CO-04 (Special Election)
See Full Big Line
(R) Greg Lopez
(R) Trisha Calvarese
90%
10%
President (To Win Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Biden*
(R) Donald Trump
80%
20%↓
CO-01 (Denver)
See Full Big Line
(D) Diana DeGette*
90%
CO-02 (Boulder-ish)
See Full Big Line
(D) Joe Neguse*
90%
CO-03 (West & Southern CO)
See Full Big Line
(D) Adam Frisch
(R) Jeff Hurd
(R) Ron Hanks
40%
30%
20%
CO-04 (Northeast-ish Colorado)
See Full Big Line
(R) Lauren Boebert
(R) Deborah Flora
(R) J. Sonnenberg
30%↑
15%↑
10%↓
CO-05 (Colorado Springs)
See Full Big Line
(R) Dave Williams
(R) Jeff Crank
50%↓
50%↑
CO-06 (Aurora)
See Full Big Line
(D) Jason Crow*
90%
CO-07 (Jefferson County)
See Full Big Line
(D) Brittany Pettersen
85%↑
CO-08 (Northern Colo.)
See Full Big Line
(D) Yadira Caraveo
(R) Gabe Evans
(R) Janak Joshi
60%↑
35%↓
30%↑
State Senate Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
80%
20%
State House Majority
See Full Big Line
DEMOCRATS
REPUBLICANS
95%
5%
August 30, 2011 10:23 PM UTC
78 Comments
I’ll promote it if you’re discussing (cause candidates/electeds who come by and answer questions instead of just driveby diarying always deserve the props), if not I’ll leave it to Guvs and Rork to decide since I’m not a Denverite myself 🙂
Happy to answer questions related to this article and to education policy.
Data on which of these proved most effective? Broken down by grades? Just wondering because I know it’s more difficult for a teen or adult to learn a new language while it’s much easier for very young children.
In my parents era (born mid 20s) there were no bilingual classes for the chidren of the many urban immigrants from Europe but the children who were born here to non-English speakers, as my parent’s were, and the ones who came here at 5 or younger had no trouble picking English up when they entered school without special programs and quickly could speak both their parents’ language and English fluently.
In our Vietnamese neighbors’ case back in the 80s, there was no Vietnamese instruction available when our kids entered kindergarten. They spoke some English but their little girl went into kindergarten not speaking any and any came out speaking American English with no accent and with nothing available in her first language.
These would be natural cases of immersion and young children have been doing great with it for generations, often having had no alternative. They seem to be much more able to pick up new languages and I wonder if bilngual education for very young children holds them back from learning English.
Your thoughts or any hard data?
I’ve lumped the data by school age range (elementary, middle school, high school), so that’s a pretty clear picture of what’s happening.
Finding out the distinction between each level of ELA support is actually a great question. I’ll look into it.
It’s very easy to lump learners together, but according to a a report called “Common Assumptions and Evidence Regarding English Language Learners in the United States,” they state:
The problem with using anecdotes as evidence, sometimes, is that they don’t drill down to root causes or whichever assets the students may bring to the table. Not every kid is the same, and some are more language-apt than others. I was one of those kids, being the daughter of immigrants and the first natural-born American citizen in my entire family. We spoke both languages at home, and I’m still fluent in Spanish. But IQ test after test I’ve ever taken shows that I have a high level of intelligence in the verbal/language sectors. I’m not a fair comparison.
The report also states:
American Institutes for Research: http://www.air.org/files/ELL_A…
Although I have a hard time viewing as myth something that was so universal in my parent’s generation in my neighborhood. Anecdotal, yes, but literally every member of my extended family of that generation and all of their friends and friends my own age who came here at early ages and the children of our Vietnamese friends…all the same. I think it’s a bit more than myth and I’m pretty sure studies show we have a few years early in life during which it’s pretty much as easy to acquire two or more languages as one. I’ll have to search that.
