Jared Polis Foundation Education Report: News

The State Board Welcomes its Newest Member
In January, the Colorado State Board of Education welcomed its newly appointed member, Elaine Gantz Berman. Berman was selected by fellow Democrats to represent the 1st Congressional District, and replaced lawyer Rico Munn, who was appointed executive director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Services by Governor Bill Ritter. Berman served as a member of the Denver Board of Education for eight years, four of which as president. She is eager to “make some significant changes” in our state’s education system and hopes to focus on aligning elements of the state’s accountability system, which she feels “are in conflict with each other and have become very tedious for school districts” (1/15/07, Denver Post). She also wants to work on reducing the dropout rate among students.

Dual Enrollment Programs
During its May meeting, the State Board of Education unanimously repealed Rule 2254-R-5.18, which was passed in March 2003 after the board received an inaccurate interpretation of a legislative audit report. Rule 5.18 prohibited state funding for high school programs that simultaneously lead to a diploma and an associate degree or career and technical certificate, although they are allowed under state law. These innovative programs have been demonstrated to increase high school graduation and college-going rates for underserved students. This decision now grants school districts the ability to develop such programs using state funds and expands access to educational opportunities.

Online Education Task Force
Established in January 2007 and co-chaired by Jared Polis and State Senator Nancy Spence (R-Arapahoe), the Online Education Task Force examined key issues related to online education and released its interim report in March. The 17-member, bi-partisan task force held one public hearing and three additional meetings where they received testimony and deliberated their findings and recommendations. The report focuses primarily on full-time online education, offers a background of the issue and definitions of key terms, and addresses the following areas: benefits and challenges, accountability, access, and funding. The task force determined that online education has become a viable element of Colorado’s public education system; the role of technology in educating our children will continue to grow; and online education has significant potential to help students succeed.

Among its several recommendations for improving access, fueling innovation, strengthening accountability, and improving education funding models, the task force called for policymakers to:

• Remove the current funding restriction that requires online students to have completed one semester in a public “brick and mortar” school during the previous year;
• Revisit and define “complete educational program” in a way that allows for innovation, and consider its application to online schools and learning centers;
• Clarify the application of rules and requirements in the context of online learning in a way that encourages supportive learning environments that serve at-risk students, such as learning centers;
• Encourage state and/or district cooperation for CSAP testing for online students;
• Examine options for a state inter-district entity for online school accountability such as the Colorado Charter School Institute, the Colorado Department of Education, or Boards of Cooperative Educational Services; and
• The State Board of Education should encourage partnering and collaboration between districts with the online option and those without their own online options so that funding can be negotiated between districts or could be taken from the district of residence.

Following its release, the report was distributed to members of the Colorado General Assembly and presented to the State Board of Education, and its members also testified before the Senate Education Committee. Several task force recommendations were adopted and many of its concerns were actively considered and discussed. Senate Bill 215, which was signed into law by Governor Ritter, enacted many of the task force recommendations. This new law creates the Division of On-line Learning in the Colorado Department of Education, and an 11-member On-line Learning Advisory Board appointed by the Governor to monitor the division. It also establishes guidelines and reporting requirements, strengthens performance-based accountability, and sets quality standards for online programs, among other things.

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