Jeffco's Peiffer Elementary teacher Karen Holtz-Allen uses a physical approach to math.

The Jeffco Public Schools elementary teacher wondered if she couldn’t harness that same strategy to help them learn their multiplication tables when they got a little older.

Turns out, she could.

Holtz-Allen, a special education teacher at Peiffer Elementary in Littleton, has created a program she calls Movin’ Through Multiplication that calls on students not just to sing but also to jump, box, skip and stretch their way through their times tables.

It has proven so successful that earlier this year, Holtz-Allen and Peiffer principal Robin Weikel co-wrote a grant to the Jefferson Foundation’s Lights On After School program to expand the strategy, which they’re calling Fitness Math.

The $4,600 grant allows the school to pay for five teachers to provide after-school math tutoring to 66 children, four days a week. The physical-activity-based exercises form the core of the program.

“It has just exploded,” Weikel said. “It started with Karen, then just the third grade. Now it’s in grades three through six. The kids are liking math and they’re loving doing this.”

“Now the kids are passing their multiplication tests faster than they can do addition,” said Holtz-Allen.

The basis of the program is “skip-counting,” which is counting by the same number over and over again. Children as young as 5 can start counting by 2s, 5s and 10s.

Counting by 3s and 4s – not to mention by 11s and 12s – is a good bit harder, but it’s something every student must learn to do, since there’s no way around memorizing times tables.

“Skip counting is more effective than rote memorization of facts alone,” Holtz-Allen said. “If the student is working solely from memorization of individual facts, there is no strategy to rely on if the answer is not known.”

For example, a student may not immediately remember that 6 x 7 = 42. But if they can remember to skip count 6 seven times – 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, 36, 42 – they’ll come up with the answer. And eventually, they won’t need to do the mental counting.

Peiffer Elementary students learn to count by 3s using a punch-boxing routine.

Holtz-Allen has the students perform different routines for each number:

They run in place while counting by 2s. They punch-box while counting by 3s. They do a Macarena-type dance while counting by 4s. They sing while counting by 6s and 7s. They sway back and forth like metronomes while counting by 8s. It’s hands in the air to count by 9s. They do push-ups while counting by 10s, and “mogul ski” to count by 11s. For 12s, they stretch and jump.

“Because this concept is multi-sensory, it taps into visual, auditory and tactile channels of learning,” Holtz-Allen said. “The kids enjoy moving their bodies as they acquire lifelong math skills.”

The fitness math concept has spread all over Peiffer. Teachers – including the physical education teacher – are doing it in all the third-grade through sixth-grade classes. And since an article about Holtz-Allen’s technique came out in The Messenger, a publication distributed to all the schools in Jefferson County, she’s been getting calls from around the district.

A book is in the works, and Holtz-Allen has filmed a video of some of her youngsters doing the program.

“The key is to find the glue to make things stick in kids’ heads,” said Holtz-Allen, a top ten candidate for Colorado Teacher of the Year in 2009. “And who wants to sit and do flash cards all day?”

Watch students at Jeffco’s Peiffer Elementary practice Fitness Math

A new study from the California-based New Teacher Center bills itself as the first national look at induction for new teachers.

Among the findings: 27 states, including Colorado, require some form of induction; 29 have at least minimum requirements for mentor teachers – Colorado leaves it up to local districts; 17 state, Colorado not included, provide funding for induction; and only nine states specify contact hours between teachers and mentors, collection of standards-based data and classroom observation – Colorado not included.

Learn more about the report from our partners at Education Week, see the full report and read the center’s report on Colorado here.

Related: New study will review methods for evaluating teacher prep programs

The University of Colorado Foundation has named Richard W. Lawrence as new president and chief executive officer. Lawrence most recently has served as chief operating officer and executive vice president of the foundation. He replaces retiring CEO J. Wayne Hutchens. With the decline of state support, outside fundraising has become increasingly important for state colleges and universities, and CU is conducting a $1.5 billion campaign. Lawrence also is board president at the Peak to Peak Charter School. Release

What’s on tap:

Check here for a full calendar of education-related legislative hearings this week. Highlights of the week include committee consideration of House Bill 12-1238, the third-grade literacy bill; House Bill 12-1091, the measure to reduce statewide testing, and Senate Bill 12-046, the overhaul of zero-tolerance school discipline laws.

MONDAY

Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia will speak at the kick-off of Colorado Literacy Week and announce new partners in the Colorado Early Literacy Initiative. The event will be at 9:30 a.m. at Crawford Elementary School, 1600 Florence St., Aurora.

