Alan Gottlieb

The recently released school board evaluation of Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova is a vague document that sheds light on little more than board members’ divisions over her future.

The 6-1 vote masks significant divisions on the board and, more importantly, indefinitely delays the development of any kind of new accountability system parents can use to figure out which schools would work best for their children.

Should parents be deprived of data on school performance because they might “weaponize” it? One Denver school board member said as much Thursday.

“Pandemic pods” have the potential to widen already gaping opportunity gaps. But there are ways to minimize the negative collective impacts.

Mike Miles, CEO of First Future Schools, has deftly threaded the needle in a letter to his staff about reopening school next month. Read the full letter here.

Yes, education needs to change fundamentally. For now, though, we need to set aside our differences to get through the next year.

A deal cut last week between Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association blew a big hole through the plan to give the biggest raises to the lowest-paid workers.

Let’s, for argument’s sake, give these individuals and groups that want to eliminate accountability and measurement their way. Let’s stop measuring anything and just trust that teachers will get it right. Then let’s come back together in five years and see what our graduation, dropout, and remediation rates look like, not to mention our achievement gaps.

DPS employee associations are pushing for budget cuts that don’t touch negotiated teacher pay raises. That’s a tough case to make, given the $61 million in cuts that are looming.