School officials are parsing data to try to figure out why educational outcomes for Denver Public Schools students are inconsistent from region to region.
Using data collected in the annual Strategic Regional Analysis, leaders see why students leave their home schools, where the weakest schools are located, and how to address overcrowding and high vacancies.
The goal of the analysis is not to nitpick the numbers but to make every school perform at a high level and to ensure that all students graduate ready for college and careers, said Superintendent Tom Boasberg.
“We need to keep our eye on what are we ultimately trying to do here,” Boasberg said at a board meeting Monday — pointing to a chart that shows the district’s graduation statistics and how many students needed to take remedial classes once they got to college.
“You see those percentages are truly a crisis,” Boasberg said about the remediation rates of North and West high schools — where 96 percent and 99 percent of graduates needed remedial classes when in college.
The results of the SRA might include turnaround strategies for existing schools and opening new schools to address the lapses, he said.
“It calls out how much more work we need to do to significantly improve,” he said, adding that the work must be done throughout the system, from elementary school to high school.
“We will need to look hard at turnaround strategies, and new schools are seeking to go there,” Boasberg said.
But school-board member Andrea Merida said the district should concentrate more on fixing existing schools rather than bringing in new programs.
“Let’s work with what we have first,” she said. “I just don’t see the game plan to improve existing schools.”
Boasberg said that every board meeting is focused on that very concept and the board recently approved “The Denver Plan,” a blueprint for improving the district.
“We think we need to do both,” he said.
The analysis looks at school academic performance in each of the five regions in the city.
It also compares the number of DPS students today with the number of seats available in each region, and forecasts ahead five years.
And it identifies whether students are leaving a region for other offerings, indicating a potential need for new or different academic programs.
Here is a summary of the findings:
Southwest Denver. Many schools have improved in performance, but few meet or exceed district expectations. There also are emerging capacity problems in the central part of the region.
Northeast Denver. Positive performance trends are occurring at the secondary level. However, there continue to be serious performance issues at the elementary level. There needs to be a strong feeder pattern west of Colorado Boulevard, and the growth of Stapleton will require significant construction over the next five to 10 years.
Northwest Denver. New middle years offerings already have drawn more students to schools, but significant performance issues persist. In addition, the region has a significant number of open seats in several facilities.
Southeast Denver. Performance has increased, particularly in the elementary and middle years, leading to increased demand and overcrowding. But capture rates are low because of private schools. Work must be done to ease overcrowding and improve the attractiveness of middle and high school offerings.
Far Northeast Denver. The population is exploding, but there is little available capacity at any level. The region also has a high concentration of low-performing schools. Students are choosing to go to DPS schools outside the region or avoid DPS schools altogether.
