The Denver school board will hold a special meeting June 16 to vote on restoring some freedoms that were stripped from 52 innovation schools by a hastily passed policy change earlier this spring.
In the end, supporters of innovation schools and zones did not get everything they wanted out of a new state law offering an added layer of dispute resolution when innovation zone plans are changed or status is revoked, but they’re framing it as a step forward nonetheless.
One by one, each school paraded its seniors to the stage to make their big announcement. Each announcement was followed by thunderous cheers and more than a few tears.
If Superintendent Alex Marrero and his team intended to calm the storm that has erupted during the past month over the attempt to limit innovation school freedoms, a letter intended to muzzle dissent appears to have backfired. In fact, district employees are becoming more outspoken in their displeasure over a multitude of issues they say are being mishandled by the current administration.
Denver Public Schools board Vice President Tay Anderson discusses board relations, the coup that wasn't, and other issues related to DPS board dysfunction
After last week’s 6-1/2-hour Denver school board meeting featured a couple of cringeworthy interpersonal clashes, I’m sure at least some board members are embarrassed by what the public witnessed. They should be. While the in-fighting rages, work of substance is being neglected.
DPS still has an opportunity to keep this process from devolving into a fiasco, but that will require the district to address the impacts on families who will be directly affected by any school closure.
It is evident there is a gap in arts-based learning models in the Far Northeast, and our no-audition, public charter school model will provide every student with an opportunity to explore and develop their talents, in an area where there’s an urgent need for arts-based learning.
A divided Denver Public Schools Board of Education Thursday restored some of the autonomy to 52 innovation schools it had stripped away in an overly-hasty move last March.
Notably missing from the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee criteria was any measure of school performance. Instead, the Declining Enrollment Advisory Committee chose to focus on schools serving the fewest students.
"With the updated evaluation system in Senate Bill 70, signed last week, Colorado joins a growing list of states moving away from practices the Obama administration hoped would improve schools."
The dialogue about school choice, traditional vs. innovation vs. charter, etc., rarely seems to be centered around how exactly students will be supported, but mainly where they will go to school. Quality of education and supporting our students needs to become the focal point of any conversation.
Boardhawk's new community reporter, T. Michael Boddie, introduces himself. "People deserve the confidence that not just teachers, but districts and other community leaders are doing all they can to nurture students’ abilities and talents through education."
Two educators from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College write: As challenging as the last year has been, we’re heartened that our students have had more questions about politics and current events than we’ve seen before in our careers.
Our teaching of The Dream and The Dreamer must begin here: In the uncomfortable space that affirms that this country continues to bounce the check of equality and justice issued to citizens of color.
This week's Colorado Department of Education data release on 2020 graduation rates carries an unfortunate whiff of spin and happy-talk at a time when we should instead be trying to assess the impacts the pandemic has had on student learning.
Images of hate-fueled extremists marauding through the U.S. Capitol help highlight how narrow and in some ways trivial the divisions on education policy are in Denver. Surely we can find ways to come together, or at least keep our disagreements civil.
Anyone who has been around the district for a number of years knows that DPS’ history of failed community engagement efforts is long and unfortunate. Let's hope that is about to change.
The selection of Dwight Jones as interim superintendent shows that the Denver school board decided, at least this once, to favor competence and experience over ideology.
Denver is but a microcosm of the dilemma facing Democrats across the country as they are the ones running most big-city school systems and, come Jan. 20, the executive branch of the federal government.
What we will offer when our first school launches is unlike any other school in Illinois or the nation: world-class career preparation coupled with rigorous academics. Our kids deserve no less. We are hoping our work will capture the attention of the incoming Biden administration. We believe our model has national potential.
An elected mayor calling for the board to abdicate its primary constitutional responsibility of hiring a superintendent and former school board members making accusations without evidence only serves to confirm the view of many stakeholders that they can’t count on elected officials to tell the truth or to do the right thing.
As former Denver Mayor Federico Peña and current Mayor Michael Hancock release a statement critical of the school board's handling of Superintendent Susana Cordova, will the board learn its lesson and alter future behavior?
It is time to begin dismantling existing curriculum anchored in the overrepresentation of Eurocentric thought and perspective. Throughout history, prominent educators such as WEB DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Paulo Freire and other philosophers of color developed ways for this kind of secondary and post-secondary education to be developed.
A DSST at Noel Middle School parent and staff member describes how the school board's decision Thursday to delay the high school damages a thriving community. And the divisive comments by a couple of board members rubbed salt in the wound.
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