a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District

EVIE’S BOARD NOTES – APRIL 2006

SBE Work Session (Wednesday, April 5, 2006)

TEACHER PREPARATION – The SBE had a discussion about our process for approving teacher preparation programs, because apparently one or more of the SBE members (Peggy Littleton for sure, and maybe also Randy DeHoff) had concerns about whether they are adequately preparing teachers to meet the requirements of the Colorado Basic Literacy Act. Two programs that were supposed to have been approved last month were taken off the agenda and not re-authorized this month – those from Adams State College and the Elementary Education program at the University of Phoenix. The SBE has the power to "shut down" any programs that do not conform to the content standards. Rico Munn asked if SBE members have the power to pull items off the agenda whenever they have a concern. Commissioner Moloney explained that when concern was expressed about these two programs, CDE staff looked closely at their curriculum and determined that the concern was warranted.
EARLY CHILDHOOD – Dave Smith, CDE Director of Prevention Initiatives, made a presentation about the early childhood programs in CDE. [Incidentally, it was announced that Dave Smith will be retiring at the end of June.] He explained that CDE is in charge of four programs dealing with pre-kindergarten children: (1) the Colorado Preschool Program (CPP), which serves children with several "risk factors" in a half-day program; (2) the Consolidated Child Care Pilot councils, which coordinate the efforts of local community agencies that serve young children (there are 17 councils currently, serving 30 counties); (3) early childhood special education services, through Part C and Part B of IDEA (although Part C will soon be moved to the Department of Human Services because of an Executive Order that the Governor issued); and (4) Results Matter, a program that will be assessing child outcomes in all the state-run early childhood programs. Bob Schaffer expressed concern that only a small percentage of CPP sites are in privately run locations, such family child care homes. He said that being located in "government" sites would cause it to "fail." I explained that the requirements of CPP for small class size and for the provider to have a teaching license are the reasons that there are few private providers.

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, April 6, 2006)

CSAP GRADE LEVEL OBJECTIVES AND ACHIEVEMENT STANDARDS – We approved the CSAP Assessment Grade Level Objectives and Achievement Standards. The Assessment Frameworks have been used in the development of the Colorado Student Assessment Program. These grade level objectives are used to define the type of knowledge and skill students must know and be able to do relative to the Model Content Standards for each grade level and content area. Performance Level Descriptions linked to the cut scores for Unsatisfactory, Partially Proficient, Proficient, and Advanced performance levels are referred to as "Achievement Standards" in the NCLB requirements. For purposes of the U.S. Department of Education Peer Review, CDE has been asked to produce evidence of State Board approval of these documents.
CELA – We approved the contract with CTB/McGraw-Hill for the Colorado English Language Assessment (CELA) at the cost of approximately $1.8 million.
RULES FOR ASTHMA AND ANAPHYLAXIS HEALTH MANAGEMENT ACT – We passed rules to implement the law that allows students to self-administer certain treatments or medications for severe asthma or allergies (e.g., to use an inhaler without going to the School Nurse to administer it).
NCLB – We approved the new state plan for implementing No Child Left Behind, which incorporates all the suggestions we received from various advisory groups. However, the plan was due to the U.S. Department of Education by April 1, so this approval was "after the fact" since we did not officially have a meeting last month (because the agenda was not approved – for details, see last month’s Board Notes or Meeting Reports on my website).
CONTINGENCY RESERVE LOAN – We approved a loan of approximately $440,000 to Denver Public Schools from the Contingency Reserve to relieve the district of revenue losses due to the bankruptcy of Delta and Northwest Airlines. Companies coming out of bankruptcy have up to 6 years to repay property taxes, at which time DPS would repay the loan. The Contingency Reserve has a balance of about $4.7 million.

Charter School Appeals (Wednesday, April 5, and Thursday, April 6)

In the case of the Teddy Roosevelt Academy Charter School’s 2^nd appeal of the denial of their application by the Jefferson County School District, the SBE remanded the school back to the district with instructions to approve the application, on a vote of 5:1 (Munn dissented; Polis was absent on recusal, and Littleton was absent for too much of the hearing to vote).
In the case of the Madison Charter High School’s 2^nd appeal of the denial of their application by the the Jefferson County School District, the SBE remanded the school back to the district with instructions to approve the application, on a vote of 5:2 (Middleton and I dissented; Polis was absent on recusal).

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 27 – The SBE members who represent part or all of Jefferson County (Middleton, DeHoff, Polis, and myself) meet with the Jeffco School Board at 5 p.m.
May 10 – SBE Work Session, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. at CDE.
May 11 – SBE Regular Meeting, 9 a.m. – noon at CDE.
June – NO MEETING (usually we have a Retreat in June, but this year it will be held following our August meeting, which is held at some location out of town).
June 7 – CDE’s Science Standards and Assessments Conference at Keystone Resort.