Tuesday Churn: “No appeal” effort

What’s churning:

Great Education Colorado, a group that advocates for improved school funding, is mounting an online campaign to persuade state officials not to appeal the Lobato school funding decision.

In an email to supporters Monday, group policy director Lisa Weil wrote, “Unfortunately, we’ve already got to start fighting for the Lobato decision,” noting that the state is expected to appeal. “But here’s the thing; the State does not have to appeal.”

The email provided a link to an online petition addressed to Gov. John Hickenlooper, Attorney General John Suthers and members of the State Board of Education, urging them not to appeal.

Great Education, a key backer of Proposition 103, the school-funding proposal that was defeated in November, used online tools in the signature-gathering effort that got Prop. 103 on the ballot.

Get details on the court’s decision here and see the EdNews Lobato archive here.

The Denver Education Compact, in its first session under executive director Theresa Peña, settled on three goals Monday to further its mission of helping every student in Denver succeed academically “from cradle to career.”

The three areas on which the compact will focus:

  • School readiness – every child prepared for kindergarten, including an assurance of access to high-quality early childhood education for low-income children.
  • K-12 success – every student complete high school, with accompanying reduction in achievement gap by ethnicity and income.
  • Postsecondary – every student has a path (job, training, college) that leads to a career.

“We agreed to pursue the three goals. We did not prioritize them,” Peña said later. “I will work with the co-chairs to prioritize them and, at our next meeting in February, present a work plan for the first goal.”

The next meeting of the compact is set for 2 p.m. on Feb. 13, and the group will continue to meet on the second Monday of every other month at the Parr-Widener Community Room at the Denver City & County Building, through October 2012. More info

Robert “Bob” Boswell has been named by University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore as the sole internal finalist for the post of vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement. Boswell will meet on Dec. 14 with campus constituent groups to outline his vision for the position, and Moore will solicit feedback from the groups on Boswell’s candidacy following the meetings. Boswell has been occupying the post since July 2010 in an interim capacity. He is a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology. Read more What’s on tap:

TODAY

Twelve Dutch researchers, government officials and educators will tour Montbello High School, Collegiate Prep Academy and DCIS Montbello. All three schools are part of the comprehensive school turnaround effort in Far Northeast Denver. The Dutch delegation is visiting Denver to learn more about practices the district is using to address racial and socioeconomic achievement gaps. The tour begins at 9 a.m. at 5000 Crown Blvd.

The Legislative Audit Committee will be briefed about audits of the Colorado School of Mines and of federal stimulus spending in Colorado, including on education, starting at 9 a.m. The committee meets in its first-floor hearing room in the Legislative Services Building, 200 E. 14th Ave. Agenda

The Boulder school board meets at 5:00 p.m. at 6500 Arapahoe St. The agenda includes a report on enrollment trends.

The Aurora school board meets at 6:00 p.m. at 1085 Peoria St. Agenda items include a discussion of improvement plans for schools rated “priority improvement” and “turnaround” by the state.

Douglas County school board members meet at 5 p.m. but go into closed session for two hours, convening in public at 7:10 p.m. at district headquarters, 620 Wilcox St. in Castle Rock.  Agenda items include a board resolution that states former district employees should not run for school board for at least a year after leaving the district. Had that resolution been in place for the Nov. 1 election, former communications director Susan Meek would have been in violation.

Good reads from elsewhere:

Acknowledging the role that class plays in student achievement is the theme of a column in The New York Times. Written by a professor at Duke University and the former education editor of the Times, the piece urges truth-telling about the correlation between economic background and success in school and points to certain programs in North Carolina, New York, Nebraska and Massachusetts that are providing the social service supports that some students might need. Read column