Commentary
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. This month’s articles respond to the following prompt: The value of learning the truth of history. Reflections on visiting the African American History Museum and the Holocaust Museum in DC.
The following statement from EDUCATE Denver was intended for the February 6 Denver school board public comment session. However, due to the board’s strict new limitations on public comment, the author was unable to secure a speaking slot.
Kurt Dennis: ”What DPS does with school administrators that they’re not pleased with is go back through their history and they will find inevitably something that they’re going to use against that individual to justify getting rid of them for whatever reason.”
My mom and dad were my first role models. They loved our community and served those around us in a huge way. I witnessed them supporting others in any way they could, and it planted a seed in me at a young age.
From Boardhawk columnist Dr. Aaron Massey: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has become a trite phrase, used so often that it has lost its meaning and original purpose. Hot take: that’s intentional.
Despite being historically under-compensated, teachers are often the first to be asked to carry the burden of responsibilities that traditionally have not belonged to them. Alone, each of these issues carries massive weight. Together, they represent a charge that we cannot ask our educators to carry alone.
In this episode, Alan Gottlieb and Alexis Menocal Harrigan discuss what they’ll be watching as the Denver Public Schools choice window opens. They also touch briefly on DPS’ vow to protect migrant students, as well as the latest developments in the flap over DPS board member John Youngquist’s objections to possibly illegal executive sessions.
In many ways we have remained in a perpetual cycle of grief, generation after generation, soothed by the very gradualism that Dr. King warned us not to be tranquilized by.
READ Act funds allocate $26 million to help 49,000 K-3 students, and virtually nothing to help 51,000 students in grades 4-12 struggling to read at grade level.
The Denver school board “blatantly violated” the Colorado Open Meetings law on Dec. 12 by not specifically publishing in its official meeting notice that the executive session discussion focused on board member John Youngquist’s request for reimbursement for penalties levied against him by the state pension fund, Colorado’s top media lawyer Steve Zansberg said Sunday. The notice language was far more general, depriving the public of information it was entitled to know, Zansberg said.
Podcast season 2, episode 20: The truth about Colorado’s national education ranking
Listen to cohosts Alexis Menocal Harrigan and Alan Gottlieb discuss with educator and advocate Van Schoales how new test score data calls into question Colorado’s bragging rights about being the number one state in the nation for public education. This post also includes a transcript of the conversation, for those of you who prefer reading to listening.