What’s churning:
Updated noon – President Obama this morning detailed the state waivers plan for reform of the No Child Left Behind law during remarks at the White House. Colorado’s education commissioner, Robert Hammond, attended the event, along with chief state school officers from “reform” states.
Get details about the event from this Los Angeles Times story, and read background here from our partners at EdWeek.
The Colorado Department of Education already is planning to seek a waiver that would allow the state to substitute its own accountability and rating system for schools and districts for the federal adequate yearly progress standard (see story).
Colorado already has relatively liberal laws on charters schools, is working on linking evaluations to student growth and last year adopted new academic standards that are being implemented in school districts. All those are important factors in the new waiver system.
What’s on tap:
Denver District Judge Robert Hyatt has an 8:30 a.m. hearing set on the Colorado Education Association’s request for a preliminary injunction to halt implementation of a State Board of Education regulation that requires school districts to notify parents when district employees are arrested for certain crimes.
CEA repeatedly raised concerns about the rule during more than a year of sporadic board discussion before the rule, a pet project of Chair Bob Schaffer, R-4th District, was finally approved last April.
The suit, filed in July, asks for an injunction to prohibit enforcement of the rule and for court review of whether the regulation is legal.
Among other things, CEA lawyers argue that the board doesn’t have the authority to issue the rule. Other education groups have made the same argument but aren’t part of the suit.
EdNews will be in the courtroom 209 this morning and will update readers via Twitter, Facebook and on our homepage.