Underwhelming Colorado Student Assessment Program scores released today reaffirm the need to move forward with bipartisan education reforms enacted this year and to adopt yet other new policies, say some prominent Republican lawmakers at the Capitol.

Assistant Senate Republican leader Nancy Spence--who earlier this year co-sponsored Democrat Senate President Peter Groff's groundbreaking effort to give schools greater autonomy in meeting students' needs--said that bill as well as other policy changes are needed to help Colorado's kids turn the corner.

Spence, a veteran voice for education reform at the Capitol, also denounced repeated attempts by some legislative Democrats to gut the hotly debated CSAP testing program.
"They don't like getting bad news. Well, neither do I," she said. "Just because kids aren't making significant gains on the test doesn't mean you throw it out. You don't shoot the messenger, you fix the problem."

The new CSAP results are getting at best mixed reviews. A headline in Denver's Rocky Mountain News referred to the scores as "largely flat." One of the few bright spots showing improvements, Spence noted, was in Denver Public Schools, where the administration has implemented aggressive reforms.

While education officials who unveiled the results touted a new "growth model" that parents can use to track a school's performance over time using the scores, Spence and other Republicans said the real focus should be on improving the education system itself.

Groff's and Spence's legislation, Senate Bill 130, would allow public schools throughout the state to sidestep current restrictions--especially union-negotiated labor contracts--so they can implement wide-ranging innovations. The Innovation Schools Act of 2008 was signed into law by the governor in May. The measure was inspired in part by abysmal performance at Denver's inner-city Bruce Randloph School, which lies in Groff's district.

Spence also carried into law this year a novel, bipartisan effort to help school districts across the state create pay incentives for top-performing teachers. 

Spence is known for pushing the envelope on school reform, including a bill she carried unsuccessfully to establish scholarships for children with disabilities. The scholarships would have let them attend private programs that meet their special needs if those needs are not being met at neighborhood schools. Spence said education policy makers in both parties should "keep an open mind" to all such reforms in the interest of children.

"There is so much more work that lies ahead if we want to get serious about reform--and about tackling these mediocre scores," said Spence, the Senate Education Committee's ranking Republican.

Another Education Committee Republican, Sen. Mike Kopp, of Littleton, agreed.

"What I'm wondering is when defenders of the status quo are going to wake up and realize that we can't keep doing what we've always done and hope for different result," Kopp said. "We keep seeing more or less the same scores year after year. Isn't it time for real change?"