Duncan “inspired” by Aurora pathways
AURORA – In Janet Mensah, a high school senior with her foot in the door at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan sees the American dream.
Janet Mensah, a senior at Aurora's William Smith High School, during a roundtable with Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday.
Mensah always knew she wanted to be a doctor, she told Duncan during a roundtable discussion Tuesday at the Vista PEAK P-20 campus, she just didn’t know how to get make it happen.
“My mom never went to school and my dad, I guess, stopped school in the eighth grade so I didn’t really have that background, I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “I knew my dream, but how do I get there?”
At Smith, an assistant principal told her about Aurora LIGHTS, one of the district’s “pathways” programs that
Wednesday Churn: Decision on tests?
What’s churning:
The House State Affairs Committee this afternoon takes another crack at House Bill 12-1091, Rep. Judy Solano’s 2011 attempt to eliminate state writing tests and one set of high school exams.
The savings from doing that – estimated at $1.5 million to $6.3 million, depending on whom you talk to – would be transferred to the Colorado Preschool Program and allow more low-income kids to be brought into the program.
Supporters of the bill have some lingering hard feelings about last Thursday’s State Affairs meeting, a badly managed affair that didn’t allow enough time for witnesses to testify. Further consideration was delayed until today to allow for a full hearing.
Those pushing the bill also aren’t happy with the assignment to State Affairs, frequently used as a kill committee for measures House leadership doesn’t like. The committee earlier killed Solano’s House Bill 12-1049, which