It's important to have goals, and it's best if those goals exceed a mere "expectation" (something you'd expect to achieve without extra effort) yet fall short of something so lofty there's little to no chance of achieving them. In other words, goals need to be reasonable.

Denver Public Schools has recently been advised by advocacy groups that they need to set higher goals. Some of these goals might be reasonable, but there's something else we need to consider when it comes to goals: If you are trying yet unable to meet a lower goal, simply raising the goal probably won't fix anything.

We see this with education standards all the time. If the headline says, "Only 40% of students are proficient on math standards," the answer seems to be, "We need higher standards!" Wait...how is that supposed to help the 60% that weren't meeting the lower standards? If you're not willing to squarely focus on why goals are met and not met, moving goals around is of little relevance.

Boulder treated Scott Carpenter to a well-deserved hero's welcome after his Aurora 7 mission. This is more great coverage from Boulder's Daily Camera.

The local Boulder paper, the Daily Camera, did an outstanding job with this article commemorating Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 mission 50 years ago.

CU highlights the 50th anniversary of Scott Carpenter's Aurora 7 mission.

Three foreign language teachers, including a 21-year teaching veteran who taught French, German, Chinese, and English, and a 30-year veteran who taught Latin, French, German, and Spanish, were fired last week because the Eagle County School District has opted to use Aventa (web software from KC Distance Learning, a K12 company) instead of classroom instruction. The school board unanimously cited the decision as a cost-cutting measure. In addition, students wishing to take foreign language courses in the future must pay $150 per course.

I don't think this will be the last story we see like this. Not even close.

"Not a one of you has the courage to vote against chocolate!"
-- Rep. David Balmer, R-Centennial

Things appear to have gotten silly, serious, and sad tonight in the Colorado statehouse, as a Democrat-led civil unions bill was moved through committees in the final hours. Republicans countered with a fillabuster on a school nutrition bill (yielding the quote above) and a recess, meaning the civil unions bill -- as well more than 30 other bills -- won't come to a vote. The latest word from Twitter (@lynn_bartels's coverage is great) is that the fed-up gallery screamed and shouted "Shame on you!" at the legislators, leading to a clearing of the gallery.

The bear that made itself so famous by falling out of a tree is no more.

Then-mayor John Hickenlooper made a promise to students at Cole Middle School that if they put themselves in a position to go to college, he'd make sure they'd have the money. I was a first-year teacher then and remember the announcement. Now that those students have graduated, Kevin Simpson of The Denver Post tracked them down to see how much the money mattered.

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that every educational intervention comes at a cost (or penalty) to somebody, and part of understanding education is weighing the pros and cons. There are a lot of pros in this article about bilingual education in Summit County, and I'm tasking my School and Society students to think about potential cons. I imagine they'll find some, and then we can more intelligently weigh the benefits.

With Colorado's new teacher evaluation law comes a need for a new appeal process, one that allows teachers to appeal on the grounds of "incorrect use of data." I'm not exactly sure what that means, but I do predict one thing: state-level teacher unions will hire their own psychometricians to augment their legal services, which means districts will need psychometricians, too.

I suppose this seems logical -- if a child's reading skills are lacking, they should be held back a grade so they can catch up. Sadly, the research in this area is pretty conclusive, and almost all of it says that the negative consequences outweigh any benefits. (See http://nepc.colorado.edu/topics/43, http://www.nasponline.org/resources/instruction_curriculum/retentionho_educators.pdf.)

This moment has been looming for some time, but given proposed tuition increases it will soon be cheaper for Colorado residents to pay out-of-state tuition at Wyoming than it will be to attend either Colorado State University or the University of Colorado at Boulder, their home state's largest public universities.

How can this happen? Wyoming has oil and gas money and only one university to fund, and they're willing to invest. Colorado has 13 public 4-year colleges and universities and a school finance system so broken it was declared unconstitutional by a judge last December.

So a few institutions of higher education, including my very own University of Colorado at Boulder, have sold the naming rights to a bathroom. Is selling the naming rights to any part of an educational institution okay? If so, which parts? Where do we draw a line between keeping tuition lower and embarrassing the institution?

Should school boards be endorsing presidential candidates? That's the question I've posed to my School and Society class, and I'm curious to see their responses.

My participation in a music program was an important part of my education, particularly in high school. But if you were JeffCo schools and had to cut 70 million dollars, what can you do? What if there's nothing else to cut?

