Loveland High School used to offer watered-down math for students flunking geometry and algebra.
Then the geometry and construction teachers created a course that’s all the rage at Loveland High — a house-building class where students learn the slope of a line by determining the pitch of a roof.
The school started with two classes last year and now has six. Enrolled students have outperformed their classmates on state tests. And now Thompson School District is creating an algebra course where students will convert a gas-guzzling car to an electric one.
That creative course design is an illustration of what Gov. Bill Ritter envisions under his new education initiative — a revamping of curricula from preschool to college to produce courses focused more on content than titles.
Details of the governor’s initiative are still sketchy, though a 28-page draft of the legislation is likely to become official this week.
The three-year initiative will specify, grade by grade, which skills a student must master, from counting to 25 in preschool to nailing down quadratic equations in high school.
Colorado would overhaul the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests or create new tests to assess a student’s skill level, and college admissions staff would use those scores to determine admittance.
The draft calls for an 11-member panel of curriculum and testing experts to recommend new curriculum standards to the state school board, modernize exams to test for those standards and create a tiered diploma system for high school graduates.
The point is to shift the focus from course titles and the number of years a student spent in math or science class to what he or she actually learned.
“Right now, time is the constant and learning is the variable,” said Roger Sampson, president of the Education Commission of the States, based in Denver. “Students sit for 180 days every year. Some of them learn a lot of skills, and some of them learn a minimal amount of skills.”
A school with no dropouts
A real-life example of Ritter’s plan played out in Chugach School District in Alaska, where Sampson was once superintendent.
Chugach students move on when they pass tests on course content — some kids graduate at 15, and others are still in school at 21. The dropout rate is near zero, Sampson said.
Ritter’s initiative assumes every kid is headed to college.
“What we’re doing is what every state aspires to do,” said Sen. Chris Romer, the Denver Democrat bringing Ritter’s plan to the legislature.
All students would have to learn a core curriculum, including English competency, to graduate. Beyond that, they could select courses leading toward job readiness, community college or guaranteed admission to any university in the state.
Students earning the state’s top-tier diploma — an “honors diploma” — would have to take an “extremely rigorous” college track that includes advanced math and science, said Sen. Josh Penry, a Grand Junction Republican co-sponsoring the legislation.
“This will be a gold standard,” he said. “It’s central for me.”
Penry and Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genesee, failed to pass legislation last year that would have required every student to take four years of math and three years of science. They introduced the bill again this year but put it on hold while waiting to see whether Ritter’s plan is tough enough.
The political notion that every kid is going to college irritates Gerald Keefe, superintendent of the 100-student Kit Carson School District.
Keefe has been an outspoken adversary of the state Department of Higher Education’s college entrance requirements, which call for four years of math for the class of 2010. But he supports Ritter’s initiative.
“Even if you want to go into welding, you need to know calculus? That may be true, but you don’t need a whole calculus course,” he said, noting that kids can learn calculus in a shop class. “It doesn’t have to be the same environment we’re used to.”
Local boards retain role
Colorado, with a history of local control in education, is one of only five states without comprehensive graduation requirements. The governor’s plan preserves at least some control for local school boards because it will not mandate what courses schools must teach, only curriculum standards.
Colorado first created content standards in 1993 but has not updated them since. Plus the standards cover only third through 10th grade, meaning there are none spelling out what a preschooler should learn or what a 12th-grader must know to graduate.
“There is no overarching vision of what the education system should produce,” said Matt Gianneschi, Ritter’s education policy adviser. “The state has been silent and left it up to local boards to decide what college readiness is.”
The result: About one-third of students have to take remedial, noncredit courses when they get to college, prolonging their graduation and leading to a higher dropout rate.
“We don’t want to get them all ready for college to see them drop out,” said Ken Turner, deputy education commissioner. “Engaging students in things they find meaningful — that’s what it’s about. We need to expect more of ourselves and our young people.”
Colorado policies now are too “inexact or clumsy” in determining a student’s college readiness, said David Skaggs, director of the Higher Education Department. “We need to be more fair early on to alert high school students and families what is expected,” he said.
Ritter’s goals include cutting the 26 percent high school dropout rate in half and doubling the number of college degrees and certificates by 2017.
Ritter’s initiative — called the “Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids” — takes some cues from a national report that had lawmakers buzzing last year.
“Tough Choices, Tough Times” from the National Center on Education and the Economy calls for letting students test out of high school after 10th grade to attend community or technical colleges. Students headed for top universities would study college-track courses through 12th grade.
Similar efforts are happening across the country. But Colorado can move “to the frontier” by allowing more flexibility in how schools teach skills, said Michael Cohen, president of Achieve, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit helping states set education standards.
While some educators have been frustrated by a lack of details on the initiative the governor announced in early January, they are excited about the prospects.
“The governor’s idea is right on the mark,” said Thompson Valley Superintendent Dan Johnson. “There are various ways in which a student can show competence besides just a number of hours in a seat.”
Jennifer Brown: 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com
