Denver principals’ job focus will change, schools could have different clusters of grade levels, and the literacy and English language programs could be altered under a strategic plan to be unveiled this month by Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet.
Even school board members have not been briefed on details of the plan, but when it is made public, it will provide the first glimpse of how Bennet plans to overhaul the district.
“This whole document is based around student achievement,” he said. “I don’t pretend to have all the ideas. This … work is going to be a dynamic process, and we will listen to people’s positive or negative feedback.”
Bennet, who started the job in July, was hired by the board to focus almost entirely on student achievement.
Last school year, 90 of the 145 Denver schools or programs with students taking the Colorado Student Assessment Program test were ranked “low.” Seven were ranked “unsatisfactory.”
Bennet said his plan will be a three- to five-year piece of work that will spell out test-score goals and give a loose framework for how to improve high schools.
It also will show how the district will change the multi million-dollar literacy plan, which now offers a standardized curriculum and calls for 90- minute reading blocks. An independent study released in June showed the plan was ineffective at boosting student achievement among Denver’s poorest students.
The superintendent hopes his work is embraced and will be something “that won’t be put on a shelf somewhere that no one looks at,” he said, noting the plan will reach out several years.
“We have got to get out of the habit of going out just one year at a time,” he said.
Bennet’s ideas include strengthening the principal’s academic role in schools and changing the central administration. He said he does not think the way the district is organized – geographically by quadrants – is as smart as, perhaps, clustering schools by academic need.
“I do think that makes more sense,” he said.
Already, in meetings he holds sometimes five times a week with the principals, “we spend the first five minutes yakking and an hour and 25 minutes of visiting classrooms,” he said. “We have conversations about what is working well … and what we learn from students about what is working.”
His strategic plan also may call for having someone solely in charge of high schools. It will push the previously announced high school reform effort, which could include changing grade configurations for some secondary schools, he said. This may mean more K-8s or grades 6-12 schools across the city.
Although Bennet promises to have community input when a draft of the strategic plan is released to the public, many district leaders anxiously await its release.
“There’s a lot on us right now,” said board member Lucia Guzman. “I think he (Bennet) can build the right system, but can we overturn 30 years of failed achievement? We expect that.”
Marsha Pointer, principal at Manual Leadership High School, said school reform “isn’t on my radar screen.”
“I’m waiting just like everybody else is,” said Pointer, who will retire at the end of this school year. “We haven’t heard anything about what’s going to happen to Manual. … We’ve heard there may be a change ever since we were broken down into three small schools. It’s nothing new.”
In August, Bennet called for an outside audit of the district. Leaders from the Council of the Great City Schools arrived in October and stayed for three days, interviewing parents, advocacy groups, teachers and principals about the way DPS operates.
Auditors haven’t released all their findings but have recommended a team of experts come to Denver to help burnish the English Language Acquisition program.
“There’s no shortage of people working hard in this district,” Bennet said. “If we can create a culture of trust and mutual respect and the fact that we have a shared mission, I think common sense will be our guide.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
