Denver Post Tackles Long-Studied Problem of Tax-Funded Teachers Union Release Time

by Eddie | 2:17 pm, December 19, 2011

Update, 1/5/12: Chris Tessone at the Flypaper blog also makes note of the Denver Post story, correctly observing: “It’s difficult to make an argument that taxpayers should be directly subsidizing union leaders. Organized labor already extracts indirect subsidies by skimming dues from teachers’ paychecks, sometimes against the desires of teachers.”
Guess what! Just over a week [...]

Colo. Public Radio on Denver School Choice Expo: Beautiful Real-Life Chaos

by Eddie | 11:26 am, December 8, 2011

A couple weeks ago I reminded you that Colorado’s public school open enrollment season is fast approaching, and mentioned a series of school choice expos hosted by Denver Public Schools (DPS). As it turns out, Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brundin attended one of the expos and filed an interesting report about “The Middle School Freak [...]

Critics Ought to Stop Bashing Straw-Constructed Online Education Facsimiles

by Eddie | 3:45 pm, November 28, 2011

With all the breathless attention on K-12 online education these days, you’d almost think it was a brand-new phenomenon — not something that got its start in Colorado more than a decade ago. This time it’s the Washington Post, chiming in to note that some are questioning the educational value of cyberschools.
Am I surprised? No. [...]

Wall St. Journal, Larry Sand Shine Light on Digital Learning’s Growth & Potential

by Eddie | 2:50 pm, November 15, 2011

Last week I told you that the first-ever Digital Learning Day is less than three months away. Someone out there must have been paying attention! Today the Wall Street Journal has a big — no, make that a huge! — article by Stephanie Banchero and Stephanie Simon about online education cleverly called “My Teacher Is [...]

Effective Colorado Online K-12 Education? Change Policies Without More Regulation

by Eddie | 3:48 pm, October 17, 2011

Colorado’s education story of the month has been the state of public online schools. An in-depth investigative report by Ed News Colorado (and Rocky Mountain Investigative News Network) coincided with a request for a formal legislative audit by the state senate’s highest-ranking Democratic official. Ed News Colorado’s three-part series:

Identified a problem with students transferring out [...]

Investigative Journalism 2.0

by Jon Caldara | 1:18 pm, September 13, 2011

It’s no secret the cost of investigative journalism is becoming prohibitive in the 21st century. Gone are the days when newspapers employed investigative teams to dig up dirt on politicians and wasteful government. Sure you can blame the Internet, but you’d have to confess that the Internet simultaneously killed the old investigative journalist guard and [...]

Four Takes on the Phi Delta Kappa Education Poll: Pretty Darn Klever, Huh?

by Eddie | 11:52 am, August 17, 2011

It was to my youthful bemusement that today I ran across several edublog postings about a new “PDK” poll. PDK? At first I wondered that might stand for: Pretty Darn Klever? (or Kute?) Maybe Precociously Delightful Kid? (Guess they weren’t really talking about me, though….)
It’s actually the 43rd Phi Delta Kappa poll of American opinion [...]

Colorado Education Association Sues to Stop Telling Parents of Teacher Arrests

by Eddie | 10:56 am, July 8, 2011

This hasn’t been one of the big issues on my education transformer radar, nor is it one I’ve covered before. But it does bring out an interesting point of clarity for those who are interested in our K-12 schools and the politics that surround them. The Coloradoan in Fort Collins reported yesterday that the state’s [...]

Aurora Citizens Denied: Colorado Springs Not State’s Only Front in Push for Open Government Negotiations

by Ben DeGrow | 6:13 pm, April 17, 2011

In a time when a large fiscally conservative grassroots movement like the Tea Parties have developed a strong voice, we shouldn’t be surprised to see calls for greater transparency in government operations. Not only when it comes to the fiscal ledger (“if you can’t defend it, don’t spend it”), but also when it comes to [...]

American Prospect Boosting Mike Miles’ Reform Cred? & Other Twitter Questions

by Eddie | 9:56 am, April 15, 2011

The must-read, full-length education story of the week is a piece by Dana Goldstein at the American Prospect, titled “The Test Generation.” Before you think this little guy has gone completely loony tunes, you have to know a couple things:

The article is all about Colorado, and mainly about the implementation of Senate Bill 191, but [...]

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