Veronica Bell’s classroom devolved into a place of destruction this school year, with kids snapping pencils out of frustration, tearing up decorations and bulletin boards, and ripping math books to shreds. “Then they would say, ‘Oh, I don’t have a math book anymore,’” said Bell, who left her teaching post at KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary […]
Colorado Education Initiative
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: A Colorado education leader sees opportunity emerging from the COVID-19 chaos
A year ago, I was in a session with a group of education leaders from around Colorado on the subject of leadership in crisis. At this point, we were a few weeks into the COVID-19 lockdown, shocked about the scale of change we were seeing across the globe and asking ourselves what could be done. […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Coronavirus is straining Colorado kids’ mental health. The state hopes free counseling sessions will help.
East Grand School District’s 1,305 students have been forced to cope with an immeasurable amount of stress this year, first in the form of a pandemic, followed by a wildfire racing through their community, burning more than 100,000 acres within hours. Amid the ashes left by the East Troublesome Fire last fall, there remains a […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Opinion: To save the lives of children and families, Colorado needs safe gun storage
When the rioters breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the younger congressional staff members knew what to do. They recalled their training — the “shelter-in-place” and “active shooter” training that started after the Columbine shooting and have become ubiquitous. One of us is a former educator who experienced middle-school lockdowns because of neighborhood gun […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Colorado school districts look toward summer to help their students make up for coronavirus learning loss
Though many Colorado students still have at least 100 days left before they reach the end of the academic year, many school district leaders and education advocates are already focused on what comes next. In a year when learning has become routinely unpredictable, with kids zooming back and forth between in-person instruction and remote classes, […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
When even books are “quarantined,” reading progress in Colorado’s early grades is challenging
In the same way that many teachers and students had to quarantine this fall following possible exposure to COVID-19, so did books in Colorado school libraries. At Stevens Elementary School in Wheat Ridge, teachers would temporarily set aside a book after a student paged through it, said first grade teacher Emily Cowles. Cowles hid her […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News
Facing “seismic shift” this year, Colorado educators pioneer through permanent changes to schooling
Where there were once cracks in Colorado’s education system, Education Commissioner Katy Anthes now sees chasms, laying bare persistent inequities across schools and districts that have only worsened with the pandemic. “The really hard lesson is just how much we’ve been patching things together for so long,” Anthes told a group of parents, teachers, school […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Boulder Valley School District may scrap its school resource officer program. What replaces it is a question mark.
Boulder Valley School District may remove school resource officers from its buildings and redesign its relationship with local police, pending a decision by the Board of Education on Tuesday. The consideration of a different kind of police presence in Boulder Valley schools falls amid a national conversation on what role law enforcement should play in […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Technology
Online classes aren’t going anywhere, but thousands of Colorado students still don’t have internet access
Laura Martinez’s home sits on a two-block stretch of Commerce City where cell phone service doesn’t exist. Anyone in her community who doesn’t have access to the internet can’t make a phone call. “That’s how important internet is,” said Martinez, a mother of three. The urban technological headache is one shared by people in many […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Denver Public Schools taking the plunge as districts plan to get kids back in the classroom
Colorado’s largest public school district will return to in-person classes this fall after transitioning to remote learning in the spring, but students’ school days will look a lot different with mandatory masks, health screenings upon entering schools and modified schedules that keep cohorts of kids together. Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said at a […]