What is a laboratory school?
In an interesting and worthwhile guest commentary in the Denver Post, Spencer Weiler an assista

What if we are shooting at the wrong target?
Just like Matthew Emmons lost his chance at a medal in the 3 position rifle event when he shot at the wrong target in the 2004 Olympics in Athens, is there a chance that the U.S. is missing it shot at being a world leader.For years now, the U.S. has been pursuing standards based and test based achievement in schools. The problems with formulating these measures state by state has led to discussion of a national standard. Who knows the resources that have been spent and will be spent in the attempt to figure out these standards? However, I have a different perspective born out of my ten year old son's fascination with Bill Gates. Bill Gates is an outlier, but cert

Teacher unions need to learn to share
I've written about this one before. Is it greed or stupidity? I've been searching for another explanation, but haven't come up with one. Boulder Valley school teachers refuse to believe that their district can't afford to give them big raises in one of the worst economic times ever. Next year is supposed to be worse. We are coming up to the end of the first semester in another month or so and they have again voted against the contract. What will they do next year when budgets are cut approximately another 4.5% from this year's reduced funding? Will they still expect more money? Will they fight against layoff

CSI approves one school, but another withdraws application during hearings
Tuesday’s Charter School Institute board of directors meeting included the final charter application hearing for two schools. Colorado Calvert Academy Charter School and Mountain Middle School. The Colorado Calvert Academy will provide an online program for grades K-8 using Calvert Education System’s (CES) curriculum.Calvert has a long history in the education industry. The days schools began in 1897 in the Baltimore area. CES also offers home school program curriculum and has entered the online learning arena over the past few years. Laurie Duke, the steering committee chair told me, “CES has been a leader in home instruction for over 100 years serving families all around the g

A chat with Jim Griffin
I was chatting with Jim Griffin the President of the Colorado League of Charter Schools a few days after Governor announced his proposal to cut K-12 education 4.6%. We talked about that and other issues facing charter schools and the Colorado League. As we talked about the Governor’s budget cut proposal, it was clear that Jim thinks it’s too early to know for sure, but that the message for charters is that we have to prepare for the worst. While there has been some talk of legal challenges, there are a number of ways that the Governor could approach this to try to make it square with Amendment 23. For example, Jim said that some have talked about adjusting the factors for co