Rona Wilensky, a long-time Colorado educator, weighs in again with her dissenting view on the governor’s CAP4K plan, which now exists as a leaving, breathing bill: Here’s Rona’s take:

The new version of CAP4K is clearer than the last one, eliminating the conflated focus on both academic and 21^st century skills (by opting to focus primarily on academic skills and only including 21^st century skills to the extent “practicable”), further lengthening the time lines for the development of new standards, clarifying the relationship between standards and “post secondary and workforce readiness”, as well as the relationship between this initiative and the Graduation Guidelines Development Council.

This clarity, however, only further highlights the unchanging core premises of the bill:

• That there is little variation in the level of academic preparedness that a student must achieve in order to succeed after high school, regardless of the student’s aspirations.
• That “post secondary and workforce readiness includes a demonstration of a sufficiently high level of comprehension or skill to successfully complete, without need for remediation, the core academic courses identified by the (Colorado) commission (on higher education).”
• That the “adopted assessment or assessments to measure students’ post secondary readiness my include, but need not be limited to:

• a standardized, curriculum-based, achievement, college entrance examination (e.g. ACT); and
• the basic skills placement or assessment test administered by institutions of higher education in Colorado” (e.g. Accuplacer).

In short, the bill equates post secondary and workforce readiness with college readiness, no matter what else it says.

As I have said in earlier comments, when we raise the bar without increasing supports, we set students up for more failure;  when we raise the wrong bar, we compound the error by wasting time and misdirecting resources.

If this were just another bureaucratic exercise it wouldn’t matter.  But when real live students will be disenfranchised by the hyper-academic focus of the post secondary and workforce readiness program; when living, breathing adolescents will be denied the endorsement that the state sets up as the sine qua non of school success; and when educators are spending their precious time rewriting standards instead of teaching children, the human costs of this misguided public policy become more apparent.

I hope that a wider discussion of this bill will bring both more reality and more compassion to whatever formulation eventually becomes law.

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What a confluence of events this week! First, as Todd Engdahl reports in EdNewsColorado, the Governor looks to finally break the CAP4K suspense and unveil the details of his bipartisan education reform bill tomorrow.

The Rocky Mountain News today adds:

Some members of the state Board of Education voiced concerns about the bill during a meeting Monday with Ritter’s education adviser. The board would play a major role if the measure passes.

No board members flatly opposed the bill. But they questioned the need for a new panel to draft the definition of college or workplace readiness. Several state panels already are studying education.

The “new panel” in question is the Colorado Graduation Guidelines Development Council (GGDC), charged by a piece of 2007 legislation to “develop and recommend to the State Board of Education for adoption (by May 1, 2008) a comprehensive set of guidelines for the establishment of high school graduation requirements.”

GGDC is soliciting input through an online survey and a series of interactive public meetings. Last night they hosted a meeting in Jefferson County. About 20 people showed up, half of them elected officials. One of the State Board members who introduced the program even acknowledged the uncertainty surrounding the final disposition of the GGDC’s work with the Governor’s CAP4K plan about to roll out. It may play a valuable role, and it may become largely irrelevant. (Though I think it’s still worthwhile to add your input on the survey.)

In an even more precarious situation is House Bill 1357, a proposal by some legislative Democrats to begin dismantling the CSAP. Though it’s scheduled for a Thursday House Education Committee hearing, it’s hard to see this bill moving much further than the teachers union diehards on the committee can push it. The Governor has to know it would drive a harmful wedge in the bipartisan coalition behind CAP4K, but can he hold back the more reactionary elements within his own party?

Several political trends are converging this week along the lines of assessment, standards, and accountability. It’s hard to say just how it all will shake out, but let’s hope the needs of kids and families can somehow trump the maneuvers of education politics.

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It’s easy to overstate reform efforts that can be like spitting in the wind in a big, slow-moving state education system, but it can also be too easy to be skeptical and under-appreciate some emerging developments.

With those caveats in mind, this is proving to be a pretty active and productive legislative session on the education front, as well chronicled daily in EdNews .

Assuming they all pass and get signed, there are a few significant reforms in motion. The BEST program will inject some much needed money into school capital projects around the state – not nearly the amounts really needed, but anything is helpful here.

The likely expansion of funding for PreK and all-day kindergarten is also welcome and long overdue.

The school innovation bill seems to have hit a remarkable consensus; a month ago, I expected major opposition and likely failure.  While the in-school voting thresholds for autonomy were upped to 60 percent of teachers, lots of other elements were improved and the unions are onboard. 

Some devils remain in the implementation details, but it appears that the Bruce Randolph/DPS process opened up the doors even wider for schools around the state to opt for more flexibility to better serve kids.

The bill providing technical assistance to districts to develop teacher pay-for-performance experiments is also promising.  While it isn’t huge money, it should help kick-start other districts that want to try some of the innovative elements of pay plans already in place in DPS, Eagle County, and Douglas County.  Again, a bipartisan consensus seems to have emerged on this important issue, and Colorado is leading the country here.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the CAP4K plan, however it finally emerges, has the potential to push real changes.  While it could range from a relatively minor alignment-type set of actions to a major reform of how students are assessed and advanced, it appears to be shaping up as a centerpiece for real action.

So, if all of these bills pass and are signed, and especially if CAP4K emerges as a real reform element, much progress will have been made in 2008 education reform.

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