The Denver school board is building on a decade’s worth of major reforms in approving the expansion of the DSST charter group to 22 schools by 2024-25.
Granted, that’s a long time off as school schedules go, but DSST has a proven record of steady expansion and consistent high achievement. In test results released last year, for example, seven DSST schools ranked among the top nine middle and high schools in Denver in student academic growth compared to their peers.
By granting DSST’s expansion at a recent board meeting, the district was acknowledging and rewarding success.
Isn’t that what every school district should be doing?
From a single high school in Stapleton a decade ago, DSST already has expanded to nine schools, with five more on the way that were approved previously. Further expansion over the next decade to 22 would make DSST notes Chalkbeat.org.
And it would also mean as many as one in four Denver high school students would be attending a DSST program.
Arturo Jimenez was the lone board member to raise objections, arguing that “we are turning over a great part of our portfolio to these schools with very little accountability to the public.”
“Because they use public money and serve public school students doesn’t make them public schools,” he added.
But of course they are indeed public schools — and accountable, too. And the district has the authority to crack down on charter schools that fail to boost achievement, and even close them.
But Jimenez’s worries about continued DSST expansion are not entirely misplaced. Will DSST be able to replicate its success in school after school as it continues to grow?
Will it be successful in expanding its mission from science and math — it was originally known as the Denver School of Science and Technology — to two middle schools and two high schools that emphasize the humanities?
The Denver district does indeed need to monitor carefully DSST’s academic results as it continues to grow. But for the time being, the board made a sensible call.
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