Platte Canyon School District hugs a twisting stretch of U.S. 285 in Park County while serving fewer than 1,000 students in a cozy atmosphere that’s occasionally interrupted by a mountain lion wandering too close to a classroom.
But the district says students and teachers stay highly focused on clear objectives for every subject. Those standards are written and posted on nearly every classroom wall and are not considered mere guidelines, said Brenda Krage, Platte Canyon’s superintendent.
“These state standards are very visible here,” Krage said. “We make sure students understand what is expected of them and what teachers are trying to teach. That’s very intentional on our part.”
Platte Canyon’s approach, which includes heavy collaboration among teachers and plenty of face-to-face interactions between students and teachers, is hailed as “trend-busting” in a new report that says many low-income or minority students are still falling by the educational wayside.
Platte Canyon earned special recognition in “The Outliers: The State of Colorado School Districts 2016,” written by a nonprofit educational advocacy group.
The 31-page report identifies school districts that are best serving different student populations including students of color, students with disabilities, emerging multilingual students learning English, and low-income students.
Platte Canyon, for instance, had some of the highest growth for male and female Latino students in both English language arts and math, and had some of the highest growth in math for students eligible for free and reduced lunches.
About 32 percent of Platte Canyon’s students are free and reduced lunch eligible and its children of color population is small, “but it does show that it and these other school districts are doing something right,” said Van Schoales, CEO of A+ Colorado. “And they are doing it consistently over a long period of time.”
For instance, the 3,200-student Fort Morgan School District showed huge improvements over the past four years in the percentage of students who are proficient on state elementary math test and middle-school English tests. More than two-thirds of students in Fort Morgan are children of color and about the same proportion qualify for free and reduced-price lunch.
The report also found that DSST: Green Valley Ranch High School is the only high school in the state where black students scored at least an average of 22 points on the ACT college entrance exams. The average score in 2016 was 23.2. Green Valley Ranch is part of the Denver Public Schools’ biggest charter school chain.
Poudre School District in Fort Collins notched the highest average ACT score for black students, while Pueblo City 60 recorded the lowest average score for black students.
D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School in Jefferson County earned the highest average ACT scores among Latino students last year with 27.4, while Evergreen High School, also in Jefferson County, had the highest average ACT score —25.9 — among students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches, according to the report.Denver Public Schools, the largest school district in the state, has made large gains in the percentage of students reaching proficiency benchmarks in multiple subject areas and school levels, the report said.
Still, there are several districts that have struggled to help students master grade-level standards. The report asks: “Has the shift to new standards been more difficult or not fully implemented? Is there sufficient support for students who are struggling? Are teachers supported? Are school improvement strategies in place?”
The Outliers report offers insights into what works and should help guide struggling school districts gain a foothold, said State Rep. Brittany Pettersen. “There are districts providing a stronger education to historically underserved groups,” Pettersen said. “We should be learning from and sharing these successes so every student can access the best education our state can offer.”
Platte Canyon students, no matter their income backgrounds, have access to the latest technology in their classes, including netbooks in English Language Arts. “We know they will need to be proficient in the technology when they graduate, so we try to get their hands on anything they need in our classrooms,” said Ginger Slocum, interim principal at Fitzsimmons Middle School.
The middle school, which has an enrollment of about 287 students, will soon have a Maker Space where students can draw concepts, work out formulas and generally develop their own ideas, Slocum said.
“We want a place for them to go to work things out and even fail, failure is OK, that’s how we get better,” Slocum said.
Tuesday Webb, 13, hopes to use what he has learned in Platte Canyon’s applied science lab to someday become a game designer.“We collaborate a lot here, and I like that,” he said. “This is a good start from me and what I hope to do in the future.”
