Youth and Families 2012

League of Women Voters^®
of La Plata County

Youth-Families_12

A focus in La Plata County on building assets for our children, youth and engaged families.
Click the archives to your left to view 2007-2010 Youth & Family materials.

Upcoming Events. Youth and Family Positions. La Plata Education. CO Ed Legislation. 2010-2011 Census Results. La Plata County Actions. Colorado Actions. US Education. LWVUS-CO Positions. LWVUS Reference Materials. Colorado and US News. Letters. Past Events. References.

Upcoming Events

Youth and Family Positions

La Plata Education

*2/25/12 Durango Herald:"District 9-R seeks public input, again Herald Staff Report
Durango School District 9-R will hold various input sessions next week to collect feedback about what the community wants to see in the district's next superintendent.
The input sessions are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday. Community members will have a chance to voice their opinions Monday at a session from 5:15 to 7 p.m. at Miller Middle School and Tuesday from noon to 1 p.m. at the district administration building, 201 East 12th St.
Though the district already went through a round of input meetings last fall, it decided to go through the process again so the private firm conducting the search can get a chance to hear from the public directly.
In January, the board hired Nebraska-based search firm McPherson & Jacobson to guide the estimated four-month superintendent search. Feedback from community members, students, teachers and district staff will help the school board hire a candidate after it interviews finalists in April...

* 2/8/12 Durango Herald: 9-R's annual report is now available to read online

Colorado Education Legislation

*3/13/12 Durango Herald:Tweet backs in-state tuition Hickenlooper signals support for children of illegal immigrants By Joe Hanel
DENVER + Gov. John Hickenlooper has offered support for the idea of letting the children of illegal immigrants pay in-state tuition rates at Colorado colleges.
Currently, children who crossed the border illegally with their parents must pay out-of-state tuition. Senate Bill 15 would let them pay in-state rates, while denying them the $1,800 stipend the state gives every student.
Hickenlooper had been silent about the bill, but that changed with a tweet at 9:44 p.m. Saturday on his official Twitter account, @hickforco. "Every child deserves a chance. Every HS student must see a path forward. That's why SB 15 deserves a full hearing in the House," the tweet said.
The bill is expected to pass the Senate on a party-line vote, but sponsors have been holding off on a final vote in order to build support in the Republican-majority House...

2010-2011 Census Results

La Plata County Actions

Colorado Actions

*1/29/12 Education News Colorado:Find your school's 2011 CSAP results

State test results released Aug. 3 show little change in student progress in reading, writing, math and science for grades 3-10. About two-thirds of Colorado students are reading at grade level and just over half are proficient in writing and math. Slightly under half scored proficient or advanced in science.
2011 marks the 15th year of the Colorado Student Assessment Program + and the last. The Transitional Colorado Assessment Program begins next year as the state moves to new tests aligned to new academic standards.
These results show how your school or district performed on state exams, a "snapshot" on a given day. To see how they're progressing over time, check the EdNews database showing your school and district's 2011 academic growth numbers.

US Education

LWVUS-CO Positions

LWVUS Reference Materials

Colorado and US News

*2/7/12 NYTimes:Court Strikes Down Ban on Gay Marriage in California By ADAM NAGOURNEY
LOS ANGELES + A federal appeals court panel ruled on Tuesday that a voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage in California violated the Constitution, all but ensuring that the case will proceed to the United States Supreme Court.
The three-judge panel issued its ruling Tuesday morning in San Francisco, upholding a decision by Judge Vaughn R. Walker, who had been the chief judge of the Federal District Court of the Northern District of California but has since retired. The panel found that Proposition 8 + passed by California voters in November 2008 by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent + violated the equal protection rights of two same-sex couples that brought the suit. The proposition placed a specific prohibition in the State Constitution against marriage between two people of the same sex...
Supporters of Proposition 8 can now ask for a larger panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to take up the case. But they could also choose instead to appeal the case directly to the Supreme Court, setting the stage for a decision by the nation's highest court on an issue that has roiled legal, political and cultural circles here and across the country...

*1/7/12 Durango Herald:Do our schools make the grade? Group's assessment gives 6 local schools a B; the rest get C or lower By Emery Cowan Herald Staff Writer
A coalition of community groups has taken the A through F grading system so familiar to students and applied it to Colorado's schools. The grade most Durango schools received was merely passing. None received an A.
The website, Colorado School Grades, uses students' standardized test scores to create a report card for each school that's meant to decipher the somewhat cryptic school performance data published by the state. The nearly $1 million project was launched last month by a coalition of community organizations.
In proposing an alternative, the grading website has shone a spotlight on the Colorado Department of Education's current ranking system and questioned its effectiveness at informing parents, students and community members about school performance...

Letters from our members

Past Events

References

Comments, suggestions, questions? Contact our webmaster. Last revised: May 14, 2012 07:51 PDT.