Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Rona Wilensky, a long-time Colorado educator, weighs in again with her dissenting view on the governor’s CAP4K plan, which now exists as a leaving, breathing bill: Here’s Rona’s take:

The new version of CAP4K is clearer than the last one, eliminating the conflated focus on both academic and 21^st century skills (by opting to focus primarily on academic skills and only including 21^st century skills to the extent “practicable”), further lengthening the time lines for the development of new standards, clarifying the relationship between standards and “post secondary and workforce readiness”, as well as the relationship between this initiative and the Graduation Guidelines Development Council.

This clarity, however, only further highlights the unchanging core premises of the bill:

• That there is little variation in the level of academic preparedness that a student must achieve in order to succeed after high school, regardless of the student’s aspirations.
• That “post secondary and workforce readiness includes a demonstration…