Today the State began their case. They called three witnesses:
Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia:
- Believes state has met minimum needs of education
- There are not uniform opportunities to students in Colorado
- Small class sizes were important to him
- He would rather have his own child in a small class with an effective teacher.
- Acknowledged that he was co-chair of P-20 council and that it did not address resources necessary to implement recommendations
Rich Wenning (Former CDE staff):
- Described the accountability and assessment systems.
Jo O’Brian (CDE staff):
She said:
- Colorado’s remediation rate is comparable to national rates. It is a serious issue for Colorado.
- You do not need technology to meet Colorado standards.
- High-speed Internet access will be necessary to take the 2014 state assessments in Reading/Writing, Math, Science, and Social Studies.
- CAP4K 1st interim report on cost http://bit.ly/qXGvre to build standards statewide $129M. Surprised at cost, but not an expert.
- School works for 1 of 2 students now. We need to think about school and what we want school to be.
- If I was a hedge fund manager would put money into high-speed Internet access and high quality teachers.
- We need a new type of teacher to do this work. Board of Education in control of $ and standards. There is a shift from memorization to how to apply knowledge in a new situation. Teachers need PD (professional development) because expectations are different.
- She testified that she is aware that teachers do not have enough textbooks but not as important as teachers should not be using only textbooks.
- Still a challenge if there are not enough materials.
- She testified that she doesn’t know if state providing enough Professional Development to meet the new standards.
- I don’t know if the School Finance Act has funds to meet the new standards.