TUESDAY

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan will appear with local officials and educators at two events. The first is a town hall at 9:10 a.m. at the Denver School of Science and Technology-Green Valley Ranch Campus, and the second is a roundtable starting at 12:50 p.m. at Aurora’s Vista PEAK Preparatory School, 24500 East 6th Ave. In between the two, Duncan will speak at the Green Schools National Network Conference at the Colorado Convention Center on the importance of green schools and environmental literacy.

Denver school board members have a legislative oversight lunch scheduled at noon. Agenda not yet posted.

Aurora Public Schools is co-hosting an America’s Promise Parent Institute to help the parents of middle and high school students learn more about paying for college. It begins at 5:30 p.m. Details

WEDNESDAY

Gov. John Hickenlooper and Garcia will announce “Colorado Reads: The Early Literacy Initiative,” and Mile High United Way will announce Social Innovation Fund award recipients at noon in the west foyer of the Capitol.

THURSDAY

Jefferson County school board members meet in study session at 5 p.m. and begin their regular board meeting at 6 p.m. at district headquarters, 1829 Denver West Drive in Golden. The agenda includes a discussion of a budget proposal from the recent employee summit. Related budget story.

FRIDAY

Hickenlooper, Garcia and other officials will read to students in schools as part of National Read Across America Day.

The Colorado Commission on Higher Education is scheduled to meet starting at 1 p.m. in the Capitol’s Old Supreme Court Chambers.

Good reads from elsewhere:

CU-Boulder’s top jobs: CU filled three key administrative posts with retirees limited to working 140 days a year, but who receive nearly a full salary from the university plus pension payments from the state retirement fund, according to the Daily Camera.

NYC teacher quality: The New York City schools on Friday released effectiveness ratings for some 18,000 teachers, a long-awaited and controversial move. Get analysis from our partners at EdWeek and coverage from The New York Times.

College graduation data: Recently released data from the U.S. Census Bureau provides new details on the 61 million Americans aged 25 and older who have bachelor’s or higher degrees. The Chronicle of Higher Education has the details.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

Columbine Elementary in Boulder won a gold medal in the HealthierUS Challenge.

This brings to 36 the number of schools in Colorado to be certified in the challenge, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Twenty-seven of them are in the Boulder Valley School District.

Nationwide, 2,862 schools have been certified. In addition to meeting strict nutrition standards, winning schools must provide students with nutrition education, physical education and opportunities for physical activity.

“It’s becoming more common, as more and more schools learn what it takes,” said David Von Behren, regional public affairs director for the USDA Food & Nutrition Service, which oversees the HealthierUS School Challenge program. “A couple of years ago, we may have only had one or two schools in Colorado, but now more and more districts are getting involved to implement changes in all the schools.”

The 27 Boulder schools will be honored with a ceremony Tuesday morning at Columbine Elementary, one of three gold-medal schools in the district. Janey Thornton, deputy under secretary for USDA’s Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services in Washington, will join students and other guests at 8 a.m. for a healthy breakfast, then speak about the department’s efforts to improve the nutrition in school meals through the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act.

Credit Ann Cooper, director of food services for Boulder Valley, for much of the progress the district has made in implementing healthy changes in its school meals. She has been dogged in revamping the district’s menus to include more fresh produce, whole grains and locally-grown food, and eliminating processed, high-fat offerings.

“We’ve spent three years very specifically changing the quality of the food we serve,” Cooper said. “We were already on that road when we decided to start applying for the HealthierUS awards. It’s not that we feel getting the awards is more important, but we’ve worked hard to change the quality of our foods so we could apply and get the awards.”

In Boulder Valley, three schools – Sanchez, Columbine and Emerald Elementary – have earned gold status, while one, University Hill Elementary, earned silver. The rest have earned bronze.

The schools receive plaques and banners as well as monetary prizes: $500 for bronze awards, $1,000 for silver, $1,500 for gold and $2,000 for gold awards of distinction.

It’s not that the meals are better or more nutritionally sound or the physical activity more demanding at the gold medal schools, Cooper said. In fact, the food and physical activity is the same at all the schools. The difference is that more students eat the healthy school-provided lunch at the gold medal schools than at the others. Often, family income drives a child’s participation in the school lunch program, with poorer students more likely to partake.

Students dined on colorful produce-laden meals at Columbine Elementary's "Rainbow Day" last year. Photo courtesy of Ann Cooper.

