Jean Kirshner holds a Ph.D. in Education and Human Resource Development from Colorado State University and specializes in literacy and teacher education. Jean started her career as the Early Childhood Director at Saint Ignatius Grammar School, Chicago in 1988. After two years she joined the Child Opportunity Program in Denver as a Head Start…

Over the past two decades, efforts to support school improvement have transitioned from top-down prescriptive approaches to more collaborative and flexible approaches. A number of studies have investigated the effects of these newer "turnaround programs" on student and school outcomes. In Colorado, two recently implemented turnaround…

"Zero to Three" is a single-focus bulletin of the Zero to Three: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families providing insight from multiple disciplines on the development of infants, toddlers, and their families. Noting that some communities are managing to establish and sustain good-quality infant-toddler care and to make it…

This report focuses on the seven original Youth Transition Demonstration (YTD) projects selected for funding in 2003. Three of the original seven projects were selected for a national random assignment evaluation in 2005; however, this report only focuses on program operations prior to joining the random assignment evaluation for the three…

Response to Intervention (RTI), as a model for improving services to all students, has been a growing phenomenon since the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 2004. The National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) defines RTI as "the practice of (1) providing high-quality…

The Arapahoe Regional Library District and the Sheridan School District, in Colorado, cooperated in developing a library to serve both high school students and the general community. Initially funded by a Library Services and Construction Act grant, this cooperative venture succeeded because of the intense preplanning done by school and library…

High-quality out-of-school-time (OST) programs have a positive effect on youth development, but many cities have found it difficult to address the challenges of expanding and improving the quality of programs offered to underserved and high-need students. In response, The Wallace Foundation sponsored an initiative to help five cities increase…

Ten rural school improvement clusters involving 63 districts, 7 colleges and universities, and 6 state departments of education have been developed in Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and North Dakota through the work of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory's Rural Education Project. Four essential steps appear necessary for…

This report describes the beginning of a community-based effort across Colorado to promote healthy lifestyles and modify risk behavior of children, in conjunction with the Colorado Comprehensive Health Education Act of 1990. The report summarizes what was accomplished during the first year of funding and offers a picture of how communities across…

Discussed the State of Colorado's introduction of performance contracting into its relationships with community mental health centers. Describes the nature of the contract and its implementation. Particular emphasis is placed on the implications of the contract for program evaluation. (Author)

This booklet presents descriptive and statistical information on the 17 Boards of Cooperative Services (BOCES) serving Colorado school districts as of February 1978. Section 1 presents a brief introduction and overview of the Colorado BOCES, briefly describing their function and historical development. Section 2 presents individual profiles on…

Describes a special Head Start initiative called Free to Grow: Head Start Partnerships to Promote Substance-Free Communities. Notes five such Head Start programs in Puerto Rico, Kentucky, California, Colorado, and New York that have designed substance abuse prevention models to strengthen families and neighborhoods by providing a healthy…

The decline in Federal funding for state-provided social services during the 1980s triggered a transformation in the states' roles in family policymaking. This booklet documents four state initiatives designed to bring about systems change: (1) Healthy Start (California); (2) the Governor's Families and Children Initiative (Colorado); (3) the…

A brief history of library development in Colorado is followed by the outline of a plan which delineates four network programs: materials selection, interlibrary loan, reference/information, and communications. Though these programs are interrelated in numerous ways, they are considered here one by one. For each program, the purpose and need, the…

THIS REPORT NOTES THAT ONE MAJOR OUTCOME OF COLORADO'S TITLE I PROJECTS HAS BEEN POSITIVE CHANGES IN THE ATTITUDE OF TEACHERS, ADMINISTRATORS, AND THE PUBLIC. ON LOCAL LEVELS TITLE I HAD HAD IMPORTANT EFFECTS ON STIMULATING DISTRICT-FINANCED LONG RANGE PROGRAMS, INTER-DISTRICT COOPERATION, AND MORE INDIVIDUALIZED ATTENTION TO CHILDREN. MORE…