I think we aren’t measuring those anecdotes to see what’s really happening there. I clearly remember teaching my grandmother words in English, for example.
I think close-knit communities give each other a lot of subtle support, too.
And I agree that the research tells us that it’s easier for younger kids to learn other languages, which probably accounts for the performance of our elementary kids.
Does the court or the Department of Justice oversee any of the DPS programs? Is the Congress of Hispanic Educators
satisfied that the programs currently offered by DPS meet the needs as laid out in the 1999 court decision?
It is hard for me to understand what the legal problem, if any is.
The court ordered periodic monitoring of the program and compliance with the order. The last monitor’s report was filed in 2005.
Keep in mind that this last report was filed roughly around the time that Omar D. Blair charter (Denver’s first) was founded. This was sort of like two ships passing in the night.
In my conversations with CHE, some have expressed great alarm about the fact that these new schools DO NOT comply with the decision.
I guess the real issue here are the civil rights implications of only having “certain” schools for “certain” kids. As a choice district, a kid should have reasonable assurance of being served, whether ELL or special-needs or gifted/talented, wherever he/she ends up.
Why doesn’t CHE return to the Department of Justice and request help?
It would seem to me that there is a real question as to whether or not DPS is in compliance.
I see this as a legal issue, not a political one or even one of educational policy.
Would you have standing to go to the Department of Justices’ Civil Rights Division?
Simply because the legal action would be brought against the district and the board, of which I’m one of the parties.
I can’t say why CHE won’t at least ask for additional monitoring.
A few questions related to this…
When you founded DeFENSE, who did you found it with?
Why did you found DeFENSE, and do you think it helps DPS function better to have an anonymous attack group you founded attacking your fellow board members?
Why have you and DeFENSE still not filed any documentation with anyone regarding your political activities?
I’m sure others will have other questions on this, I seem to remember some polsters having a floating list of questions that the account DeFENSEDenver and others would never answer.
Thanks!
Something I’ve always been personally curious about, did you ever apologize to Michelle Moss for what you did to her? Even though she helped you (narrowly) win your seat, etc?
I know a lot of other board member have full-time employment and stuff (especially because you’ve accused them of conflicts of interest based on it), but I’ve never actually seen what you do besides design websites for DeFENSE, etc. Who do you work for / receive moeny from? I don’t think I’ve ever seen whether you had a job or anything in a bio, and I think it would help to judge your criticisms of conflicts of interest, etc.
is here to trash Merida without, you know, any evidence of actual disagreements.
I have nothing against criticizing politicians, but I don’t understand what posters are criticizing her FOR. It’s all just tedious “meta” nonsense about process and disclosure instead of discussing anything remotely related to, you know, education.
Well, it’s not as if Andrea wasn’t aware of the reception she’d get here, I suppose. But does anyone besides Blue actually have policy questions for her, or did we all take jobs with oppo research firms this week?
The problem is that engaging her on that stuff gives her credibility that she doesn’t deserve, given what a partisan hack she’s been and everything she’s done to fuck up the school board / contribute to its general dysfunction.
If she wanted to have a serious discussion, instead of political chicanery, she should have behaved that way on the school board (and off), instead of just engaging in paid attacks on Bennet for the Romanoff campaign without disclosing them, etc.
She isn’t a policy person, she’s a political hack dedicated to attacking reformers in Denver. If she was really interested in policy discussions, I’d have them with her, but that’s not how she’s behaved. She hasn’t earned that.
This lady isn’t credible on policy questions. She is a political hack and if we have the opportunity to ask her questions we shouldn’t be playing her games with her, we should be demanding accountability and answers for the way’s she’s been fucking with DPS. She has done kids in Denver (where I live, Dwyer) a huge disservice. Until she answers questions about that, she has no credibility.
It’s really a shame she isn’t being recalled. She’s the one who would deserve it.
