There is no going back. There is no slowing down. In two straight elections, one for mayor of Denver and one for the Denver School Board, voters have spoken loudly and clearly in favor of a reform agenda for Denver Public Schools.
In the Nov. 1 election for the DPS board, Happy Haynes won nearly 60 percent of the vote in a five-candidate field, and in fact did not lose one single precinct in all of Denver.
Anne Rowe won a seat on the board to represent southeast Denver with a resounding 66 percent of the vote. She campaigned on her track record of pushing for faster improvement and, in some cases, transformation in Denver’s schools.
Maybe the biggest win for a reform agenda came from the race for school board in northwest Denver. To win, incumbent Arturo Jimenez backtracked on several of his previous positions, embraced high-performing charter schools which he had previously opposed in his district, and generally made himself sound as much like his reform-minded opponent Jennifer Draper Carson as possible.
Even so, the race came down to the wire, with Jimenez prevailing by fewer than 150 votes. In fact, this Arturo Jimenez was reminiscent of the one who won four years ago, as a strong proponent of the Denver Plan and reform of Denver schools.
This recent statement by the Denver voters followed on the heels of the resounding message from the June mayor’s race. The two strongest advocates for faster and more profound education change, Michael Hancock and Chris Romer, emerged from a primary field of 10 candidates to face each other in a runoff. Hancock was not supported by the traditional education constituencies because he didn’t back off from his reform agenda, but still won the race by 16 percentage points. His signature ad featured Hancock driving his son 18 miles every day to a higher-performing school.
These hard-fought elections mean the people of Denver understand that every child has only one chance to get an education. To make sure every child gets that chance, the board, administrators, principals and teachers of Denver Public Schools will have to hold themselves to higher standards. High-performing schools should be replicated throughout Denver, whether they are neighborhood schools, charter schools, innovation schools or magnet schools.
Schools like West Denver Prep show it is possible to be an urban school and be excellent. It means there will be greater accountability for performance at every level. Principals will be accountable for how well their students learn and how well they support the professional growth of their teachers. Teachers will be accountable for their students learning more and more deeply every year.
DPS is a large and complex system. In this and all large education systems there is an inherent tension between students who need a changing array of opportunities and supports in order to reach their full potential and the adults in the system who often want consistent and predictable working conditions and career paths.
These past two elections sent the message that in every case, the success of students should trump the routines of adults.
The path to great schools is often difficult. Denver voters have spoken. We want our elected leaders to stay on the path.
Barbara O’Brien of Denver is a senior fellow at the Piton Foundation. She was Colorado’s lieutenant governor from 2007-11.
