News and Events
Educating Beyond Academics: Schools Seek Right Approach in Social and Emotional Learning
November 12, 2019By Jessica Gibbs, Colorado Community Media Eighth-grader Kendall Meibos stepped shyly onto the stage at the Pepsi Center in Denver and peered over a lectern at the crowd around him. Filling stands typically reserved for Denver Nuggets or Colorado Avalanche fans were about 6,000 employees from the Douglas County School …
Rebecca Holmes: What Is School Quality, and Who Decides? We’re Bringing Together Educators, Families and Students for This Vital Discussion
November 6, 2019By Rebecca Holmes The past few weeks have been a busy and conflicted time in Colorado around questions of school quality. As our state board voted to raise the “cut score” for elementary and middle school performance ratings by 8 percentage points, establishing a higher bar for schools across Colorado to achieve …
Lori Haukeness: The Design Team Ignites
October 29, 2019By Lori Haukeness What aspirations and skills would the community like to see in the students who graduate from Montezuma-Cortez High School? This will be the focus of a design team made up of community businesses, school staff, students and higher education. This team will work together to create a …
Q & A: Danny Medved
October 25, 2019Danny Medved is the Director of Professional Learning at Mesa County Valley School District 51 in Grand Junction. His desire to bring an all-encompassing district level of support for learner-centered school environments led him to the district three years ago. Q. How did you get involved in education? I entered …
Here’s Why We Must Open Schools to Authentic Parent Partnership
October 10, 2019By Landon Mascareñaz | When I taught first grade on the Navajo Nation, I’ll never forget when one of my fellow teachers—now my wife—wanted to host an event that welcomed our families to the school. The veteran educators there told her it would never happen. I was shocked by their …
Elevating Student Voices to Increase Cultural Awareness
September 21, 2019When students in Mesa County, Colorado identified potential for increasing cultural awareness in their school and community, they acted, creating a vision for a Student Led Equity Council (SLEC). Now that vision is becoming a reality, thanks to leadership from Mesa County Valley School District’s IB Coordinator Laura Meinzen and Dual Language …
Superintendent Spotlight
September 21, 2019Bree Lessar, La Veta School District Q. What was the path that led you to become the Superintendent in La Veta? My path at La Veta began when I was a junior high school English and social studies teacher. I became a secondary principal in 2009, and was named acting …
All Learning is Social and Emotional
September 21, 2019By Finessa Ferrell, CEI Social Emotional Learning Specialist Poudre High School (PHS) in Fort Collins has a long history of collaboration with CEI to build social emotional development opportunities for their student body. Six years ago, CEI supported the creation of the Students Mentoring Students program. Since that time, the …