Chrissy Simmons, the director of a child care center in the western Colorado city of Montrose, was one of the presenters talking about career paths at a local high school this spring. Students were visibly excited when speakers discussed potential earnings for jobs in welding and health care — wages of $20, $30, even $50 […]
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Posted inColoradans, Education, Environment, News
All the cool Colorado universities and colleges have one: a mountain campus
This fall, about 1,500 first-year University of Denver students will take turns descending winding mountain roads toward a cluster of rustic cabins, an open field containing a ropes course and barely any cellphone service. It’s something of a “digital desert,” said Jeremy Haefner, chancellor of the University of Denver, but it offers an amenity hard […]
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 […]
Posted inEducation, News
Colorado’s teacher evaluation system is set to change. Here’s how.
Teacher evaluation is getting an update in Colorado, more than a decade after the state last overhauled its system. Starting with the 2023-24 school year, students’ standardized test scores will play a smaller role in teachers’ ratings, rubrics will be more specialized to reflect different jobs, and teachers with consistently high scores will face less […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News, Outdoors
A Colorado camp connecting deaf students to the outdoors is reemerging from the brink of collapse
OLD SNOWMASS — With towering Aspen trees that catch every breeze from the Elk Mountains and water that cascades over giant rocks along Snowmass Creek, Aspen Camp of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing is a calming refuge tucked away from the bustle of nearby resort towns. Yet for all the serenity it offers campers, […]
Posted inNews
Applications now open for The Colorado Sun’s 2022 Rise and Shine Journalism Workshop
The Colorado Sun has opened applications for its 2022 Rise and Shine Journalism Workshop for up to 25 middle and high school students across Colorado. The program will be held July 18-22 over Zoom. The Sun introduced the summer camp last year, exposing students to the fundamental skills of journalism — including reporting, writing, filing […]
Posted inEducation, News
A rideshare company is transporting Colorado at-risk students. What rules should apply?
HopSkipDrive provided the solution when Jerene Petersen was struggling to find rides for foster youth who had been placed in homes far from their regular schools. At the time, she was the deputy executive director for the Colorado Department of Human Services. She knew that getting students back to their home schools would increase their chances […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
Colorado school districts are hiring teachers to start work before they graduate amid educator shortage
Ellie Howe began teaching this year beside some of the same teachers she had as a middle schooler in the Eagle County School District, where they guided her through math problems, Spanish vocabulary and social studies projects. “Those teachers definitely pushed me to be a better individual in school,” said Howe, who is still learning […]
Posted inColoradans, Education, News
No Colorado charter school has a union. That could change as New America School teachers rally to form one.
Most of Stephanie Ernst’s students at New America School in Aurora are immigrants who are still learning English, but after a rash of teacher and staff departures this school year, her students no longer have a Spanish program in which they can practice their first language. Nor do they have a school nurse. Or a […]