"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Remind Governor Ritter to Be a Real Leader and Not a Follower of Ideology


Citizen Assistance

136 State Capitol, Denver, CO 80203 | (303) 866-2471



(Please feel free to copy and paste the letter below).



May 15, 2010

Dear Governor Ritter:

As Governor we know that you have earned the reputation of leading the nation in cutting edge ways. Please be a fearless leader again by choosing to be the first governor to use scientific evidence and the best scientific opinion to "just say no" to the dangerous and undocumented education bill, SB 191, which was passed by the Colorado legislature last week with no evidence or testing to show that the policy therein will do more good than harm.

An important report has just been issued by the National Academy of Education. Please have your staffers read it, and then ask them if SB 191 satisfies the major or minor concerns of the National Academy and the National Research Council regarding the use of value added testing models to make high stake decisions regarding teacher evaluations. If it does not, please veto SB 191. If it does, we encourage you to sign quickly.

Be the first governor in a long time to put science ahead of ideology, while protecting the taxpayers in your state from the lawsuits that are sure to filed in the event that SB 191 becomes law. Now that would be a real leader!

Respectfully,

Jim Horn

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