“Our gold-medal schools are the three schools in the district with the highest number of students eligible for free and reduced-price lunches,” Cooper said.

While participation rates vary from school to school and grade to grade, an average of 40 percent of Boulder’s elementary students eat a school-provided lunch. At Emerald, 58 percent do. At Columbine, 60 percent do. And at Sanchez, 65 percent do.

Still, the numbers of youngsters choosing to eat the healthier school lunches in Boulder is up across the board, and that pleases Cooper immensely. They’re up 7 percent over last year, and up 6.2 percent over the 2008-09 school year, the year Cooper came to the district and began shaking things up.

For awhile, participation rates went in the opposite direction, as students rejected some of the healthy changes Cooper instituted. The loss of a la carte sales left a big hole in the district’s food budget.

“It took us into our third year to really see the positive impact of the food on the kids,” Cooper said.

Besides the Boulder schools, other Colorado schools recognized in the HealthierUS challenge include B.F. Kitchen Elementary in Loveland and Kunsberg School at National Jewish Health, both of which received Gold Awards of Distinction, the highest possible rating; six Aurora schools, all of which won bronze: Boston K-8, Clyde Miller, Laredo, Montview, Paris and Park Lane elementaries; and High Point Academy, a charter school in Aurora.

MONDAY

10 a.m. – House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1043 – Establishment of new concurrent enrollment program
• House Bill 12-1144 – University employment of non-tenure track instructors

10 a.m. – Senate final consideration

• Senate Bill 12-015 – Tuition rate for undocumented students

Senate preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1212 – Funding of BOCES online programs

1:30 p.m. – House Education Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1252 – Transparency of higher education financial information
• House Bill 12-1220 – Technical measure affecting CSU
• House Bill 12-1240 – Education law cleanup, including extension of deadlines for high school graduation guidelines and endorsed diplomas
• House Bill 12-1135 – Qualification of teachers who supervise student teachers

TUESDAY

9 a.m. – House preliminary consideration

• House Bill 12-1149 – Parent requests for interventions at low-performing schools

9 a.m. – Senate preliminary consideration

• Senate Bill 12-148 – Metro State name change

WEDNESDAY

7:30 a.m. – Joint education committees, room 0112

• Presentation by CU, CSU and National Center for Higher Education Management

Upon floor adjournment – House Education Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1238 – Improvements in third grade literacy

Upon floor adjournment – Joint Budget Committee, JBC hearing room

• Higher education 2012-13 figure setting

Upon floor adjournment – Senate Education Committee, room 354

• House Bill 12-1013 – Recommended interventions for at-risk middle school students

1:30 p.m. – House State Affairs Committee, room 0112

• House Bill 12-1091 – Reduction of statewide student testing (first item)
• House Bill 12-1235 – Energy-efficient schools (fourth item)

THURSDAY

Upon floor adjournment – House Finance Committee

• House Bill 12-1150 – Calculation of PERA retirement benefits
• House Bill 12-1179 – Composition of PERA board
• House Bill 12-1142 – Expansion of PERA defined contribution plan

Upon floor adjournment – Joint Budget Committee, JBC hearing room

• K-12 support 2012-13 figure setting

1:30 p.m. – Senate Education Committee, room 354

• Senate Bill 12-103 – Adjustments in at-risk funding formula for charter schools
• House Bill 12-1090 – Avoiding conflict of enrollment count day and religious holidays
• Senate Bill 12-046 – Overhaul of school discipline laws

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.

The academic performance of African-American students in Denver Public Schools will get a close look Saturday in a wide-ranging program at Manual High School.

The Colorado Black Round Table is hosting a community education forum billed as “Improving Outcomes for African-American Students,” with Mayor Michael Hancock and DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg among the scheduled participants.

Kicking off at 9 a.m., the program is ambitious in scope and will be tackling issues that have challenged educators, parents and community leaders for decades.

“I’m not seeing a whole lot of improvement,” said Sharon Bailey, a DPS board member from 1989 to 1995, who is currently chair of the CBRT committee on education.

“I’m hearing a lot of anecdotal kinds of things, and that’s why we’re trying to pin down some specific data and develop a profile of African-American students within DPS, trying to get everybody on the same page — stop the finger pointing and work more collaboratively to improve outcomes for African-American students.”

Bailey said she sees two groups of DPS schools – one group serving higher numbers of minority and poor children but producing lower achievement and another group that is serving lower numbers of minority and poor children and posting stronger performance: “There is a problem with that.”

