Below you'll find a list of all posts from 2019
By Rebecca Holmes, CEI President and CEO Happy Holidays! This has been a big year for us here at the Colorado Education Initiative with many projects, partners, and possibilities. From launching our transformative school redesign accelerator this past summer, to kicking off several social emotional learning projects across the state, …
Imagine families, schools, businesses, and higher education coming together to support high school students in finding their passions, engaging with their community in deep ways, and developing new skills and competencies while attaining the certifications necessary to achieve a full range of post-secondary pathways. From the Eastern Plains to the …
By 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 …
By 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 …
By 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 …
Danny 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 …
By 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 …
When 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 …
Bree 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 …
By 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 …
