How do you measure the academic strides a student has made since last spring or clarify how much they’ve fallen behind? It’s a complicated question in a summer bookended by uncertainty, with the coronavirus having forced Colorado students into remote learning this spring and many districts still pinning down their instruction plans for the fall. […]
Erica Breunlin
Email: erica@coloradosun.com Twitter: @EricaBreunlin
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Politics and Government
Colorado students need a back-to-school test to get back on course after coronavirus, advocates say
Just how much knowledge Colorado students gained, retained or lost during a school year disrupted by a pandemic — and how their knowledge base changes over summer — is one giant guessing game. Education advocates are determined to get answers. Education groups are urging the Colorado Department of Education to invest federal coronavirus relief money […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Politics and Government
Voters will decide in November whether all Colorado 4-year-olds can attend preschool starting in 2023
By fall 2023, thousands more Colorado 4-year-olds could be gathering in preschool classrooms for a few hours each week to practice their letters and listen to storytime in preparation for kindergarten. It’s a vision that state leaders — namely Gov. Jared Polis — and early childhood advocates have been chasing for decades. They might finally […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
“This sort of weird torture is over”: Colorado DACA recipients on their hopes, fears after Supreme Court ruling
The last few years have been harrowing for the estimated 14,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients in Colorado. They’ve watched as their protections from deportation wound through the federal court system and became a political football in Congress. They’ve held their breath waiting for answers about their future and whether or not they’d be […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Politics and Government
Graduation rates could suffer after lawmakers cut a program to help Colorado kids entering high school
The leap from eighth grade to ninth grade can be particularly daunting, with high stakes for students: the success or struggles that mark their first year of high school can predict whether they will graduate. About a dozen of Colorado’s 178 school districts have implemented a year-old, state-funded program that provides extra support to incoming […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
A summer gone sideways: Coronavirus upended the big plans Colorado teens had for their break
For many teenagers, the start of summer offers all kinds of promises and a new taste of freedom. Beyond a much-needed study break and time to exhale, it opens students up to travel opportunities, jobs to rake in extra money or the chance to brush up on skills in sports, science and arts camps. As […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Tragedy has prepared Colorado students for their next battle: police brutality and racism
Minutes before a group of young protesters was set to begin its own Black Lives Matter moment on Saturday, the skies opened up. Heavy rain mixed with wind gusts and swirling dust sent demonstrators sheltering in groups near cars at Strive Prep – RISE near Denver’s Green Valley Ranch neighborhood. Most of the protesters, most […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Crime and Courts, News, Politics and Government
Day and night: Organizers of Denver protests say mayhem after dark is muddying their message
Since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis last week, protests have erupted throughout the country and around the world in a collective outcry against police brutality and the generations of pain left in its wake. “The death of George has been a tipping point,” said Lindsay Minter, a community leader who helped organize peaceful protests at […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
As Colorado schools start plotting fall classes they have more questions than answers
The coronavirus is forcing Colorado school districts to get creative as they reimagine what classes could look like this fall. Among the options: hybrid classes with some students in schools and others learning from home; staggered and shortened school schedules; pushing desks 6 feet apart, spreading classes across multiple rooms and having teachers rotate between […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Remote learning robbed Colorado kids of end-of-year traditions. It might also set them back over summer break.
As students close their textbooks for the last time each school year and trade early mornings racing the bell for lazy ones sleeping in, the same threat hangs over most all of them. Losing some of the knowledge base and skills they developed over the academic year — often referred to as the summer slide […]