Welcome to the next installment of Take Note, our weekly roundup of education news and commentary from Colorado and beyond. Let’s get right to it …
Did you know that new assessments will debut in schools across the country this fall? You probably do. Education Week’s Curriculum Matters blog runs down the this spring.
There remains uncertainty about what exactly will come down in Colorado, thanks to the state to open the door to waivers for the first half of the PARCC tests. Stay tuned to the next board meeting Feb. 18 and 19. The Colorado State Board of Education: appointment viewing.
Colorado students will be taking PARRC tests for the first time starting in March (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)
How many hours do Colorado students spend preparing for and taking state and local assessments? The answer can vary greatly, as state legislators learned from digesting an advisory task force report recommending relatively modest reductions in state-required tests. The Post’s Eric Gorski . The piece even includes a Trapper Keeper reference that may or may not work.
Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia, who moonlights as director of the Colorado Department of Higher Education, paid a visit to the legislature’s joint Education Committee this week . In November, The Post’s Yesenia Robles explained the new performance-based formula, which takes into account things like students retained and number of degrees awarded.
The Denver Post’s Joey Bunch reported that a locker-room privacy bill that was characterized as protection for children after opponents said the bill would roll back protections for transgender people.
On Monday, President Barack Obama presented his budget proposal which includes $70.7 billion in funding for the Department of Education. The Wall Street Journal .
US President Barack Obama visits a classroom at the Community Children’s Center, one of the country’s oldest Head Start providers, in Lawrence, Kansas, January 22, 2015. Obama is on the second day of a 2-day, 2 state trip to Idaho and Kansas following his State of the Union address. AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEBSAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images
Also at the federal level, the head of the Department of Education said this week she is looking at as saying there is “overtesting.” Details about what those changes could be, however, are slim.
The Brighton 27J School District officially announced that their starting this fall. The district has been warning the community about the change, and others that are still likely, with the defeat of a bond measure to build new schools.
In Chalkbeat this week, . The district released recommendations to decrease the turnover last week.
And looking ahead for just a bit, College Goal Sunday encouraging more students to apply for financial aid for college is this weekend. to get help filling out, and a checklist to make sure you take everything you need with you.
On the student data privacy front, Buzzfeed this week reported on how the Washington, D.C. school district legt about students sitting online for anyone to see.
Also on Buzzfeed: That Will Blow Your Mind.
DotAnderson, left, teaches Kylie Stutz, 7, how to operate a wooden toy that was used in pioneer times as part of Anderson’s Spellbinders story time at Prairie Crossing Elementary School.(Photo by Anya Semenoff/The Denver Post)
Finally Colorado Classroom’s Hugh Johnson teamed with The Denver Post’s YourHub — the Post’s — to bring , Spellbinders and Book Start. Through these programs, the library district is able to bring its tenets of lifelong learning and literacy to the communities of Douglas County.
