Re: “Reforming the teacher shuffle,” Feb. 9 editorial.
There is a map of Denver on the Denver Public Schools website that waves a red flag of alarm for our city. It shows how our students and schools are doing, with red dots indicating those schools rated “accredited on probation.” Many are in northeast Denver, the area I represented in the General Assembly through the 1970s and ’80s.
Even with all the work that elected officials, community, philanthropic and school leaders have done to provide better options for DPS students in this area of Denver, a principal’s ability to deliver is significantly hampered by “forced” placement. Tenured teachers who can’t find a position in a DPS school are required to be placed in a school by the district administration, even though the assignment might be against the wishes of the teacher or principal, or is not a good fit for the school.
This policy is just another challenge for these schools trying to turn themselves around. An analysis by The Denver Post showed that the schools most heavily affected by forced-placements include Montbello High School, Martin Luther King Jr. Middle College, and Rachel B. Noel Middle School, all high-poverty schools in northeast Denver.
Last week, Superintendent Tom Boasberg announced an innovative new approach to address this inequity. Under this policy, no “red” school will be forced to offer a job to a teacher that is not a good fit for that school. I do not want to imply that all forced-placed teachers are in some way problems. Many teachers have had a career hiatus because of illness or personal matters unrelated to performance; I acknowledge that. But the connection between Northeast Denver’s challenges and its disproportionate number of forced placed teachers is more than just correlation — it is a significant roadblock to a principal’s ability to turn that school around.
Montbello High School, which has had eight principals in nine years, has also had the district’s highest forced placement of teachers — 16 over the past four years. While the new policy does not create full “mutual consent” for district employment, it does go a long way to address the current inequities of forced placement.
My public service as mayor and city auditor of Denver, in Gov. Richard Lamm’s Cabinet, in private business and in the Obama and Carter administrations has taught me one essential truth: There is no one element in public policy more important than providing educational opportunities to our young people. Every child in Denver’s public schools should have a stable, motivated team of great teachers; if we want better results for our kids, let’s make the system work better for them.
Wellington Webb was Denver’s mayor from 1991 to 2003. He is also a former co-chair of A+ Denver.
