House panel restores parts of ed bill
It puts back ideas Senate took out of school reform
By Berny Morson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published April 24, 2008 at 11 p.m.
The House education committee Thursday restored most of the provisions of the school reform bill that Gov. Bill Ritter had described as "revolutionary."
The Senate last week stripped out many of the provisions of SB 212 that Ritter predicted would open the door to innovative teaching methods and ways of determining whether students are learning.
Under the amendments adopted unanimously by the House panel, the bill directs the state education department and the state higher education department to define what students need to be ready for college or the workforce.
That definition would become the basis for new academic standards that would guide instruction from preschool through high school.
The statewide achievement tests administered under the Colorado Student Achievement Program would be overhauled to reflect the new academic standards.
Those provisions were in the original bill, which was drafted with extensive participation by Ritter's office.
The Senate version directed the state Board of Education to adopt the ACT college entrance exam as the measure of whether students are ready for higher education or the workplace.
Academic standards then would have been aligned with the ACT test.
That version was opposed by some educators and Education Commissioner Dwight Jones.
The restored version comes after a week of meetings that included education groups, the governor's office and Jones.
The education committee will vote Monday on the amended version of the bill. If it is passed by the full House, the differences will have to be ironed out with the Senate.
Designing the new standards and assessments could take years. Students might not see changes until 2012.
Ritter told the education committee that the bill maintains academic rigor, but also encourages local school districts to be creative in their teaching methods.
Rep. Rob Witwer, R-Genessee, a co-sponsor of the bill in the House, said the measure assumes all students will be held to the same standards in academic subjects.
But they might be taught in different ways and be evaluated in nontraditional ways.
"It can be anything that accurately tests whether the students has learned the content," Witwer said.
"It doesn't necessarily have to be pen and paper (tests)."
Rep. Christine Scanlan, D-Dillon, the other House co-sponsor, said, "The important thing is, we want them to learn and we want to know that they've learned."
morsonb@RockyMountainNews.com or 303 954-5209
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