We at A+ Denver urge the Denver Public Schools superintendent and board of directors to continue with an aggressive program of intervention in chronically failing schools in 2009.
Accelerated efforts to improve student achievement should be consistent and continuous. Indeed, we question whether the plan currently under consideration goes far enough.
Over the past three years, A+ Denver — a citizen-led organization dedicated to improving the quality of public education in Denver — has worked with DPS to address the challenge of chronically underperforming schools. Our volunteer committees — over 100 community members, education policy experts and other stakeholders — have based their recommendations on research, data and the experience of other urban school districts with the goal of improving student achievement for all of Denver’s children.
As part of the 2007-08 school closure process, A+ conducted a five- month analysis including a series of public meetings. We developed a set of specific principles and criteria for DPS to use in considering potential program and facility changes. Among these was an insistence that students affected by a school closure be provided with new school options that promised better educational outcomes.
Good news: What an A+ task force found was generally positive: The majority of students affected have in fact shown greater growth at their new schools. A+ strongly supports the continuation of this process. Examining chronically underperforming schools must be an annual occurrence and should remain a central tenant of the DPS reform platform.
More good news: The district’s tool for measuring a school’s progress toward district goals, the School Performance Framework, is a sound and in-depth research tool for measuring both achievement and progress for a school community. The district’s 2009 plan does not call for physical school closures, and we are pleased to recognize that the district is planning to fill empty seats in under-utilized school buildings with programs that promise great potential for their school populations.
However, we are concerned at the level of interventions being contemplated. In the latest results from the School Performance Framework, 52 schools are listed as “on watch” and 25 are “on probation.” This indicates that far more schools are in need of transformation than the district is willing or able to address.
We call on DPS to develop the internal capacity necessary to execute effective school transformation (closures, transition to new programs, staff changes) on a larger scale and an ongoing basis. This should include better and more intensive intervention processes in order to prevent any school, whether neighborhood or charter, from getting to the critical stage. We stand ready to work with the district to remove the political, legal, contractual and financial barriers to improving low-performing schools.
The district also needs to improve its efforts at public outreach, particularly within the affected communities. We recognize that decisions around school closures and transformations are never easy. However, a more intensive community engagement process is essential to the long- term success of any reform effort.
Through the work of many teachers, administrators, parents, activists and business leaders, we believe the foundation for true reform is now in place. But the path forward will not be easy; closing or changing schools is emotional and controversial. But it is also absolutely necessary. We call on the district, the board, and the community to confront this issue with courage and resolve and always with eyes on the prize: better educational outcomes for those most vulnerable students.
Federico Peña is chairman of A+ Denver; and Laurie Hirschfeld Zeller is the organization’s president.
