New Democrat Update

MAKING EVERY COLORADO SCHOOL AN “A” SCHOOL

One of the most contentious and bitter battles of the last legislative session focused on improving public education. In the end, the legislature approved most of Governor Bill Owens’ package, including annualized student testing, grading schools based on those scores, a third-grade literacy program and increased school funding by almost $175 million.

Much of the debate centered on the exclusive use of test scores to calculate grades for individual schools. While supporters contended such information will empower parents, opponents countered that getting an "F" (based only on test scores) will demoralize teachers and stigmatize schools with high-risk students from low-income households, especially in the inner-city.

Fortunately, the two sides came together, agreeing to include a letter grade for how well a particular school improves. Ultimately, that indicator may prove to be more useful than comparing schools in districts as diverse as Cherry Creek and Denver.

Elected officials, parents, educators and community leaders must now put this debate behind them and take responsibility for making every Colorado school an “A” performer. Most importantly, the focus must be on getting schools the help they need to succeed, rather than merely finger-pointing failures.

Legislators and education officials must use this new and valuable information wisely. Most opponents of the Owens agenda were not so concerned with increased accountability but rather, how the information might be misinterpreted and abused.

New Democrats believe that reforming public education is essential to producing sharply improved results in the skills and knowledge of every student. Far too many Coloradans will not prosper in the Information Age at today's levels of learning. Much more needs to be done - and the innovation should only be starting. A sampling follows.

Instilling Discipline & Involving Parents

With many of our children growing up without respect for others, schools should not be norm-free zones. The absence of basic order results in disruptive, unmanageable and sometimes violent classrooms, making any other reforms irrelevant and ineffective.

Character education - teaching basic civic virtues like honesty, respect, integrity, and responsibility - should become part of every student's public education. While parents have primary responsibility, schools can help by teaching children to be good the same way they learn anything - hearing, seeing, and doing.

As National Education Association President Bob Chase points out, “There is no reason on earth why every public school in a district cannot be as safe and orderly as the best private school in that district.” The state, districts, parents, teachers and communities must work together to make that a reality.

In addition, the state and districts should identify innovative ways of getting parents more involved in the education of their children. For example, Chicago teachers send checklists to homes indicating whether parents are helping enough with homework or getting their kids to school on time. Low grades result in referrals to parent training academies.

Boosting Teacher Quality

Intuition and research tell us that good teachers make a significant difference. Students taught by effective teachers do appreciably better than those taught by less effective instructors.

Unfortunately, low pay and poor working conditions discourage the best and brightest from staying in the profession. Maybe even more challenging, the best teachers have no incentive to teach in the tough, inner-city schools - where creativity and energy is most needed.

The shortage of qualified instructors is very real. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future reports that 25 percent of newly hired teachers have not fully met licensing standards, 12 percent enter with no license at all and another 15 percent enter only with a temporary license. Nearly 28 percent have neither an undergraduate major nor minor in their main subject area.

Simply put, teachers should be treated as professionals. States and districts should invest in professional development programs that deepen content knowledge and help engage all children, as well as their families, in learning. New teachers should be provided with experienced mentors and networks should be established to strengthen skills and offer educators a community in which they can share ideas, compare experiences and support one another.

The state should also encourage districts to follow Denver's and Douglas County's lead in working with teacher unions to link pay to performance. As done in Delaware, teacher effectiveness should ultimately be measured by how well students progress toward and meet state standards.

Making Schools Smaller

Motivated by promises of efficiency, more varied course selection, and better extracurricular activities, education has closely followed the "bigger is better" model. Since World War II, the number of schools across the country has declined by 70 percent while average school size has skyrocketed 500 percent.

Unfortunately, oversized schools (elementary schools that exceed 400 students and other schools with more than 1,000) are, in fact, detrimental to student achievement, especially for poor children. A 1992 study stated that "behavior problems are so much greater in larger schools that any possible virtue of larger size is canceled out by the difficulties of maintaining an orderly learning environment."

Nor are larger schools more efficient. A 1996 study reported that large schools are actually more expensive because their sheer size requires more administrative support. More bureaucracy also translates into less flexibility and innovation.

In contrast, small schools have demonstrated the ability to offer a strong core curriculum and, except in extremely exceptional cases, a comparable level of academically advanced courses. Students from smaller schools have better attendance - when kids move from large schools to smaller ones their attendance improves. Smaller schools also have lower dropout rates and fewer discipline problems.

When additional capacity is necessary, Colorado should financially encourage districts to build new, smaller schools. Funding should also be made available to districts that break up existing schools into autonomous "schools within schools" and career academies.

Providing Preschool for All Children

The time to invest is early - and now. We must provide universal preschool for Colorado's children, especially at a time when parents are trying harder than ever to juggle work and family. Preschool has significant positive effects on achievement, promotion and graduation rates.

For every $1 invested in a young child's health and welfare, society saves $7 in remedial education, juvenile crime and welfare expenses in later years. The most effective programs save taxpayers between $13,000 and $19,000 per child above the cost of preschool itself. In 1994, the Colorado Department of Education concluded that the state's preschool program saved as much as $7 million over a three-year period in special-needs classes.

We cannot afford to pass up this opportunity. Vice President Gore may have said it best, “Investment without accountability is a waste of money. Accountability without investment is doomed to fail.”

Getting That “A”

These reforms and others will get Colorado's public education system ready for the 21st century. Now more than ever, every Coloradan must take responsibility to ensure that each and every school - and student - gets and deserves that “A.”