Denver’s next superintendent of public schools will need to make the persistent achievement gap between the city’s poor and affluent students one of the district’s top targets.
Over the past four years, nearly two dozen Denver schools have moved off the state’s list of “unsatisfactory” schools. It’s a point of pride for the district and outgoing superintendent Jerry Wartgow, to be sure, but those numbers mask another reality: Achievement in poor schools is still lagging, and students, many of them ethnic minorities, have shown little progress since statewide achievement tests began in 1996.
A new study to be released next month by The Piton Foundation and The Colorado Children’s Campaign shows that schools have left the unsatisfactory category by moving their lowest-performing students to the “partially proficient” category. But there they seem to hit a ceiling. So while the ratings look better for DPS, the study indicates “the day-to-day reality inside those schools remains literally sub-standard.”
Researchers divided schools into four groups, based on the number of impoverished students. In almost all cases, the only students who made gains were those in the city’s most affluent schools. The achievement gap between the rich and the poor got worse, especially among older students.
“There’s a long way to go,” Wartgow told The Post. “A lot of people have pointed that out. What would be more helpful is if someone pointed out a model that works.”
In their research, The Piton Foundation and The Colorado Children’s Campaign mentioned some models that have succeeded in other cities.
Among the study’s recommendations:
Build bridges from the business community into schools. Boston has crafted a compact, first signed in 1982 and reauthorized three times since, where businesses provide scholarships and job opportunities for graduates in exchange for improved test scores, attendance and drop-out rates.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper has been a great supporter of DPS and, given his business connections, this seems like a tailor-made, and worthwhile, pet project.
Promote a healthier economic mix of students in schools. Research suggests poor students do better in schools that are not overwhelming poor. DPS is trying to figure out ways to diversify their student mix by keeping more students in their neighborhood schools. For example, northwest Denver has been gentrifying, yet the schools remain predominantly low-income Hispanic. This fall, Bryant Webster will be transformed into a K-8 school with a dual language program, which have been quite popular elsewhere. The hope is to attract those parents who now send their kids out of the neighborhood.
Brown Elementary, near Sloan’s Lake, will soon begin an International Baccalaureate curriculum. “That’s going to start to draw in a better mix” of students, said Alan Gottlieb with The Piton Foundation.
This fall, DPS is asking voters for a $25 million mill-levy override for a teacher compensation system that will provide incentives for experienced teachers to work in low-performing schools.
No magic bullet exists for closing the achievement gap, but we know more than enough now to support DPS as it accelerates its efforts. And that’s at least a good start.
