A drawing from North High School 10th grader Celeste Salas entitled, “Perspective Fantasy City” on display during the North High School fine arts expo March 19, 2015. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)
Having most school districts in the metro area on Spring Break didn’t mean less education news, but if you took time off too, you may have missed some of it. Catch up here.
On this week’s Take Note…
Reviewing data: Did you check out the latest turnaround efforts in this Sunday’s Denver Post?
Officials are looking at North’s changes in their considerations of future school reforms. As some readers have pointed out, demographics in the community have changed. Those changes likely have a role in the community’s support and involvement of the school that officials point to in the story, but the student population at the school hasn’t changed much — yet. We checked. The current school year is the first year the school had a marked drop in its percent of . A drop in children eligible for free and reduced lunch was also seen at the district level this year.
School and district officials do say, however, that each year more high performing kids from the neighborhood are choosing to stay at North, rather than leaving.
This year’s annual poverty rates in the state going down for the first time, as well as an overall well-being improvement for kids in Denver. The report analyzed many facets of children’s well being in Colorado.
, focusing on the persisting racial and gender gaps in dropout rates, and analyzing a few other factors that might play a role.
And Chalkbeat this week covered Denver Public School’s coming changes to . Many of the changes are temporary and related to the uncertainty in how the state will grade state tests.
At the legislature: The Denver Post’s Eric Gorski this week reported that that might condense several testing bills, and might focus on more than just testing, such as state standards. Details on what that would look like are scarce, but stay tuned.
In the meantime, the Senate Education committee on Thursday still . Senate Bill 223 would protect teachers, schools or districts in case many of their students opt-out of tests leaving them with participation rates below required levels.
The Post’s John Frank has the including $25 million to reduce the state’s K-12 spending shortfall, and $4 million for the College Opportunity Scholarship Initiative.
The House Education Committee hears testimony on a bill that would require Colorado’s public schools get approval from American Indian tribes for use of American Indian mascots and names. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
Post reporters also requiring any public school to seek permission to use an American Indian mascot or name. The measure so far moved forward on a party-line vote.
A bill that to send their children to private schools instead of public school, made it out of the Colorado Senate this week. The bill now has to head to the Democratic-controlled House where it is expected to fail.
Discipline issues: Colorado Public Radio’s Jenny Brundin reported this week that found educators feel unsafe in school because of discipline issues. Union representatives say teachers don’t have enough supports to deal with behavioral and disruptive disciplinary issues. Tom Boasberg, DPS superintendent, disputes the findings.
Freelance writer Jamie Siebrase , looking at how Aurora Public Schools has started implementing restorative justice approaches to curb discipline issues at some of their schools, following a Denver model.
In the neighborhoods: Your Hub reporter Joe Vaccarelli reports that Denver Public Schools and other community officials are to build indoor and outdoor tennis courts next to All City Stadium near South High School. The plan is just in the beginning stages.
And for those kids who still have time off for Spring Break, consider a visit to the Art Museum, where a couple of donations have . For school groups, the grant money will even fund transportation to get groups downtown.
