The Denver School of Science and Technology has provided another measure of why it is so highly acclaimed.
The charter school announced Wednesday that 100 percent of its first class of seniors has been accepted into college. That’s an amazing record for any school, but DSST is not just any school.
The high school, which has a math and science focus, seeks out kids whom the odds are against. Forty percent of its seniors come from low-income families. More than 60 percent are minorities.
DSST’s dedicated staff and teachers work long hours. The school has a strict code of conduct and lots of homework.
Most importantly, it has a clear mission. The school is imbued with the come-hell-or-high-water attitude that its students will learn and will succeed.
Given that the demographics of the school approach those in struggling public schools in Denver and other parts of Colorado, an important question comes out of the DSST experience: Can its success be replicated?
Bill Kurtz, the head of DSST, absolutely believes it’s possible. But it’s not easy.
“You have to be 100 percent committed to extraordinary implementation to make it work,” Kurtz said.
DSST essentially creates another family for students, pushing them hard yet supporting them with equal commitment.
Can’t keep up in math? You don’t go to a remedial track. Instead, the school will make sure students get the extra help they need so they can keep up.
It’s not a function of new theories in education, or the better use of technology. They take kids who want to learn and just won’t give up on them. It’s a simple theory, but it requires an extraordinary amount of work. Unfortunately, it’s not a one-size-fits-all philosophy.
The truth is, not every child in every school wants to be there. While DSST has a good number of low-income students, many public schools have far more. Education under those circumstances is going to be more difficult than teaching children who, along with their families, make the commitment to go to a place like DSST.
That’s not an excuse, it’s reality. That’s why the culture and design of those schools needs to change.
We’ve watched with interest as superintendents of some of Colorado’s urban school districts, notably Michael Bennet of Denver Public Schools and John Barry of Aurora Public Schools, have taken on reforms that by design or chance echo some of the practices at DSST.
They’re giving schools more autonomy, and creating new ways of tracking the progress of students.
“We need to be willing to examine everything about our system,” Bennet said.
We wish them well in that mission. DSST has broadened the discussion of what’s possible in a public school, and we applaud their success.
