Anthes has been at the department helm since the end of 2016. The State Board of Education will start looking for the agency’s next leader in early 2023.
Katy Anthes
Posted inColoradans, Crime and Courts, Education, Equity, News, Politics and Government
Rural Colorado students sue to block law demanding 26 schools shed their Native American mascots
A lawsuit filed this week in U.S. District Court challenges the constitutionality of a new Colorado law requiring public schools to get rid of Native American mascots, logos and imagery by next summer or face massive fines. In its opening salvo, the lawsuit suggests that a law that similarly forbade the use of the name […]
Posted inCOVID, Education, Health, Politics and Government
Roadmap to return Colorado students to school calls for more testing, contact tracing
Asserting that schools have proved themselves to be safe, Gov. Jared Polis and a group of public health and education leaders laid out a roadmap Tuesday for getting children back to the classroom as soon as possible in 2021. But the report is short on details about how the state will help schools overcome logistical […]
Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News, Politics and Government
How much should the state spend to learn how far Colorado kids have fallen behind during the pandemic?
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. […]
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, 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, Technology
How do you study online without a computer or internet access? It’s a reality for many Colorado kids.
Once Centennial School District R-1 attaches an antenna to its K-12 school building, students in the tiny San Luis Valley district will have a new place to access the internet for their classes: the parking lot. At a minimum, Superintendent Toby Melster said, students will be able to come to the school, sit in the […]
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 […]