The Colorado legislature is considering banning foods with trans fats from schools, including everything from breakfast, lunch, and vending machines. I'm putting this question to my School and Society students: Do we need state regulations like this, and if so, do they agree with this one?

Ugh. Not only is tuition going to make a big jump, I think the most worrisome part of the story was this:

"CU system spokesman Ken McConnellogue said the school needs to change the way it charges tuition over the next few years to a structure that more accurately charges students for the classes they take. Administrators say they are essentially giving away classes for free by charging full-time students for only 11.25 students.

By 2014-15, CU plans to charge full-time students for 15 credit hours a semester."

The idea of "working your way through college" isn't sustainable under this plan. Not only is tuition getting more expensive, to qualify as a full time student you'll have to take more credit hours, meaning less time to work. Together, that means more and more debt.

This is huge education news here in Colorado. After carefully deliberating testimony from trial last summer, a judge decided that Colorado's system for funding education does not satisfy the requirements of the state constitution. This could have a ripple effect upon landmark laws in Colorado such as TABOR, the Gallagher Amendment, and Amendment 23 -- all fiscal policies that have been pulling uncomfortably in different directions.

Colorado has a problem: The end of the planned use of a transitional series of state tests falls a year short of the planned availability of the Common Core consortia tests. You might just say, "Fine, let's skip a year," but Colorado also has a new teacher evaluation law that depends on test scores. Is it worth spending over $25 million for a year's worth of tests that might not be all that compatible with the growth model anyway?

I somewhat brief but good obituary for Ron Lyle in the New York Times.

Colorado approved new rules for teacher evaluation earlier this month, but the list of things that still have to be done is anything but trivial. For example, teachers will be classified as highly effective, effective, partially effective, and ineffective. But how those classifications are defined is yet to be determined.

The Denver Post's full obituary for Ron Lyle.

Great extended interview with Ron Lyle. I've heard a number of people say they want to be healthy and able right until the end of their lives. That's not common with ex-boxers, but Ron Lyle was still doing 1000 push-ups a day at 70 years old.

This is Lyle at his best, slugging away with the most feared puncher of the 1970s: George Foreman. Foreman would come back to win this fight, but later admitted that Lyle hit him harder than anyone else ever did. Lyle also fought Ali and was ahead on the scorecards when Ali was awarded a TKO, despite Lyle seemingly not in all that much trouble. It's worth watching and judging for yourself if you can find it.

We've lost another great heavyweight from the 1970s. Ron Lyle was of particular interest to me because he was from Colorado. After spending time in prison in Canon City (where he learned to box, and also where he was knifed and declared dead twice before doctors could revive him), he turned pro at the age of 30 and went on to face most of the division's best fighters. Until recently he ran a boxing gym in Denver but died today after a sudden illness.

Meeker spent millions of dollars to build an unsafe school, and now the Denver Post tries to unravel how that could have possibly happened. At the center of this story seems to be a pretty questionable owner's representative, the person hired by the district to coordinate the construction effort with the district's interest in mind. Meeker seems to have hired one aligned with the architect/contractor and together they cut their costs in exchange for safety. Owner's reps are important in this process, something I learned at Florence. There the superintendent essentially hired himself as the owner's rep despite not having any background in construction. The district saved some money, but the school has suffered cracks in walls, heaving floors, and a now-unusable stadium. Could that have been prevented? Maybe, but that answer only comes at the end of a long court battle.

Colorado lawmakers have already fudged Amendment 23 and the finance formula to fund schools given recent resources. This report says that if current trends continue (Lobato decision or not), it's not a tenable solution and no matter what, the finance formula will need to be significantly reworked within 5 years.

Several months ago the Colorado Department of Education requested almost $50 million for 2012-2013 (http://pinboard.in/u:downclimb/b:3cbd486004a1) so they could develop a new state test to replace the CSAP in 2014, even though multi-state tests based on the Common Core State Standards should be available by 2015. Today Governor Hickenlooper denied the extra funding. If you're hoping this means there won't be any testing in 2014, don't get your hopes up. I think the Governor just realized that it wasn't worth spending tens of millions of dollars to develop a brand-new test that might only get used for one year.

This great investigative piece by Burt Hubbard and Nancy Mitchell really hits home. My first experience with students leaving high school for online schools was at Florence High School, the school featured in the article. Kids who weren't successful at school (but not only enough to drop out) would march to the guidance office and say they were going to "homeschool," but in reality they were transferring to an online program. When I asked about how that worked, a fellow teacher told me, "They're not transferring to get a better education. They probably won't even earn any credits. It's just a way for them to drop out without dropping out." I know there are some success stories, but tragically, most of the students I know who left for an online program were back at the traditional school less than a year later with nothing to show for it.

