As the new year dawns, I thought it would be proper to praise Colorado education leaders who made a significant difference in 2009.
These have been banner years in Colorado, with so many working so tirelessly on Colorado education reform. We’ve seen incredible developments on the education front, with new schools like Denver School of Science and Technology getting ALL of their students prepared and going to college while we’ve had dramatic policy change with the Innovative Schools Act and implementation of the new growth model.
Given all of the great work in Colorado, it was challenging to come up with a top 13 list (I like odd numbers). I have chosen people that have done great work in 2009; work that will likely have a lasting impact on Colorado public education for years to come. Please note that the education leaders praised here are not presented in any particular order of importance.
1. John Barry, Superintendent of Aurora, for making radical system change and quickly demonstrating that it is possible to turn around an urban school system.
2. Amy Slothower, Executive Director, Get Smart Schools, for creating a new high quality selective MBA principal training degree program and providing invaluable support for number of new high quality schools on the front range.
3. Frank Roti, Principal of DPS’ Beach Court elementary for demonstrating that neighborhood district-managed schools can support nearly all of their students to reach proficiency.
4. Zach McComsy, Founding Head of School, Atlas Prep Charter in Colorado Springs, for demonstrating that it is possible to replicate a high performing charter school through hard work and thoughtful planning.
5. Barbara O’Brien, Colorado’s lt. governor, for racing ahead of all other 50 states and taking the lead on developing a roadmap to improved public education through Colorado’s Race to the Top proposal.
6. Tom Boasberg, superintendent of DPS for taking on the leadership of Denver’s schools and going deeper and faster on systemic reform than any other Denver superintendent.
7. Federico Pena, Chairman of the Board, A + Denver for leading a relatively new non-profit to both support Denver’s reforms and push DPS to go even bolder on changes for Denver’s most needy kids.
8. Cathy Lund, Program Officer from the Walton Family Foundation for providing significant funding and other support to Denver Public Schools and others that goes way beyond the traditional Walton charter school support. Walton has stepped up to seed the substantive real system change that involves support for Denver Public Schools and development of new high performing charter schools.
9. Chris Gibbons, Executive Director of West Denver Prep, for leading and replicating high performing middle schools while helping lead a movement for proving high quality middle school education West Denver and the state.
10. Nancy Mitchell, reporter, EdNews Colorado for breaking critical education news with thoughtful objective analysis while keeping us all honest.
11. Ben Jackson, teacher at DPS’ Bruce Randolph showing that you can help lead a teacher professionalization movement through Denver Teachers for Change while being a great classroom teacher and an active member of the union.
12. Moira Cullen, lobbyist for Capstone Group representing MOP, CO Succeeds, TFA and head of Colorado Democrats for Education Reform, for leading the charge in the capitol on a variety of important policy changes from school accountability, school autonomy and teacher quality and making it possible for Democrats to embrace education reform as the 21st century civil rights struggle.
13. Dwight Jones, Colorado Commissioner of Education, for demonstrating that CO commissioners can make a difference on achievement through support on improving districts and schools while implementing great new tools like the Colorado Growth model.
It has been a great year for Colorado education reform, I had another 20-30 people who were contenders for the list but I had to make some hard choices. Let’s hope the contenders list grows to several hundred next year when we begin to implement our bold system changing Race to the Top proposal!
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