Students in fewer than half of Denver’s schools showed academic growth over a two-year period, according to a new analysis that administrators hope will focus their efforts to improve achievement.
Still, in a district where most schools — 107 out of 164 — are rated “low” by the Colorado Department of Education and three are “unsatisfactory,” officials said the analysis is encouraging.
“We believe this is a much more accurate story of the school,” said Jaime Aquino, chief academic officer for Denver Public Schools.
“We put more value on growth because that’s more important,” Aquino said. “For parents and community members, they will know the value the school is adding.”
The district’s new School Performance Framework looks at how schools and their students perform in dozens of areas, with an emphasis on student improvement.
The analysis actually paints a fuller picture of Denver’s schools than the state’s annual School Accountability Report, or SAR, which assigns rankings from “excellent” to “unsatisfactory” based on how well schools do on the Colorado Student Assessment Program or CSAP.
Denver’s new accountability system digs deeper into the data and tracks individual student scores from year to year, showing that students at many low-rated schools are steadily improving.
A total of 78 Denver schools exceeded or met the standards for academic growth under the district’s new framework.
Forty-six, however, did not meet growth standards — indicating students are not improving.
The new framework gives administrators the ability to share best practices, see what is working at similar schools and use it to better their students.
Making sense of data
Principals Monday at a districtwide conference received a packet of information about their schools’ performance and discussed a communication plan for how to explain the complex new system.
Ratings are based on a variety of factors, including enrollment data, whether the school meets federal Adequate Yearly Progress standards, how students compare to their peers statewide, and even how many students are going on to college or dropping out.
Schools are given colors instead of grades or rankings.
Blue is great, green is good, yellow is holding steady and red is trouble.
“The most important thing about this is it takes the data that is available . . . and puts them into a form that is usable,” said Superintendent Michael Bennet. “This is an effort to get us focused on continued improvement of our schools.”
“I do think that for a long time we have relied on labels that may make sense for a state regulation, but they tell only one story and not as rich a story as we are telling here,” Bennet said.
Principals hope the district’s new framework keeps students enrolled and good teachers employed in the district.
“We are rated a ‘low’ school, but that doesn’t show how close we are to being average,” said Anne Dalton, principal at Schmitt Elementary.
“Parents choose to go to (another) school that is rated higher. But this gives us a global picture of the growth rather than a snapshot.”
Schmitt, a school in which 82 percent of students are poor enough to receive federal lunch benefits, was rated low by the state in 2006 and 2007.
But the district’s analysis shows Schmitt students are actually exceeding the growth standards every year.
“It’s positive for our teachers to be able to see something good going on in our schools,” said Dalton, who has lost good teachers who quit because they couldn’t take continually being in a “low-rated school.”
“They work hard and they feel that it goes unnoticed,” Dalton said.
Giving encouragement
Another shining star under the district’s new methodology is Eagleton Elementary, which has 74 percent of its students eligible for federal lunch benefits and also has been rated low in 2006 and 2007. Those students also are exceeding the growth standard.
“This will give people more confidence in their neighborhood schools,” said Principal Erica Ramlow. “It’s very encouraging for people who are working so hard to improve performance.”
Colorado Department of Education also is revamping the SAR reports, and deputy commissioner Ken Turner said he was impressed with DPS’s new model that pays more attention to academic growth of students over time.
“For years people have been clamoring for something that took account of movement,” Turner said. “As long as we don’t lose sight of what is growth. It still has to be growth to a particular standard. We still want to deliver a child to a specific learning destination.”
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com
Encouraged by student progress
Students in these Denver public schools showed the strongest academic growth between the 2005-06 and 2006-07 school years, according to DPS’s new analysis. Each school’s latest state ranking is in parentheses:
ELEMENTARIES
• Lincoln (high)
• Steck (excellent)
• McMeen (average)
• Beach Court (average)
• Asbury (high)
• Eagleton (low)
• Omar D. Blair (average)
• Academia Ana Marie Sandoval (average)
• Odyssey Charter (average)
• Schmitt (low)
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
• West Denver Preparatory (average)
• Roberts (new school/no rating)
• Fairmont (low)
HIGH SCHOOLS
• Denver School of Science and Technology (excellent)
