Commentary
From Brian Eschbacher: My goal with this post is to assert a set of facts and opportunities in the hopes it reduces finger-pointing and aligns us all towards making school consolidation decisions as supportive as possible for our students and community. I served as the Executive Director of Planning & Enrollment for DPS from 2011 through 2018, and have created long-term enrollment plans and analyses in more than 20 cities across the country since leaving DPS in 2018.
When a system doesn’t work, there will always be results that are completely avoidable but inevitable because that’s what happens in broken systems.
As someone who teaches U.S. history and emphasizes how the Constitution is a living document, it’s vital that my students understand the election process and how to participate in a way that feels encouraging.
“I don’t believe schools are just places for learning. They’re safe havens for many students who need a break from toxic households or just serve as a place where they can be themselves. A supportive community within a school can make all the difference.”
We’ve been sold college as the only path to social and economic mobility, but when we arrive, we don’t have the tools and knowledge to best navigate it. Was it more important to simply get us to college and not help position us in ways that we could really thrive when we got there?
As political winds shifted over the past five years, critics, including board and district leadership, have pummeled Bennet and Boasberg, calling them, among other things, white supremacists and enablers of racist and oppressive systems. Both men are politically astute, and have chosen not to address those insults directly. This white paper as their oblique way of refuting those unjust and hyperbolic critiques.
One of our big initiatives was aligning as a network on key culture systems. We did a lot of work to reset our culture systems and raise the bar across the school. When you raise the bar for students, they will rise to meet it.
New data has again shown that charter school students are receiving quality opportunities. The Colorado Department of Education recently released its School Performance Framework (SPF) results for 2023-24, providing another fundamental lesson that charter schools are getting it right. Last year, the CREDO report from Stanford University showed that charter students are getting significantly more […]
Women as default parents, and the gender imbalance of women being over-represented in school engagement activities are indicative of a larger systemic failure in how we view the role of men and women in education, child care, and parenting. This isn’t simply a PTO issue.
The SHIFT Chronicles is a new monthly feature dedicated to amplifying student voices, where those most impacted by the public education system share their thoughts, reflections, and experiences. In collaboration with FaithBridge SHIFT fellows, these commentaries offer a genuine glimpse into the challenges students are facing within our city’s schools.
Denver school consolidation: Facts and opportunities, not blame
From Brian Eschbacher: My goal with this post is to assert a set of facts and opportunities in the hopes it reduces finger-pointing and aligns us all towards making school consolidation decisions as supportive as possible for our students and community. I served as the Executive Director of Planning & Enrollment for DPS from 2011 through 2018, and have created long-term enrollment plans and analyses in more than 20 cities across the country since leaving DPS in 2018.