Posted inEducation, News, Politics and Government

Despite pushback, Colorado will enforce K-3 teacher training on reading as planned

Colorado will stick to an August deadline for early elementary teachers to complete mandatory training on how to teach reading, despite pushback from some school district leaders about burdensome reporting requirements. Most State Board of Education members on Wednesday agreed that districts should be able to handle the job by the deadline. Districts that don’t […]

Posted inColoradans, COVID, Education, News

Down 12 teachers, an Alamosa school drafted everyone they could to teach — including the principal

With 12 Ortega Middle School teachers scheduled to be out Friday, administrators of the Alamosa School District suddenly had to weigh their last-resort option: closing school. Assistant Superintendent Luis Murillo and his team “briefly” considered the idea, but instead scrambled to find staff to help cover classrooms, drafting Alamosa Online School employees — including the […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: It’s time for Colorado’s teachers to “know better” about the science of reading

Early in my teaching career, like many other educators, I used a balanced-literacy approach and believed that using the “three-cueing” theory of reading instruction was sufficient for teaching my primary grade students how to read. (As the journal EducationWeek recently defined it, three-cueing is a strategy that “involves prompting students to draw on context and […]

Posted inEducation, News

Colorado may shift to a more in-depth reading exam for some new teachers

Some prospective Colorado teachers soon could be required to take a new, more rigorous test on reading instruction to earn their state teaching licenses. The State Board of Education will decide Wednesday whether to adopt the new exam, called the Praxis 5205, for elementary, early childhood, and special education candidates seeking teaching licenses. If approved, […]