Last week, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero presented to the school board a slide deck labeled Denver Thrives 2030: A Strategic Roadmap refresh. The deck was thin on just about everything, lacking strategy and a clear vision of what lays ahead and how to tackle challenges and opportunities over the next few years.
With the exception of a pointed, critical statement from directorJohn Youngquist and some skeptical questioning from director Monica Hunter, the board received the presentation passively. Marrero acknowledged that the document lacked specifics, but said those would be forthcoming, and invited te board to join him in some sessions to help put meat on the bones.
Still, the presentation struck me and others I know as bordering on embarrassing in its shallowness. I asked a friend with deep experience in strategic planning in the public education world as well as in data analysis to provide feedback on the document and presentation. This person, because of their position, asked to remain anonymous, and offered the following thoughts.
The plan, which is a generous word for the slide deck that was presented last week, includes four “priorities,” only one of which is worded as a goal. The superintendent proposes to “strengthen teaching and learning in every classroom.” The others include: “thriving students, thriving families, thriving community,” “supporting Team DPS,” and “Organizational Health and Effectiveness [inconsistent capitalization in original].”
It is is reasonable to expect that the person responsible for leading the state’s largest school district might have some more ambitious, measurable goals and objectives and some more specific measures for evaluating progress, but it is hard to prioritize this kind of thing while attacking board members in public and trying to get jobs in other cities.
The strategies and tactics under each “priority” are similarly vague and unambitious if they can be characterized as strategies and tactics at all.
Under Priority 1 the superintendent proposes to “deepen educators expertise in delivering consistent, grade level instruction that actively engages students in learning” through “implementation of Implementation of High Quality Instructional Materials, Collective Efficacy, Increase Relevance.”
Priority 2 includes two strategies: “strengthen authentic family school partnerships for academic success” with tactics like “build authentic relationships,” and “partner with community partners to provide comprehensive support” which includes tactics such as “Partnership with Intention” and “Infrastructure.”
For the third priority, Supporting Team DPS, the “plan” includes “Transform our recruitment and hiring practices to ensure that our talent aligns with system needs” with tactics such as “Prioritize Hard to Fill Positions,” “Improve our Processes,” and “Cultivate Employment Pipelines.”
Another strategy is to “Build a DPS ecosystem that makes the work sustainable and values our employees” with tactics like “Retain Hard to Fill Positions,” “Needs Assessment,” and “Leadership Pathways and Pipelines”
The fourth goal Marrero proposed, “Organizational Health and and Effectiveness,” includes develop and implement a long term financial plan including operations and capital to maximize asset management and ensure long-term financial stewardship. It includes “tactics” like “integrated Financial and Capital Planning” and “Building Utilization.”
All of the presentation’s so-called priorities, strategies and tactics follow the same pattern.
The presentation also included some “draft” measures of performance such as “Increase grade level proficiency of students in Literacy and Math with a particular focus on: Multilingual Learners, Students with Disabilities, Black, and Latine students” but no actual improvement targets. As is this superintendent’s habit, included are also several measures for which current measures are insufficient and so require a year or more to establish a baseline before setting any specific goals.
Following the presentation, board member John Youngquist shared his disappointment with what he said “looks like a very early and high level draft.” Youngquist noted that DPS “is a $1.4 billion investment by the community members of Denver and Colorado, and they deserve a strategic plan that represents a vision for the future, goals that have a significant impact on the lives of our children’s futures, strategies, and actions that disrupt our inequitable status quo and create a context where every student will succeed in school and in life.”
Youngquist highlighted the variety of challenges DPS faces — inequitable access to opportunity, fewer resources due to declining enrollment, frayed ties with community partners, and uncertainty about how students are actually performing — which, he argued, were not addressed in the presentation or only mentioned in passing. “There are neither strategies nor actions that are distinct, innovative, or are likely to break inequitable cycles that are yet represented as actionable in this plan,” he said. “There are not specific or quantifiable goals.”
Other members of the board were less direct in their criticisms but there was near unanimous support for more specifics. Board member Hunter said “I don’t think it is clear enough based on metrics or objectives.”
It seems obvious that the superintendent did little more than ask each district department to provide a strategy and some tactics.
As is his habit, Marrero responded to board members’ feedback with a mix of defensiveness and disdain. “What I’m hearing is a desire for an operational plan, not a strategic plan,” he said in response to requests for more specifics.
As for Youngquist’s call for a more innovative set of strategies, the superintendent said of the district he has led for the last four years, “I take offense to that word because I haven’t seen it. Innovation is truly a misnomer here.” Marrero said he wasn’t just “rolling over” but was simply “continuing what works.”
We’ll see whether the board can move Marrero to make this roadmap toward becoming a workable plan, rather than the equivalent of an eighth-grader copying a Wikipedia entry the night before an essay is due. Let’s hope so.
