True grit? Taking a stand can be seen as courageous by some and a cop-out by others. The reality is somewhere in between.

• Author: Weiss, Suzanne

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In an interview not long after the Colorado General Assembly adjourned in mid-May, Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, a Republican, made a point of lauding the political courage of a small band of Democratic legislators who played a pivotal role in the passage of a groundbreaking teacher-effectiveness bill.

The battle over the Great Teachers and Leaders bill was one of the fiercest in recent memory, and proved to be a nail-biter all the way to the closing minutes of the 2010 session.

The legislation makes Colorado the first state in the nation to adopt an interconnected set of reforms that include mandatory annual evaluations for both teachers and principals. There's a requirement that tenure be granted only to teachers who receive good evaluations for three consecutive years, and tenured teachers found "ineffective" for two consecutive years lose certain protections and, potentially, their jobs.

In proposing the bill, rookie Democratic legislator Michael Johnston--who had been appointed to fill a vacant Senate seat less than a year before--took on a particularly formidable foe, the 40,000-member Colorado Education Association.

CEA's opposition to the bill was well-organized, intense and unwavering. The teachers' union held news conferences, staged rallies and wrote op-ed pieces, ran radio ads and sent teachers daily to lobby lawmakers.

Johnston also faced enormous opposition within his own party, particularly in the House, where the bill came close to being killed. For Johnston and other Democrats who voted for the legislation, the consequences could be substantial, considering the political clout of the teachers' group and the resources it can muster to defeat candidates it opposes.

"I know that I'm very much exposed to the political winds as a result of this," says Johnston, who will be up for election in November to serve out the final two years of his predecessor's term. "But, honestly, I didn't give that a lot of thought. I took this job because I believed I could do things that would make a difference."

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Some of the criticism, though, made clear the murkiness of the concept of political courage. Far from being courageous, critics say, the measure was simply kowtowing to the federal government in an effort to secure some of the Race to the Top competitive grants for Colorado. On the other hand, others say, passage of the bill has likely jumped Colorado to the top of the list for the second...