That they only show up when issues come up that are of particular interest TO particular Denver interests…
And by the way, I think Defense Denver is a sham organization that deserves to be investigated, shut down, and paraded around town as the laughingstock of the local political community. Guerin Green convinced me of that months ago.
But nonetheless, these shills are on my last nerve, yo. An elected wants to answer policy questions and all they can do is harass her personally. FFS.
For example, I am (and have long been) interested in Denver School Board politics.
As a result of this, I strongly supported Michael Bennet last year.
I was also interested in the Denver municipal elections.
And I have various other interests, just look through my posts. I’ve blogged about a variety of different things
But I certainly won’t deny that I have primary interests that I think are worth up my speaking up on. While I read frequently, I don’t have time to blog all the time, so I only post when I think stuff is really important to comment on.
I’ve been here awhile, commenting awhile, blogging more frequently than you yourself do. My issues with Andrea are much deeper than just DeFENSE – she has fucked up the function of the school board, and education is too important for her bs politics.
Notably, she’s refused to answer any of these questions. Not for the first time, either.
If you are a denver voter, say so. Identify which district you
live in.
I mean that. Your constant questioning of people who comment on Denver public school affairs is clearly intended to intimidate and chill people who are commenting. Where do you live? Where do you vote? If you are a Denver voter, say so. Identify which district you live in. How many children do you have? Identify which schools your children attend. If I do not like your answers, then you are disqualified from commenting further.
And of course I have no right to disqualify you from commenting, I have no right to ask any of those questions, and neither do you. So knock it off.
Basically, dwyer is pointing out what’s completely obvious to the rest of us: that there’s shilling and sockpuppetry going on here. A bunch of people that we don’t see anywhere else all show up to comment only on diaries on this one issue, and it’s nothing substantial or coherent… just general negative B.S. It’s not like these are serious contributors we’re talking about. Be glad I’m not in charge, because I’d be banning them to improve the quality of discussion.
I asked a question and I don’t live in Denver and I haven’t had a child in K-12 for a decade but I didn’t think those who had general questions about education issues were barred from participating.
I’ve also expressed my views on Douglas County trying to bypass the state constitution to give taxpayer money to private religious schools and on whether or not creationism/intelligent design belongs in science classes. Guess I had no right to say anything about another school district’s policies or about the creationism issue since creationism wasn’t taught in Littleton Schools during the time I had a child in that school system. Do I get to discuss, say, the political chances of a candidate for a CD other than my own? I wouldn’t want to overstep.
Are there any other restrictions Dwyer would like to fill me in on? Perhaps he/she/? would like to provide the rest of us with a manual of some kind.
I certainly can not and do not attempt to keep anyone from posting. Particularly when a BOE school member is posting a diary and asking questions.
I have every right to ask where people vote. It is not an attempt to intimidate (as if anyone posting here is vulnerable to being intimidating!) It is an attempt to clarify where someone is coming from, literally. Evidently it works, given the reaction of people who don’t want to identify their relationship to the Denver Board of Education.
cat puzzle posted the above that is a partisan political comment with which I disagree. So, I have the right to ask if cat puzzle is a constituent of Merida and/or votes in Denver.
I think it untoward to hijack the diary with the political pile on.,,,but it does happen every time DPS is mentioned or Merida specifically. It pisses me off. There are real issues facing Denver voters. As I say, there are those who pile on with their own political agenda that has nothing to do with Denver schools.
To the best of my recollection, I have never asked anyone what DPS school their child attends; if I have, I should be ignored. I live in Denver. I vote in Denver. I do not currently have any child in DPS; I have had in the past.
But I don’t think you have much grounds for complaint if people respond by telling you to piss off.
Piss off.
I am not important. Let me be. What is it that you can’t resist? This is all beyond me.
I’m truly sorry. I had no idea you were so fragile. Better stay on Ralphie’s good side if you’re begging for mercy from little ol’ me, that’s all I have to say! But sure, I’ll let you be.
