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Educators' eyes fixed on Colorado

School-reform measure could have 'vast' impact

By Katie Kerwin McCrimmon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 8, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.
Updated March 8, 2008 at 2:43 a.m.

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Text messages kept flashing on cell phones as education experts testified about a proposed bill at the Colorado legislature last month.

Around the country, education reformers kept checking to see if Colorado would become a leader in giving public schools more flexibility in hiring and scheduling.

The Innovation Schools Act of 2008, Senate Bill 130, passed unanimously in the Senate Education Committee last month and Friday in the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Driving the change is an unlikely duo, Democratic Senate President Peter Groff, a young father with a first-grader in Denver Public Schools and a daughter soon to enroll in elementary school, and Republican Nancy Spence, a former Cherry Creek Schools Board member, who has been tangling with the teachers unions for nearly a decade as she has pushed for waivers to allow education reform.

Their bill would allow teachers and principals to get waivers from state laws and provide more freedom from union and district rules.

Colorado would be the first state to allow schools to remain a part of a district but gain freedoms in hiring, staffing and scheduling that, until now, meant becoming a charter school.

Groff hopes, with union support, the bill will pass the full Senate soon, then head to the House for approval.

"The impact it will have on generations is vast," said Groff. "We have some ingenious teachers and principals. All kids don't learn the same way."

The bill would allow teachers and principals to create zones of innovation that could link schools with thematic learning concepts. For example, a high school that offers an International Baccalaureate program could link with a middle school and elementary school to offer a seamless path for students.

Groff became interested in the concept last year and held meetings with union members and educational experts all summer. Eventually, union leaders at the Colorado Education Association (CEA) signed on.

"We are not against school reform. We never have been. We believe in making sure our members provide a great school for every kid in Colorado," said Jeanne Beyer, communications director for the CEA.

Beyer said the union objected, at first, because the waivers were automatic. The CEA supported waivers if a majority of teachers in a school wanted them. They also fought for accountability reviews of innovation schools.

Beyer said many teachers want the freedom to request waivers from instructional mandates that don't work.

"We think the bill will empower teachers to make changes in their schools in terms of curriculum and instruction and possibly student assessment," she said.

Comments

  • March 8, 2008

    6:56 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    vudumom writes:

    Something needs to be changed.What I've seen in the school system with my kids,their teachers,my friends children and the principals is a real eye opener.
    I don't have the answers.I don't know all the ins and outs and all the rules in this huge machine that is out of control.
    I do know as a parent I am extremely disappointed with the school system.
    I have many friends that are at their wits end also.I have one friend who thinks it's fine,she works for the school system,not as a teacher but as an administer of a speech program.
    We need real change or the situation is not going to get any better.I'm not sure how to change it.I can only try to make it better for my children.I can only give friends advice when they ask me what to do.I am so frustrated with the school my children are in and the things I see,I'm seriously thinking about pulling my youngest out for next year ,home schooling her through the COVA program and the putting her back in for 4th and 5th because those 2 teachers are the only ones that actually buck the system and teach.
    My oldest will be out of there and in the International Baccalaureate Program in middle school.
    I can't wait to get out of this school.I have heard rumblimgs from the parents about this principal and from the teachers.
    I'm thinking about getting a petition together asking the parents at the school if they think it's time for an new principal and vice principal.Maybe that's a start.

  • March 8, 2008

    9:42 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    donco6 writes:

    The scary thing about this bill is that principals would be in charge of their finances. I've rarely met a principal who could balance their own checkbook. They'll think they're in hog heaven for the first few years . . . then the roof will leak or the playground will need replacing or the computers will need upgrading and they'll be stammering, "Uh, uh, I don't have any money." Why not? Because they didn't think ahead for capital expenditures. Just wait, this will result in a huge budget boondoggle for school districts in five years.