Westminster Public Schools (WPS) in Colorado has embarked on a transformative journey toward competency-based education. Through strategic planning and continuous improvement, WPS developed a learner-centered system prioritizing personalized learning and student agency. Their road map--rooted in shared vision and second-order change--highlights…

Elementary music teachers are required to attend long-term, campus-wide professional development outside their content area. The purpose of this interpretive qualitative study was to better understand how elementary music teachers in a North Texas and a South-Central Colorado school district who have had five or more years of teaching experience…

Landon Mascareñaz and Doannie Tran propose that, even as events of this decade have exposed stress points in existing top-down, closed systems within education and other public institutions, they have also created prime opportunities to rethink and redesign those systems in ways that encourage civic participation and invigorate local democracy. In…

The cognitive load that a teacher experiences is mind-numbing. To improve, a teacher must begin by reflecting on his or her work, but with the mountain of decisions, where does a teacher find time or have the capacity to notice the way in which students are interacting with lessons? In 2014, the St. Vrain Valley School District Office of…

The goal of this American Association of School Administrators (AASA) youth apprenticeship toolkit is to encourage the creation of school and business partnerships as a viable and expansive pathway to success in school, career and work. This toolkit provides resources for secondary and community college administrators to advocate for and build…

When students first enroll in college, they are required to demonstrate readiness for college-level work. Course placement depends on standardized assessments, and students who do not attain a satisfactory score are typically assigned to developmental (e.g. remedial) education courses. The theory behind this approach has been that remedial…

In this paper, Leading Educators and the Aspen Institute propose a roadmap to empower teachers to lead from the front of the classroom. This paper outlines key phases that system administrators will need to consider as they build teacher leadership systems that address their highest priorities. For each phase, the Aspen Institute offers a…

To assist system administrators as they pursue their own teacher leadership initiatives, this profile from Leading Educators and the Aspen Institute details the steps Denver Public Schools (DPS) took to design and implement its Differentiated Roles pilot. Specifically, it examines the initiative's opportunities and challenges within the context of…

"Linking Workforce Development to Economic Development: A Casebook for Community Colleges" is a compilation of best practice examples, which illustrate what it takes for community colleges to achieve their goal of helping people acquire education and skills, helping employers, supporting communities, and building the nation. The book is…

It is a challenge for schools with large populations of students from low-income, migrant, and international families to ensure that every student reaches proficiency on challenging state academic achievement standards and state academic assessments. Traditionally, schools across the country have tended to cope with this challenge by offering a…

The goal of these guidelines for the education of Colorado's gifted and talented students is to develop an administrative structure and management plan that will enable local districts to provide appropriate educational services to children and youth identified as gifted and talented, to assure the quality and appropriateness of those services,…

Previous research has shown that there are not distinct career lines leading to the chief academic officer (CAO) position in community colleges.Rather, it appears that a variety of skills and experiences contribute to advancement to this position. This paper examines the perceptions of women CAOs as to the importance of professional development…

This document provides guidelines to school districts, BOCES, and teacher training institutions regarding technology-related skills that Colorado teachers, school library media specialists and other certified staff should have in order to meet the ever changing needs of Colorado's learners. The document is the result of deliberations by a working…

Designed to propose ways for the Colorado Department of Education to provide leadership in the implementation of a statewide educational telecommunications network, this study examines ways in which telecommunications can be used by the state department of education, school districts, libraries, and other informational or educational agencies to…

In order to successfully implement an early childhood career development system, it is necessary to coordinate funds and training opportunities from many different sources. This action pack is designed to help individuals involved in such statewide efforts learn how to navigate the financing system that currently supports training for early care…