In Colorado, the combined cost of administering current state tests and preparing for a new set of tests could be $49.5 million in 2012-2013. Just over 484,300 students took the CSAP in 2011, meaning the 2012-2013 costs may exceed $102 per student.

Colorado recently passed a law that requires schools to notify parents if a school employee gets arrested. The law appears to have some inconsistencies

I keep reading about iPads in the classroom, and I remain skeptical. So much so I had to blog about it: http://blog.mathed.net/2011/07/not-yet-sold-on-tablets-in-classroom.html.

I recently watch Ken Burns's "The War" documentary about World War II, and some of the Japanese Americans featured were relocated from Sacramento, CA, to this internment camp near Granada, CO. I think it's a place I'd like to visit, and it's good they're getting some funding to help preserve that history.

I'm fascinated and a little frightened by what Douglas County Schools is doing, and now we'll find out if it's legal. In essence, this district believes so strongly in school choice - for both public and private schools - that it's allowing it's own students to apply for vouchers to attend non-district schools. Of course, the vouchers are for only 75% of the amount the district receives to educate those students and the district will pocket the difference.

It sounds likely that this teacher will lose her job for allegedly helping students while proctoring a CSAP exam. While that may seem like the punishment is far worse than the crime, in some states (Texas, for example), such a violation can result in the revocation of your teacher license.

I totally understand Metro's need for increased funding, but it's disappointing to see what might be Colorado's best higher education bargain suffer a 23% tuition increase.

While I understand that acceptance rates are, in part, the result of very practical limitations of university resources (faculty, classrooms, etc.), I'm uneasy about using these lists to interpret a university's value. After all, if the goal is to educate the masses, celebrating the schools that turn away the highest percentage of applicants is rather contradictory.

This article celebrates that the biggest gains were in rural districts, but seems to fail to realize that's entirely expected - it's easier to move an average when you're dealing with fewer students. (But cheers to them anyway!)

Dana Goldstein's (@DanaGoldstein) "The Test Generation" is a spot-on report of education in Colorado post-Senate Bill 191, which will require that teacher evaluations be based on student test scores. Unlike many media reports or the popular dialogue, Goldstein squarely addresses the imminent possibility that every student will be tested for every subject at every grade level, and illustrates that scenario with the standardized testing of 1st grade art students.

I've always liked Ron Lyle's story, and I'm glad to see him get some recognition for it. I've watched his fight with Ali several times, and although I'm not sure he would have won had it gone the distance, the stoppage by the referee was a bit premature.

While I couldn't stomach watching the whole video (it triggers an old allergic reaction to Vanilla Ice), I tend to think these kinds of things do little to inform and motivate those students who aren't already informed and motivated.

A couple weeks ago I ventured into Denver to see Diane Ravitch speak to an audience of about 500 people. This was my second time seeing her, and although you can tell she's a bit tired, she still gets passionate and fiery about education reform.

It would be easy to read too much into this dataset, but I find it fascinating. Not surprisingly, Boulder ranks at the top of this list. One of my former districts, Florence RE-2, doesn't do nearly as well, but having many federal prisoners in your boundaries doesn't help this kind of data.

Small schools aren't just about size

I continue to be somewhat befuddled by what's going on in DougCo: A school district that believes so much in competition and choice that it's willing to give it's money to private schools. Can you imagine a company doing this? It's like some free market principle gone bezerk.

Valerie Otero's essay about her path to college and beyond.

I didn't climb any 14ers this year, but many people did and ten didn't come back alive. Let's hope for a better year next year.

As much as I hated hearing CU's proposed 9.5% tuition increase, many of the other schools in the state are making plans to raise tuition even more - as much as 25%. This is quickly going from scary to catastrophic.

The concept is simple: instead of lecturing in class and sending kids home with homework, flip it: let the kids watch the lectures at home (on YouTube or other formats) and make class time the main problem-solving time. Karl credits a UNC project (http://mast.unco.edu/vodcasting/) for the idea and I know of at least one other teacher using this strategy.

I can think of few places I'd rather have a home than in the foothills west of Boulder. But high housing density and dry forests are fire disasters waiting to happen.

