The education policy that gubernatorial hopeful John Hickenlooper recently released doesn’t introduce any radical new ideas. Still, we’re glad to see it.
The platform as a whole places the candidate in line with other Democrats who consider themselves education reformers.
We suspected as much, given Hickenlooper’s policy positions as mayor and his affiliations, including close ties with the likes of Michael Bennet, the U.S. senator and former superintendent of Denver Public Schools.
We are hopeful the next governor of Colorado — whoever that may be — will continue important education reform work that has bipartisan roots going back nearly two dec- ades.
The movement began with the creation of the Colorado State Assessment Program, or CSAP, under Gov. Roy Romer, and the Charter Schools Act of 1993, which was pushed along through the legislature by then-state lawmaker Bill Owens, who went on to strengthen the state’s accountability system as governor.
The ideas supported by the Republican-controlled legislature and Democratic Gov. Romer in the 1990s revolved around education standards, accountability and choice.
Hickenlooper’s education platform embraces those ideals and supports measures that will further them.
In particular, we were taken with his emphasis on using the power of data to monitor academic progress and performance, an exercise that would include “fair prescriptions for poor performance” and “meaningful rewards for outstanding performance.”
Importantly, the document talks about the need for successful implementation of new legislation that addresses teacher effectiveness.
That would be Senate Bill 191, the controversial bill from this past legislative session that links teacher tenure decisions to student achievement.
The next governor must be committed to the creation of a robust evaluation system that is fairly constructed and holds teachers and principals accountable for the learning that occurs at their schools.
We were glad to see Hickenlooper commit to pursuing the reform, even as state and education officials are disappointed over losing out on a federal Race to the Top grant worth as much as $175 million, which would have helped pay for the work.
Also notable was Hickenlooper’s support for the current work at the state Department of Education to abolish the CSAP exam in favor of tests with results that can be used in real time to drive educational prescriptions.
That makes sense to us. The CSAP, while it was innovative in its time, has outlived its usefulness.
Results are delivered well after the end of the school year, and are not as helpful as they could be.
In some ways, these positions should not be surprising.
As mayor, Hickenlooper successfully pushed for a sales tax to support preschool for more Denver 4-year- olds. And he strongly supported Bennet, a steadfast education reformer, when Bennet was DPS superintendent.
Nevertheless, it’s good to see Hickenlooper’s positions in writing and to have a sense that if elected governor, he would support the important work of education reform.
