{"id":3612,"date":"2013-09-26T13:54:18","date_gmt":"2013-09-26T20:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/26\/school-board-reforms\/"},"modified":"2013-09-29T19:44:24","modified_gmt":"2013-09-30T02:44:24","slug":"school-board-reforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2013\/09\/school-board-reforms\/","title":{"rendered":"School board reforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>See: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aei.org\/files\/2013\/09\/16\/-the-most-interesting-school-district-in-america-douglas-countys-pursuit-of-suburban-reform_162914121226.pdf\">The Most Interesting School District in America? <\/a><\/p>\n<p>In a <a href=\"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/rosen_douglas_county_school_board_leads_the_way.pdf\" title=\"DPO column today, Mike Rosen\">DPO column today, Mike Rosen<\/a> cited a number of beneficial reforms the conservative Douglas County School board implemented:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>[T]rue merit pay based on individual performance, not seniority and post-graduate college credits of dubious value<\/li>\n<li>Poorly performing teachers can be dismissed; talented teachers can be rewarded<\/li>\n<li>Teachers with specialties in high demand and short supply can be paid premiums<\/li>\n<li>Rigorous instruction in basic academics is emphasized instead of touchy-feely social engineering<\/li>\n<li>A pilot program for true parental choice was crafted<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Apparently these reforms have led to a waiting list of teachers wanting to work in Douglas County.<\/p>\n<p>What are Elbert County school boards doing along these lines to imitate Douglas County&#8217;s success?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>9-29-13\u00a0 Two candidates respond to Aaron Brachfeld on the issues:<\/p>\n<h5 class=\"uiStreamMessage userContentWrapper\" data-ft=\"{\"><span class=\"messageBody\"><span class=\"userContent\">Doctor  Amilda Heckman: If a School Board could actually institute such  changes, it would be wonderful.  I certainly agree with all of the  recommendations.   I am not sure what &#8220;parental choice&#8221; is so cannot  speak to that.   We have to start with our teachers if we hope to  improve our educational system.Chris Richardson: As  always, I appreciate the opportunity to respond to your readers\u2019  questions. Mike Rosen\u2019s opinion piece does raise some interesting points  and is worthy of further study. A review of performance scores  published by the Colorado Department of Education indicates that Douglas  County schools are performing well above state average. Obviously,  their School Board has determined that the reforms highlighted in your  reader\u2019s question are the best solutions to address the issues that  their district faces. Whether these specific reforms should be applied  in the Elizabeth C-1 school district requires analysis.  What is  applicable in our district is the process by which these reforms were  accomplished. Several articles, including one published last week in  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nationalreview.com\/article\/358627\/most-interesting-school-district-america-frederick-m-hess-max-c-eden\">National Review Online &#8211; The Most Interesting School District in  America?<\/a>, provide more detail. The community elected a reform minded  board that set very high goals. They then set about a coordinated  process that identified obstacles to reaching those goals and worked  transparently to develop ways to overcome them. Though not everyone  affected is happy with these specific reforms, the results in terms of  student proficiency are positive. Douglas County stands as an example of  what can be accomplished when a district exercises local control of  education. Though there are federal and state standards and regulatory  requirements that must be met, educational goals, methods, and processes  remain a local responsibility. Each district\u2019s educational goals should  be met by enacting policies that address the unique needs of its  community and students. <\/span><\/span><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>See: The Most Interesting School District in America? In a DPO column today, Mike Rosen cited a number of beneficial reforms the conservative Douglas County School board implemented: [T]rue merit pay based on individual performance, not seniority and post-graduate college credits of dubious value Poorly performing teachers can be dismissed; talented teachers can be rewarded [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3612","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-education","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}