On Civility

Last month, I attended an event where New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman spoke. Friedman asked an important and thought provoking question, “What would we be talking about, if we weren’t talking about Donald Trump?” Friedman’s point was that there are a number of important issues with which our community, the country, and the world should be […]

A Better Way to Choose a President

Photo courtesy of Gareth Milner via Flickr.

Doing Something About School Safety

I had planned on writing about Teacher Appreciation Week today, and taking note of the ways we can and should be sharing the positive stories that come from our schools every single day. Things change. Instead, this week, we are all reeling again from yet another school shooting. This time in Jeffco’s neighboring community of […]

The Education Reform We Have Versus the Education Reform We Need

Note: A version of this posting appeared in Colorado Politics on January 22, 2019. For over three decades, the debate over education policy in our state and nation has been primarily waged on three fronts: accountability, school choice, and funding. Colorado created an elaborate accountability system of tests and ranking systems in step with federal […]

Some Thoughts on Testing

This month, students in our community, across our state, and across the nation will begin the annual rite of passage that is taking standardized assessments. As a public institution, our district is required to administer these assessments under both state and federal law. It can be rightly argued that the nation’s system of standardized assessments […]