Colorado

National Council on Teacher Quality Report Card: Colorado Teacher Policy

Legend

	Best practices.
	State meets goal.
	State nearly meets goal.
	State partially meets goal.
	State meets a small part of goal.
	State does not meet goal.
Full Report – National Council on Teacher Quality

Meeting NCLB Teacher Quality Objectives: D

	Goal A Equitable Distribution of Teachers
	Goal B Elementary Teacher Preparation
	Goal C Secondary Teacher Preparation
	Goal D Veteran Teachers Path to HQT
	Goal E Standardizing Credentials

Teacher Licensure: B

	Goal A Defining Professional Knowledge
	Goal B Meaningful Licenses
	Goal C Interstate Portability
	Goal D Teacher Prep in Reading Instruction
	Goal E Distinguishing Promising Teachers

Teacher Evaluation and Compensation: D

	Goal A Evaluating Teacher Effectiveness
	Goal B Using Value-Added
	Goal C Teacher Evaluation
	Goal D Compensation Reform
	Goal E Tenure

State Approval of Teacher Preparation Programs: D

	Goal A Entry Into Preparation Programs
	Goal B Program Accountability
	Goal C Program Approval and Accreditation
	Goal D Controlling Coursework Creep

Alternate Routes to Certification: C

	Goal A Genuine Alternatives
	Goal B Limiting Alternate Routes to Teachers with Strong Credentials
	Goal C Program Accountability
	Goal D Interstate Portability

Preparation of Special Education Teachers: D

	Goal A Special Education Teacher Preparation
	Goal B Elementary Special Education Teachers
	Goal C Secondary Special Education Teachers
	Goal D Special Education Teacher and HQT

Political contribution statistics from 2004 political cycle.

Statewide Unions

Colorado Education Association
Total Revenue: $ 10,452,849
Total Expenses: $ 10,116,103
Total Assets: $ 7,948,471

Colorado Federation of Teachers
Total Revenue: $ 213,403
Total Expenses: $ 221,663
Total Assets: $ 157,369

Data obtained from the Internal Revenue Service's Master Data File 2005-2006.

Teacher Contracts

Name	District	Occupation
Mesa Valley Education Association	Mesa County Valley 51	Teachers
American Federation of State and County Municipal Employees Local 3375	Mesa County Valley 51	School Employees
Jefferson County Education Association	Jefferson County R-1	Teachers
District Twelve Educators' Association	Adams 12 Five Star Schools	Teachers
Adams 12 Five Star Schools Classified School Employees' Association	Adams 12 Five Star Schools	School Employees

(more)

For this massive new project, the Center for Union Facts filed freedom of information requests with dozens of America’s major school districts.

 From the stacks of paperwork that ensued, we have calculated a variety of statistics that document how teachers unions – and the laws and policies they defend – keep bad teachers in classrooms. Read on to discover just what all that dues money pays for in many cities around the country.

Colorado Springs Education Association: Protecting Bad Teachers

The Colorado Springs Education Association (CSEA) is the exclusive bargaining agent for teachers from Colorado Springs School District #11. According to school district records, however, policies defended by the CSEA and its parent unions (the Colorado Education Association and the National Education Association, America's largest teachers union) mean that practically no teachers are ever fired by the school system after they work for three years and thus acquire tenure (which is called "non-probationary status" in Colorado).

In District #11 there are approximately 1,582 teachers with tenure. Original research by the Center for Union Facts into school district records indicates that, between the 2002-03 and the 2006-07 school years, only two tenured teachers were fired. Put another way, the Colorado Springs School District fires about 0.025 percent of its tenured teachers annually.

The typical union response to such abysmally low statistics is that tenured teachers are commonly "counseled out" of their jobs if they're not fit to teach. But a look at district records suggests that it's not very common at all. Union-induced settlements between the district and "counseled out" teachers (where the teacher agrees to resign or retire in lieu of termination) are the only records available to back up the union claim that bad tenured teachers are pushed out. But when asked by the Center for Union Facts for all such documents spanning a five-year period, the district's lawyers produced only two such settlements. Those settlements represent only another 0.025 percent of tenured teachers a year. So the union argument that tenured teachers get "counseled out" at significant rates doesn't hold water -- out of more than 1,582 tenured teachers, that's less than one teacher every two years.

It's easy to believe that the vast majority of public schoolteachers in Colorado Springs are doing a good job, but it's a near-impossibility that fully 99.95 percent of its tenured teachers deserve to be in front of kids; any group of people that size is bound to have at least a few more bad apples than the ones noted above. The best explanation, in our opinion, is that by protecting an outmoded employment system in the legislature and by turning tenured teacher termination cases into equivalents of a criminal trial, the Colorado Springs Education Association and its affiliates have made it nearly impossible to fire bad teachers.

Click here to see a graphical representation of how hard it is to fire a tenured Colorado Springs teacher.

Source: Colorado Springs School District #11; Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Data current as of July 5, 2007