Mary Pishney, the first-grade teacher whose arguably accurate negative performance evaluation was the subject of a recent Westword feature, will not return to the classroom when school starts again tomorrow. Pishney hasn’t been back to Bromwell Elementary School in Cherry Creek since stress-related health issues caused her to take a…
On Monday morning, the Colorado Department of Education will launch its Educator Effectiveness Project. It’s an undertaking made possible by $1 million in grants secured this summer…
SquareState.net has published a chain of e-mails between former DPS superintendent-turned-Senator Michael Bennet, current Denver Public Schools superintendent Tom Boasberg and board members Jeannie Kaplan and Teresa Pena about the DPS pension financing deal that made headlines in the New York Times last week. While the e-mails can be a…
The results from the thirteenth Colorado Student Assessment Program results are out, and the data that pertains to writing is anything but lucky. Student writing scores went down in the overwhelming majority of grades — and this trend is nothing new. Here’s an excerpt from the CSAP summary:…
Earlier in the week, we brought you news of the University of Colorado’s fall in the pot rankings. But why stop there? The Princeton Review ranks, logically or not , all manner of things: class discussions, race relations, general excellence and, yes, Birkenstock frequency. But what about the more… flavorful…
Colorado was chosen today as one of nineteen finalists in round two of the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top grant contest. If successful, the state stands to win $175 million. If not, Colorado gets zilch — which is what happened when it applied for $377 million in…
In December 2003, the Ault, Colorado home onetime UNC student Thomas Mink shared with his mom was raided by police. His crime? Satirizing a UNC professor named Junius Peake as “Junius Puke” in his self-published newsletter, The Howling Pig. Thus began a court fight whose latest chapter ended yesterday with…
We tend to think of water treatment safety in terms of potential harm to people. But CU-Boulder professor David Norris is also concerned about humans’ impact on fish — specifically the way chemicals we either dump out or excrete may be feminizing male fish, or creating ones with characteristics of…
The top spokesman for the University of Colorado governing board says he wishes he “had a gun so I could blow off a few rounds.” That’s how many media calls Ken McConnellogue, spokesman for university system Board of Regents, has received as CU aims to keep a gun ban that…
Six struggling Denver schools were awarded $14.4 million in federal money to help them “turn around” — which is education-speak for raise test scores and graduation rates. The schools — Montbello High School, Rachel B. Noel Middle School, Gilpin K-8 School, Greenlee Elementary School, Lake Middle School and North High…
As a proud native of Grand Junction and graduate of the city’s Mesa State College, I’m not going to joke about the institution’s latest gambit — the creation of a so-called “body farm,” where students will examine rotting human corpses. At least I’m going to try really hard. But I…
Under CSU’s “Commitment to Colorado,” poor students who qualify for federal Pell Grants are promised free tuition starting in 2011, while those whose parents bring in less than $57,000 a year will be offered half-price tuition…
Denver’s public schoolchildren could soon be learning a lot more about the art of babymaking (and presumably, how to avoid it). The DPS Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution last week that calls for the district to ensure that kids “have access to science-based, comprehensive, medically-accurate, culturally relevant, and…
Colorado State University officials and Governor Bill Ritter announced a sweeping plan today to ensure higher education for lower and middle class students threatened with hefty student loans and skyrocketing tuition. The tuition break plan, dubbed “Commitment to Colorado,” promises to cut tuition in half for Colorado residents whose families…
Two months ago, Chuck Crowley stood in front of the Denver Public Schools Board of Education and told its members that something fishy was going on at Bromwell Elementary School. A group of difficult parents was trying to get his daughter’s former first-grade teacher fired, he said, warning the boardmembers…
On Thursday night, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education will talk about sex, baby. More specifically, they’ll talk about sex ed — and how it’s important that teenagers with raging libidos “have access to science-based, comprehensive, medically-accurate, culturally relevant, and age-appropriate sexuality education.” In other words, it’s not okay…
Colorado State University professor John Straayer, an expert on state government, says Colorado’s recent decision to allow universities to hike tuition by unprecedented amounts further threatens to put higher education out of reach for thousands of residents. “Tuition flexibility” is just the latest in the state’s attempt to offset drastic…
In an effort to boost its lower-than-they’d-like graduation rate, Denver Public Schools plan to invest $4.8 million — plus $3 million more from secret donors — over the next three years to expand access to high school sports by letting low-income kids play for just $10, instead of the usual…
Michael Roberts profiled John Scherer, the self-proclaimed Video Professor whose computer-education company was one of Colorado’s most unlikely success stories, four years ago — but in the time since, the prof has been racking up some failing grades, and plenty of complaints from critics. The most recent black mark came…
Colorado sure is serious about “educator effectiveness,” which is school-reform-speak for firing teachers whose students aren’t learning — a strategy endorsed by President Obama and central to his federal Race to the Top grant competition. To that end, the Colorado Department of Education has announced that two nonprofits plan to…
After not succeeding the first time, Colorado is try-trying again to win Race to the Top. The state submitted its application today for round two of the federal education-reform grant contest, in which it stands to win up to $175 million. Colorado came in fourteenth out of sixteen finalists in…
Last night, the school board for the cash-strapped Douglas County School District approved a plan that will charge kids for riding the school bus. The price is fifty cents each way, to take effect at the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year — and while the fees are unusual at…
