(From Education News Colorado, March 12th 2012)
This commentary was submitted by the leaders of four education advocacy groups: Van Schoales, A+ Denver; Moira Cullen, Democrats for Education Reform, Paul Lhevine, Stand for Children Colorado and Chris Watney, Colorado Children’s Campaign.
The future of our state lies directly with this generation of Colorado students. Always a trailblazer in education reform, Colorado is now entering a new phase in which school quality is paramount over both school type and educational program. As we move forward in our quest to provide a quality public education for our students, it is imperative that Colorado keeps a laser focus on school quality, which will drive student achievement for all kids.
Initially, education reform efforts focused on confronting an industrial school model, unchanged over almost a century, in which students were assigned to a single local school and tracked into groups: simple technical skills, a basic high school diploma, and an elite few bound for college.
What happened? Change. Jobs changed, as more positions require independent thought and analysis – skills learned in higher education. Students changed, as demographic shifts brought increased diversity to our public schools. Personnel changed, as professional opportunities widened for ambitious and talented women who previously had few options other than teaching. Families changed, as both the composition and roles in the home shifted.
What did not change was the one-size-fits-all school model. So, the initial phase of education reform ushered in a variety of public school options (traditional, magnet, charter, and innovation) that now provided various instructional programs, such as core knowledge and language immersion, and a changing environment that would eventually cultivate a focus on quality.
Colorado has also led the nation in creating an academic accountability system that allows schools to track the academic progress of individual students over time. This ability to measure the academic growth of students in conjunction with an increasing variety of public school models provided a new and valuable understanding of school quality across our state.