DPS statistics show that those contributing to Saturday’s program will have plenty to talk about – and sizable challenges to tackle:

• While African-American students make up about 15 percent of the DPS student population, they received a disproportionate 29 percent of the out-of-school suspensions handed out in 2010.
• The on-time graduation rate for African-American students for 2010-11 was 57.9 percent. That’s short of the 65.8 percent rate posted by white students, but ahead of the 50.6 percent rate posted by Hispanic students.
• The performance of African-American students on 2011 state exams lagged that of their white classmates. For example, 28 percent of black students scored proficient or above in math compared to 67 percent of white students. In reading, the proficiency rate for African-American students was 42 percent compared to 77 percent for white students.

DPS at-large board member Happy Haynes, who graduated from East High School in the same 1971 class as Bailey, will take part in a discussion at Saturday’s event, “Educational Equity and Excellence in the New Landscape,” that will also feature Hancock, Boasberg and school board president Mary Seawell.

“I feel a sense of frustration,” Haynes said, “but the frustration is borne out of the belief that there is something that can be done, the recognition that things can be better, things can be improved and that we can make some strides.”

Achievement gaps were a reality when Haynes and Bailey were in school, she said, noting, “It wasn’t spoken of in so many words but nonetheless it was there, and I think it’s a part of the overall legacy of segregation that persists to this day.

“There is still a long way to go, in my view, but I think there definitely are some steps that can be taken and partnerships that can be forged that can help move us along. We certainly should be further along than we are, here in 2012.”

Saturday’s event is sponsored by the CBRT in partnership with DPS, the NAACP and the Urban League of Metropolitan Denver.

Urban League president and CEO Landri Taylor, who also sits on the recently convened Denver Education Compact – an initiative launched by Hancock – will not be able to attend. However, Taylor said he hopes it represents a significant step in improved educational achievement for Denver’s African-American community.

He believes the event will minority parents more aware of programs and tools already available under the DPS umbrella to help them and their children.

“It’s a dual responsibility, for DPS to get that information out there on a broad basis,” he said, “but it’s also a responsibility for parents to seek that out.”

Two of Taylor’s three now-adult children went through DPS schools.

“I was a very engaged parent, K through high school, with my kids,” he said. “I didn’t know that I had a choice, to be, or not.”

Saturday’s program will open with a lifetime achievement award presentation to former DPS superintendent Evie Dennis, the first woman and the first African-American to hold that position. It will end at noon with a community question-and-answer session, followed by a meet-and-greet opportunity with DPS administrators and staff.

Manual will also be the site from 2 to 6:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon of a similarly-themed program, “The State of Black Colorado Education: Are We Making the Grade?”

The later event is organized by northeast Denver native and community organizer Jeff S. Fard, founder of Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center in Five Points.

Both events are free and open to the public.

A new survey by the Early Childhood Leadership Commission rates the condition of young children across the state.

The Colorado Early Childhood Needs Assessment rated conditions in 15 counties as “high risk,” including Adams, Denver and Pueblo counties.

Another 27 counties were identified as “moderate risk,” including Arapahoe, El Paso and Jefferson counties. And 22 counties were identified as “low risk,” including Boulder, Broomfield and Douglas counties.

The assessment used 13 indicators, including factors such as infant mortality, child poverty, dropout rates, juvenile crime and unemployment.

The survey, released Thursday, is intended to provide data for state and local officials in developing plans and making decisions about early childhood programs and improvements.

“This assessment will help communities across the state better understand and respond to the needs of families and children with more targeted early childhood supports and services,” said Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia. “Local leaders and early childhood advocates now have a powerful tool to help ensure Colorado’s children are healthy, thriving and ready for school.”

The assessment was conducted by the commission, an executive branch advisory panel, in partnership with the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Read the assessment here (165-page PDF). Learn more about the commission here.

What’s on tap:

The State Board of Education meets at 2 p.m. to be briefed on proposed regulations on appeals of teacher evaluations and to discuss pending legislation. The session is in the boardroom at the Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave.

A good read from elsewhere:

Training teachers:Some education reformers and the Obama administration are pushing for raising standards for students admitted to education programs. But colleges of education fear that the focus on teaching candidates’ high school grades and test scores is misplaced and perhaps counterproductive, reports Inside Higher Education.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

Preschool students demonstrated their counting and language abilities during a legislative hearing Feb. 23, 2012, on a bill that would reduce state testing and use the money for preschool.

The highest-profile casualty of the day of delay was House Bill 12-1091, Rep. Judy Solano’s proposal to eliminate state writing tests and one set of high school tests.

