When Denver school board members hired Michael Bennet to run the state’s largest urban district, they gave him one charge: Improve student achievement.
A year later, Denver scores on Colorado Student Assessment Program tests gained more than in four previous years combined. And the district posted gains larger than state averages.
But Bennet, though happy, said Denver Public Schools still has a lot of work to do.
“We’re not satisfied,” he said. “Obviously, we need to do this every year.”
The number of Denver students who were proficient and advanced in reading jumped in all grades except third. Denver led the state’s 10 largest districts in reading gains.
In math, Denver students in all tested grades increased their scores or stayed the same.
Among middle and high school students, math scores also jumped. In ninth grade, for example, 17 percent of students are proficient or advanced in math, compared with last year’s 12 percent.
Bennet and chief academic officer Jaime Aquino attribute the gains to an “emphatic focus” on student achievement that started with Bennet’s first day on the job in July 2005.
“Some of it could be people got better at what they were doing when we got here,” Bennet said. “I think it’s undeniable that there was an incredible focus as a district compared to before.”
The two talked about teaching and learning to principals almost every day. They met with all traditional school faculty in the district. They started a tutoring program in January that targeted the district’s students right on the edge of proficiency in core subjects.
And, for the first time in several years, they say, they gave teachers the freedom to do what they thought worked with their students.
“Teachers felt like there was a curriculum police before,” said Aquino, who joined the district in October from New York City’s school district.
At schools where there were particular jumps to celebrate, teachers – many of whom are still home for the summer – attributed higher test scores to more autonomy in the classroom and staff cohesiveness.
At Brown Elementary, for example, fourth-graders’ scores in writing jumped from 14 percent proficiency last year to 33 percent this year. And fourth-grade reading scores jumped from 24 to 46 percent.
Fifth-grade teacher Amy Highsmith attributes gains to a clean start to the school – all of the teachers were new to Brown this last year.
Highsmith also said she enjoyed freedom in her classroom.
“This year felt like we were hired as professionals,” she said. “It wasn’t like, ‘OK, here’s a schedule, this is what we’re doing.”‘
Aquino said this was the point. “We empowered them.”
This fall, teachers will receive “planning guides” that detail sample lessons and state standards. They are meant to be helpful for teachers — not “handcuffs,” Aquino said.
At Bryant-Webster K-8 School in northwest Denver, roughly half the students are proficient or advanced in reading, writing and math, even though 96 percent of its students are eligible for free or discounted lunch, an indicator of poverty.
Principal Pat Salazar said her school’s success comes from teachers’ expecting that every single kid can achieve, no matter his or her background.
“If those teachers know those children can do it, then they’re not going to accept excuses,” she said. “Because the children are minority and high-poverty doesn’t mean we can’t have the same kind of rigor than are in the higher socioeconomic schools.”
Though most grade levels saw gains districtwide, it wasn’t enough for Bennet to receive his $40,000 bonus – negotiated by the school board if he met certain goals in CSAP scores.
Bennet makes $160,000 a year – $40,000 less than the previous superintendent. Bennet fell short of bumping up third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade overall performance by 5 percentage points.
DPS saw drops in scores on the Spanish CSAPs. The third- and fourth-graders who took the escritura and lectura tests fell from 2 to 10 percentage points from last year, depending on the test.
Bennet said he wasn’t sure why that was, but that a new approach for teaching English language acquisition classes – to be unveiled to Denver principals next week – should help teachers in all classrooms whose students’ first language isn’t English.
This fall, Aquino’s tutoring program “DPS Success” will be expanded. Students will also be given small assessment tests three times a year.
Parents of elementary-aged kids will also receive detailed report cards that show where a student is compared with the state standard. And middle schoolers and ninth-graders below grade level will have to double up in math and reading classes.
Bennet said he hopes that all teachers improve on teaching to the state standards.
“Not withstanding the fact we have a high-poverty district, we want to meet the state average,” Bennet said. “Our goal is to close the gap with the state.”
Computer-assisted reporting editor Jeffrey A. Roberts contributed to this report.
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-820-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
