Well, here it is, the end of another school year. I’d say we all have mixed feelings about the onset of summer “vacation.” Is summer really a vacation for anyone anymore?
I grew up in a pretty traditional family set-up. My mom didn’t work outside the home. I lived in a house on Lake Michigan. (Yes, [...]

Aidan Hartman squatted near the 152 million-year-old fossil and studied it with a critical eye.
The only other dinosaur bones he had seen before Monday were in a museum and were well- scrubbed, connected and intact. But this piece, excavated by a group of Northglenn High School educators just a few months ago, held a special [...]

I’m all about celebrating milestones. Births, deaths, birthdays, holidays–I’m your gal. However, there is a trend in our schools that disturbs me: the graduation ceremony.
Twelfth grade, college and even 8th grade Continuations should be lauded affairs, a recognition of many years of hard work. I have fond memories of my senior year revelries as my [...]

Discipline policies in Denver Public Schools have been praised as models for other districts across the country, but in a couple of recent cases, relatives of students have questioned whether the softer approach is protecting their kids.
In one, parents at Denver’s Edison Elementary went to police themselves to report a fourth-grader who they said threatened [...]

For JD Elvrum and his family, public school had too many strikes against it.
“His first three years of school were marred by teachers’ strikes,” in his Pennsylvania school district, said JD’s mom, Tillie Elvrum. Add to that a slight learning disability and many moves as a result of his father’s career — in the Air [...]

It’s that time of year again, when children pack up their desks, say goodbye to friends and give a final farewell before springing into a summer of endless sunshine and fun…followed by dog days of summer, indoor air conditioning, boredom and whining.
And that’s when we gain a true appreciation for our children’s teachers!

Since I’ve become a parent, I haven’t worried about whether or not bullying might happen…I’ve been flat-out waiting for it.  Because, frankly, bullying is nothing new.  We’ve all been through it at one time or another and while it isn’t fun, it’s reality.  But this type of bullying came in a way that I wasn’t [...]

We have little doubt that 2008 legislation detailing how Colorado schools could gain autonomy and create innovative programs was meant to cover new schools.
Yet, that’s what the Denver teachers union seems to be arguing, as it has objected to so-called innovation status for three new public schools in northeast Denver.
The irony is that the union [...]

The moms and dads of Skinner Middle School — taxpaying types with steady jobs and sensible family cars — don’t look like a bunch of radicals.
But after meeting quietly for months to brainstorm, then to crunch numbers and compile data, they went public with demands that turn a decade of school-choice/school-reform thinking on its head.
Their [...]

Summer is fragile. It slips by at a dizzying pace. One moment, you are emptying the backpacks and stashing them out of sight.
The next, you’re filling a shopping cart with enough washable markers to decorate the exterior of a family band bus. It’s a good thing the Partridge Family didn’t use washable markers, or a [...]