the waivers given to Douglas County for Special Education and asked how this is different. Steinberg said this endorsement is only for teachers of students with mild disabilities (i.e. learning disabilities). Furthermore, it involves an intensive six-week training program over the summer, mentoring by BOCES during the school year, and another intensive summer institute after the school year – which amounts to the equivalent of about 30 credit hours. Moloney said that most of the students identified as having learning disabilities are misdiagnosed and simply have reading difficulties, so this would be to help them. Dorothy Gotlieb, director of the Office of Professional Services, said that these teachers have already gained the knowledge of teaching classes of students with varying abilities. She said this endorsement program mirrors other alternative licensure programs more than it mirrors the Douglas County program.
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