This annual report provides a review of Colorado Children's Campaign's accomplishments in 2012. The report is comprised of the following sections: (1) Letter from the President; (2) About Us; (3) 2012 Impacts; (4) 2012 Publications; (5) Supporters and Partners; (6) Special Events; (7) 2012 Board of Directors; (8) 2012 Financials; (9) 2012 Donor…

Higher education often operates under old rules -- rules that continue despite an increasingly diverse student population and improved understanding of human behavior and choice. Under these old rules, fewer than half of students graduate on time, if at all, and troubling equity gaps exist based on income, race, and ethnicity. It is time for new…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides increased flexibility for states and districts to develop strategies to support school improvement while, at the same time, emphasizes the importance of implementing evidence-based interventions to support low-performing schools. As states and districts implement comprehensive college and career…

The 2020 Census risks undercounting thousands of young Colorado children, depriving communities of federal funding and political representation for the next decade. Children under age 5 are more likely to be missed by the census than any other age group, with children of color, non-English speakers, and kids living in high poverty communities at…

In this autoethnography, I examine the challenges I faced as a private-to-public-sector novice CFO entering a resource-constrained 41-thousand-student K-12 urban school district in Colorado. This study chronicles how I deliberately slowed down my interactions within a complex adaptive system (CAS) through ethnographic interviewing to identify the…

This study investigates the interrelationship of categorical funding mechanisms within the Colorado school finance system for English language learners (ELLs) in an effort to test overall equity of the system in light of an underfunded categorical program. Using several analytical techniques, the study set out to determine the degree to which…

Each year, governors take the stage to highlight accomplishments and outline policy priorities for their states. In an effort to provide up-to-date information on education policy trends, Education Commission of the States tracks all education policy proposals and accomplishments featured by governors in these State of the State addresses. At the…

Two competing pressures--downsized budgets and rising policy interest--have left the future of performance-based teacher compensation uncertain. A dicey fiscal climate and research that has shown limited impact have led some states and districts to scale back, abandon, or change their fledgling merit-pay programs, causing observers to wonder what…

The lack of productivity of school systems stems from a number of reasons, including the way in which schools are governed. The author explains in this paper that policies from on high often work against campuses being more productive. His list includes state policies that stop districts from hiring experts to teach subjects that other educators…

The school desegregation efforts following the historic "Brown v. Board of Education" decision represent one of the most important social policy initiatives of the 20th century. Despite a large research literature that shows many positive effects of desegregation on educational outcomes, its effect on the lives of individuals outside of…

This report takes a look at Colorado's redesigned school-funding system whose fate was decided by Coloradan voters in Fall 2013. Voters were asked to approve a $1.1 billion tax increase to finance Colorado's schools, an approval required for the funding reforms to kick in. The proposed system represented a significant step forward in the push for…

Pursuant to State Law, the Colorado Department of Education, Office of Blended and Online Learning is required to prepare an annual summary report for submission. The passage of a later State House Bill repealed the annual requirement for the Summary Report and also the annual reporting mandates that were required of all online schools and…

This report provides an overview of developmental education, describes the current policy environment, examines innovations at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), and considers the implications for students and the national college completion agenda. While some states have moved away from racial/ethnic access and equity goals, MSIs have an…

The University of Colorado at Boulder's student run Environmental Center leads the campus' sustainability efforts. The Center created the Energy and Climate Revolving Fund (ECRF) in 2007 to finance energy-efficiency upgrades. The ECRF functions as a source of funding for project loans and provides a method of financing projects that seeks to save…

Physical educators often find it difficult to secure funding for their programs in these tough economic times. However, there is funding out there, if one knows where to look and how to ask for it. This article describes how physical education teachers can make a funding action plan, who to contact, where to write to, and how to get equipment for…