Commentary
A powerful column excerpted here places the debate about neighborhood schools within the context of the Black Lives Matter movement. A provocative read, especially for progressives.
Gather your allies and your strength now while our minds and hearts truly feel the injustices borne by our students every day. Plan bold steps that go beyond addressing symptoms and that finally cut to the heart of what we know is unjust with our system.
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.
Two school leaders who served on the Reimagine SPF committee for Denver Public Schools offer a counterpoint to a recent column that was critical of some of the committee’s recommendations
I implore you to watch the first 15 minutes of last night’s school board meeting, and to hear the words of the board’s two African American directors.
In the wake of the murder of George Floyd — say his name — if the response is business as usual: More excuse making. More complaints and resistance. More scapegoating of COVID-19, then the bold action that we must take is EXODUS.
Note: This post has been updated with more detail about when the threshold for school board approval for purchases was raised to $1 million. It also puts into perspective how far below past limits the current proposal to lower the threshold to $100,000 would be.
Are CEA and DCTA are trying to do away with all school performance frameworks?
Our moment is now, because too many days have passed, and none are promised. Now is the only moment that we have. Now is the only answer to our question of when!
Engaging parents in the absenteeism conversation
We knew the methods we were using to deal with poor attendance weren’t working. We theorized that part of the solution might not look linear. We had to put ourselves in the shoes of our parents and ask ourselves new questions. Why, on the hardest days and in the hardest situations, might I move mountains to get my student to school? And when might I not?