Colorado students made significant headway in overcoming academic setbacks due to pandemic-related hiccups in learning, but their progress still hasn’t set them fully back on track, according to state standardized test data published by the Colorado Department of Education on Wednesday. Colorado Measures of Academic Success assessments are typically conducted each spring as a way […]
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Posted inEducation, News
How a Colorado Springs school co-op saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in health insurance costs
Pat Bershinsky has gifted his nearly 220 staff members $1,000 every Christmas for four years and once again gave bonuses this summer. The leader of one of Colorado’s school cooperatives has the extra cash because of a decision he made four years ago on employee health care. Bershinsky, executive director of the Pikes Peak Board […]
Posted inEducation, News
“At a crisis point”: Homes are out of reach for many Colorado teachers. What does that mean for schools?
Fewer than one-fifth of homes across Colorado are affordable to teachers who make an average salary in their district, even as average teacher salaries have increased by about 25% in the past seven years, according to a report published Tuesday by the nonpartisan Keystone Policy Center. The report puts numbers to a problem that prices […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Zornio: It’s not a teacher shortage, it’s a respect and salary shortage
Last year, a survey by the Colorado Education Association found that 40% of licensed teachers statewide were considering leaving the profession. Among the chief complaints were safety concerns, heavy workloads and low pay. It should come as no surprise, then, that the 2022-23 school year would bring a myriad of headaches for administrators attempting to […]
Posted inNews
Colorado’s COVID guidance for K-12 schools: minimize disruption, stay alert
There are no mask mandates and no quarantine rules in Colorado’s COVID guidance for the 2022-23 school year, but public health officials say they’re still tracking the disease and want school administrators to be open and honest with families about cases and clusters. New guidance released Wednesday largely treats COVID like other communicable diseases, continuing a policy […]
Posted inEducation, News
Bus assistants, language interpreters and other support staff — in short supply at Colorado schools — are seeking unions and better pay
Carolina Galvan nears the outer edge of her dream each time she steps into her classroom at Valdez Elementary School in Denver. She wants to be a teacher with her own classroom of students, but since she was unable to finish the schooling required to earn a teacher’s license, her role as a paraprofessional sets […]
Posted inNews, Politics and Government
Public money can be used for religious-school tuition in Maine. What does that mean for voucher programs in Colorado?
A U.S. Supreme Court ruling that cleared the way for public dollars in a Maine tuition assistance program to flow to private religious schools could embolden conservative Colorado lawmakers to more aggressively pursue a statewide program that would feed taxpayer money to private schools, including religious ones. Previous legislative attempts in Colorado to create a […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Transportation
Electric school buses are in Colorado’s future. But districts need help paying for them.
One by one, the big yellow diesel-powered school buses shuttling kids back and forth in Colorado districts are rumbling along on their final routes and, after many thousands of miles, belching their last plumes of exhaust. With increasing concerns about the harmful effects of school bus tailpipe emissions on both children’s health and the environment, […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Rural Colorado schools, unable to recruit out-of-town teachers, are trying to get locals into classrooms
The question of how to draw more teachers into a profession defined by high stress and low pay has become increasingly difficult for administrators like Dave Slothower to answer over the past two years. “This is important work,” said Slothower, superintendent of Calhan School District east of Colorado Springs. “I don’t think anybody would disagree […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Colorado teacher prep programs saw an “exodus” when COVID hit — another test for school districts facing shortages
While teaching English to Greeley elementary school students who were just starting to learn the language, Ricardo Lopez would often hear his father’s struggles in their voices. “You don’t want to see them struggle like you see someone so close to you struggle trying to communicate,” said Lopez, whose dad immigrated to the United States […]