Do you like low taxes? Most people do. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as too low

I'm enjoying my time in the "brainiest" city in the U.S. It's good to see Ames and Iowa City on the list, too.

Diversity in schools is both a challenge and an opportunity. Being from rural Iowa, I didn't grow up around much diversity and now feel, well, a little left out. South High in Denver has kids from 40 different countries speaking 60 different languages.

While Denver's efforts to avoid large interest payments (which backfired) now look pretty horrible, this is a situation where hindsight truly is 20/20. In this economy many good-looking deals now look bad, and unfortunately for everyone at DPS there's going to be some pain in getting out of this one.

More and more I feel like transforming a grading system away from letter-based grades and towards numbers is usually not worth the trouble and effort. It's still a score. Better grading reform happens when the scores become truly useful to the learner - an indication of exactly what knowledge and skills they've mastered or need to improve.

Over a year ago, as part of an analysis of CSAP math data from 2002-2008, I discovered that as students moved from 3rd through 10th grade the difficulty of the items on the CSAP math test became, on average, progressively more difficult. (See my post at http://blog.mathed.net/2009/10/myth-of-slipping-math-student.html.) I just don't mean algebra is harder than addition

CSAP scores will be released to the public in the next few days and Adams 12 is busy doing pre-release damage control. They misadministered about 6,000 tests to students in their online program, allowing students taking different tests to work in the same room. No one is accusing Adams 12 of cheating, but this is a violation and all 6,000 students will receive zeros on their tests.

This sounds like a great project: people like me with a computer surplus can donate equipment, while others can fix it and learn how to use it (and teach others) as a means of earning the technology they need.

I've heard from several sources that Colorado is one of six "local control" states, although further investigation failed to reveal what the other states were or what really set Colorado apart from the rest. What this article asserts, quite reasonably, is that a conflict exists between having a unified national goal and local control, and districts have to fight hard (and give up money) to resist federal involvement.

Another year, another CSAP misadministration, another district penalized as if their students actually don't know anything.

Reactions to Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston's teacher evaluation bill, now also known as SB 10-191.

Rather predictably, advice for winning Race to the Top in the second round is to reach for the lowest-hanging fruit. Is this the best way to make policy?

Colorado has set May 7th as the date for when their revised Race to the Top application will be available for public review, giving districts about three weeks to sign on before submission to the U.S. Dept. of Ed.

Colorado's State Board of Education may support Senator Johnston's teacher tenure reform bill, but without CEA approval it may not help in winning Round 2 of Race to the Top.

Rob Stein has led the turnaround efforts at Manual High School in Denver, and smartly answered when questioned about the school's success. Manual is certainly performing at a higher level than it had before, but Stein realizes that was done with far fewer special education students and English learners, as well as fewer neighborhood kids overall.

A preview of Colorado's teacher evaluation and tenure bill.

After some time to debate and discuss, Colorado has decided to compete for funding in Round 2 of Race to the Top.

After six months of preparation, Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston of Denver has introduced his teacher evaluation and tenure bill. Some feel passage of this bill is essential to Colorado's efforts to win funding in Round 2 of Race to the Top.

Unhappy with the proposed changes in Colorado's teacher tenure laws, the Colorado Education Association has announced it will not support Colorado's application for Round 2 of Race to the Top

For Round 2 of Race to the Top, skeptics question if teacher tenure and evaluation reform is really the linchpin in Colorado's application.

This cynical opinion piece questions Colorado's ability to win Race to the Top.

The Colorado Department of Education's "Race to the Top" page.

Education News Colorado examined whether Colorado should try in round 2 of Race to the Top, and compared Colorado's scores with those of the winners, Delaware and Tennessee.

Colorado has serious second thoughts about continuing in the second round of the Race to the Top competition.

The teacher tenure revision proposals are being led by Colorado State Senator Mike Johnston.

Like many states in the Race to the Top competition, Colorado is looking for ways to change their teacher tenure laws.

Colorado and other states didn't have much confidence in the Race to the Top scoring process, and that's giving them second thoughts about applying in round two.

"It was like the Olympic Games, and we were an American skater with a Soviet judge from the 1990s," said Governor Ritter about the scoring of Colorado's Race to the Top application.

Water leaders killed by (frozen) water. I love irony, but sadly, this is not a case of funny irony.

Here's an example of collaboration by a school district, university, and research institute. (CU-Boulder is the home of Freudenthal Institute USA.) While it's great that such partnerships exist, it's unfortunate that they are so often defined by a local geographic boundary.