Schools know how to teach children to read, right? Every child learns to read, right? Well, “No,” according to recent data collected as a required component of the Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act. The READ Act was passed by the Colorado legislature in 2012 amid high acclaim and bipartisan support. The law […]
Colorado Department of Education
Posted inEducation, Health, News, Politics and Government
5,800 Colorado kids in second grade or younger were suspended last year. State lawmakers want to reduce that.
A deal that gives school administrators control over the number of days preschool and young elementary students can be suspended from school has increased the odds for a new law that will make suspensions and expulsions rarer in Colorado. For several years, a broad coalition of civil rights groups, early childhood advocates and mental health […]
Posted inEducation, News
Teachers living in campers: How rural Colorado districts are coping with growing teacher shortage
Steve Wilson has spent 35 years in education in rural Colorado, the past 14 as superintendent of the Big Sandy School District that stretches across ranchland in Elbert and El Paso counties. In his second year as superintendent there, four teachers retired, wiping out more than 132 years of experience. Back then, the vacancies posed […]
Posted inBusiness, Education, News, Technology
Computer science isn’t required in Colorado schools. But enough people think it should be that the state is training teachers for free.
Which is heavier — a parrot or a barrel full of rum? How about a pirate flag, or a compass or a pirate’s spyglass? Now, sort it all out by thinking like a computer. That was the query asked of five elementary school teachers holding up cards of pirate-themed images and posing as third and […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Colorado education officials failed state by botching $231 million reading-improvement program, whistleblower lawsuit claimed
Colorado education officials botched a reading-improvement program that cost the state $231 million over the past six years by caving in to political pressure from local school districts, a whistleblower lawsuit contended. Testimony in the case mirrors current criticism as reform of the Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act rises to the top of […]
Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government
Colorado spent $231 million to help young children catch up on reading. But rates of kids with significant deficiencies only worsened.
Colorado spent $231.37 million in the past five years trying to help young children who lag behind their peers to read at their grade level, but the rate of students in danger of never becoming proficient only has worsened during that time. Now Colorado’s top education officials and state legislators say the lack of gains […]
Posted inEducation, Health, News, Politics and Government
New law to keep Colorado foster kids in their home schools is off to disappointing start
On school mornings, 19 kids who live in Mesa County foster homes are driven across the valley — to Fruita or Grand Junction or Palisade or beyond — so they can attend school with the same teachers and friends they had before they switched homes. They catch a ride on new school bus routes, with […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Colorado’s first female education commissioner in 65 years pushes for a return to “respectful discourse”
When Katy Anthes was plucked from the ranks of Colorado’s education bureaucracy to become the state’s top education official, she was the fourth person to hold the job in 18 months. Colorado Department of Education employees were stressed, worn out by revolving leadership and working to put in place pivotal reforms in teacher performance, new […]
Posted inEducation, Growth, News, Politics and Government
Colorado is near the bottom of states in school funding. That’s why there are nearly 40 bond and mill levy override questions on ballots this fall.
Robert Framel is the superintendent of Kit Carson schools, plus the trigonometry teacher, and the precalculus teacher, and the sixth-grade math teacher. He picked up the math classes after he couldn’t find a qualified teacher willing to move to the eastern Colorado town of 400 people and work for a school system that offers a […]