Hurray! Three Colorado School Districts Win National Transparency Award

by Eddie | 10:53 am, March 8, 2012

Today the group Sunshine Review (“a national nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency”) unveiled its 2012 Sunny Awards to the 214 government agencies that have the most transparent websites. Colorado is represented by six agencies, including three school districts:

Jefferson County Public Schools
Denver Public Schools
Mesa County School District 51 (Grand Junction)

All three earned grades of A-minus. [...]

Taking a Few Leaps to Promote Excellent School Leadership in Colorado

by Eddie | 12:09 pm, February 29, 2012

Since today is February 29, I’ll take a timely leap from some of my usual fare to point you to two new podcasts produced by my Education Policy Center friends. In the first, Gina Schlieman explains how school-level autonomy has empowered some positive changes in Britain. In the second, foundation president Tom Kaesemeyer highlighted a [...]

Denver’s Northeast Academy Deserves Full 3 Years to Prove Itself During Turnaround

by Eddie | 5:48 pm, February 13, 2012

One of the strengths I’ve touted about the charter school model is the greater flexibility to close down poor performers. In fact, it’s pretty rare for a charter to enter the “turnaround” process instead of being shuttered. But that’s what happened in 2010 with Denver’s Northeast Academy, having suffered through a healthy share of turmoil. [...]

Primary Voting, Cartoonist Kenny B on Devils Advocate

by Jon Caldara | 2:39 pm, February 10, 2012

Look, we already know how tonight’s blind date is going to turn out, so instead, stay in and watch the Independence Institute’s public affairs TV show Devil’s Advocate. First, syndicated columnist Jay Ambrose sits down with me to discuss the odds of Republican primary voters picking a candidate who can’t beat Barack Obama in a [...]

Bad News in Colorado Remediation Rates Renews Call for Transformation

by Eddie | 2:46 pm, February 9, 2012

I usually don’t like talking about bad news, but sometimes it has to be done. When it comes to Colorado high school graduates needing extra help in reading, writing and math at Colorado colleges and universities, the news is just that: bad. Despite the positive higher education angle headlined by the Denver Post, there’s no [...]

Colo.’s Parent Trigger II Survives First Test: Maybe HB 1149 Can Win Bipartisan Support

by Eddie | 5:01 pm, February 7, 2012

My Education Policy Center friends asked me to stop playing around in the snow long enough to give a quick update and comment on something I mentioned last week. As Ed News Colorado reports, Rep. Don Beezley’s “Parent Trigger II” successfully passed its first obstacle with a favorable 7-6 party line vote in the House [...]

Happy Digital Learning Day, Colorado!

by Eddie | 11:09 am, February 1, 2012

I’m still catching my breath from an amazingly successful National School Choice Week, including the Kids Aren’t Cars movie night put on by some of my friends right here in Denver.
And now today it’s the first-ever Digital Learning Day, centered at a site where you can participate in a live chat and watch a [...]

Colorado Has Made Some Progress, But a C for Teacher Policy Isn’t Good Enough

by Eddie | 5:30 pm, January 30, 2012

Now that School Choice Week is over, and I’m able to relax a bit after my manic phase of hyperactivity, it’s back to the (fun) edublogging grind. Right out of the gate, it’s time to tackle an important education reform item that emerged last week but falls a little bit outside the school choice arena. [...]

School Choice Week Good News Trifecta: Nationwide, Arizona ESAs, Ohio Vouchers

by Eddie | 3:38 pm, January 26, 2012

While School Choice Week has me in a happy frenzy, it doesn’t leave me as much time for blogging. But in my few spare moments, I wanted to share a few timely developments fitting for this week’s big festivities:

The Alliance for School Choice has released the latest version of the School Choice Yearbook… The big [...]

Foundation Gives High-Performing Poorer Denver Area Schools Cause to Celebrate

by Eddie | 12:59 pm, January 24, 2012

Today’s lead story at Ed News Colorado highlights the disparity in private parent and community giving within Denver Public Schools. Reporter Charlie Brennan notes that no school raked in more than the nearly $230,000 at Bromwell Elementary, a school with a low 8 percent study poverty rate. The general findings are no surprise, yet nonetheless [...]

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