Senate Bill 12-148, the proposal to rename Metro State College as Metropolitan State University of Denver, did pass the Senate Education Committee on a 6-0 vote, but not until after the committee spent two hours on it.

And of four bills related to the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, which provides pensions for Colorado teachers, one was killed at its sponsor’s request and three were delayed for later consideration.

Messy morning for State Affairs

Solano, a term-limited Brighton Democrat, is making her last attempt to cut back on statewide testing with HB 12-1091. She proposes to use the savings from elimination of writing tests and one set of high school tests to increase funding for the Colorado Preschool Program.

The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee is commonly known as the “kill committee” because House GOP leadership sends bills that it wants killed to the committee. So Solano is facing somewhat long odds, but she’d marshaled a big list of witnesses, including several cute preschool kids.

The trouble was that the committee burned more than two hours hearing testimony on two non-education bills before killing them on party-line votes. That left less than an hour to consider Solano’s bill before the panel had to vacate the room for the 1:30 p.m. meeting of another committee.

Vice chair Rep. Don Corum, R-Montrose, tried to allocate the remaining time equally among supporters and opponents of the bill, but he seemed to have only tenuous control over the meeting. (Chair Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Lakewood, was in and out of the meeting because he was carrying a PERA bill in the House Finance Committee, which had its own problems Thursday acting on bills – see below.)

As the crowd grew a little restive, Corum announced the bill would be laid over to a future meeting so that every witness would have a chance to speak.

An anxious Solano crammed in a few more witnesses, including the odd spectacle of the preschoolers counting to 10 in different languages under the direction of a teacher.

The committee didn’t get to House Bill 12-1118, which would require school district collective bargaining sessions be open to the public.

Full-court press for Metro name change

Metro State President Steve Jordan (left) and Metro trustee Bill Hanzlik.

The Senate Education Committee did pass the main bill on its agenda Thursday, but it took awhile. Senate Bill 12-148, the Metro State name change bill, was approved 6-0. The measure was considered pretty much of a lock this session, given that Metro has worked out “branding” differences with the private University of Denver that derailed a Metro name change in the 2011 legislative session.

But Metro wanted to clinch the sale with a long list of witnesses – trustees, students, alumni, business leaders and others – testifying in support of the bill. Former Denver Nugget Bill Hanzlik, a Metro trustee, even testified twice, one for himself and once for trustee chair Robert Cohen, who couldn’t make the meeting.

The proceedings also were slowed by committee member Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, who kept asking questions about why the bill was needed. Hudak said she was worried that Metro’s target demographic – minorities, low-income and first-generation students – might be put off by the word “university.” Metro leaders, including President Steve Jordan, are adamant that the name change to “university” will increase the value of Metro degrees in the job market.

In the end, Hudak missed the vote because she had to leave the committee room to say goodbye and take photos with the students who were shadowing her on Thursday (see below).

PERA bills die, stall in House Finance

The House Finance Committee had four PERA bills on its agenda Thursday. Some legislative Republicans, fretful about the financial future of the big pension system, are proposing various changes in the system.

Three PERA bills already have been killed in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the Republican-majority House is considered a somewhat friendlier environment.

It didn’t work out that way, at least on Thursday.

Conservative Rep. Chris Holbert, R-Parker, asked the panel to kill his House Bill 12-1250, which some critics said would cut some retirees out of some health insurance benefits.

Three other bills – to change the membership of the PERA board, change the base for calculation of retirement benefits and expand the system’s defined contribution system – were laid over for later consideration.

Miscellany

• The Senate Health and Human Services Committee voted 7-2 to pass Senate Bill 12-130, which would consolidate several early childhood programs into the state Department of Human Services. While the bill tangentially affects early childhood education programs, it’s of interest because it’s a priority of the Hickenlooper administration, which has made early childhood programs and literacy a priority.

• The Capitol was overrun with students Thursday, giving the marble-and-brass halls the air of a middle school. In addition to the counting preschoolers in House State Affairs, there was a large contingent of students marshaled by the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented, many of whom shadowed individual legislators.

The Colorado Coalition of Cyberschool Families and the Colorado Cyberschools Association rallied what they claimed were 1,000 students and adults on the Capitol’s west steps to support online education.

And some 150 kids (according to FOX31), watched as the Senate Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy Committee gave 7-0 final approval to House Bill 12-1147, which would name the tiger salamander as the official state amphibian. The idea originated with school kids, as have many of the “official state whatever” bills of the past.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information.