Of course you have every right to say anything you want. This was about the sockpuppets who I, for one, have never seen except on this diary.
Find the constant where do live, where do you vote, where does your kid go to school demands annoying as hell. Pretty funny to me that Dwyer now admits not having a kid in school so the logical implication of Dwyer’s own favorite grounds for confrontation would be that Dwyer should tell Dwyer to stay out of it.
Catpuzzle also used to show up to defend then former Superintendent Bennet, and also Superintendent Boasberg. (s)he doesn’t just rant against Merida, she rants against anyone who opposes her and her crew 🙂
The recall effort against Merida failed. It is a shame that as a Denver voter you didn’t know that. Evidently her constituents are pleased with her efforts,even if you are not.
Since she is in a constant minority on the BOE, perhaps you could identify exactly what “disservice” she has done for the kids in Denver.
Let me clear. My goal is not to defend Merida, my intent is to clarify exactly what you are talking about, cp. If you think she has done a “disservice,” then you should be specific and if she doesn’t answer, then I would join you in criticizing her.
I don’t think I have seen you blog here before.
You know, for a Democrat, you seem awfully unwilling to actually look at the evidence provided and argue based on that evidence. You are just like most of the Benn-i-tards I know — all about the ideology and nothing about the facts.
So, let me help your simple mind out by boiling the argument down for you: Merida is saying that ELA students are out performing other DPS students in terms of student growth. However, most of the new schools approved by the school board do not have ELA programs. Got it?
Do you actually have an opinion somewhere based on facts or do you just want to mud sling to distract from the fact that education reform under Bennet/Boasberg is a failure? I’ve got lots of data on that one.
If you don’t have any facts to back you up, let me see if I can give you some points for argument. See if these work for you. They would for most Republicans.
You could throw in some dogma about Merida costing Colorado jobs. I like this one: Keeping schools open is costing job growth among small businesses. Republicans love that one.
Maybe this is more to your taste: The union is between a man and a woman. Or, if that doesn’t suite you, maybe this will work: It is every American’s job to fight the terrorist threat. We must close our schools now!
Undoubtedly these feel good to you. They comply with the model of argument you seem to prefer.
In a way, it’s like you’re George W. Bush. You’ll do what is politically expedient rather than what is good for the country. You’ll protect the ne’er do wells like Michael Bennet, Michael Johnson, and Michael Hancock, aka the Three Michaels of the Apocalypse, at least in terms of making any headway toward actually reforming our schools. You’ll preach accountability, as long as it doesn’t touch Democratic big wigs who support “the reform.”
You know, that George W. Bush thing gives me an idea. I’m sure this one will work for you: We could give tax breaks to those who attend a charter school. That works for me. My kid attends a charter.
and ‘Bennitards’ fit together in the same diary. I mean if you are aiming for logical coherence.
And one of them was whether she was going to hang around to answer questions?
Good job promoting a drive-by, PC.
You have a lot to learn.
That’s what she promised. She didn’t promise to answer questions about whether or not she apologized to some random non-Polster for some past offense.
I don’t really like her that much myself, but Sirota got a chance to chat and she deserves one, too.
But I do agree I have a lot to learn. As do we all. That’s kind of the point of being alive, no? When I stop having a lot to learn, shove me out on an ice floe for the polar bears if any of them aren’t extinct yet.
And if I ever THINK I no longer have a lot to learn, you have permission to give me the same kick in the butt that you deserve for implying you don’t have a lot to learn yourself 😉
Because you promoted Sirota.
http://www.coloradopols.com/di…
Two wrongs don’t make a right.
I’ll vote for you, and you can do this, and I can sit on the sidelines and kibitz 🙂
Seriously though, it’s good to know the same ol’ Ralphie is here picking on me because he thinks I made an actual mistake. I made the mistake today of telling some right wing radio host that I didn’t think it was okay to advocate violence against Americans based on their religion, and got jumped on and called all kinds of names for it. Nice to know there’s still some sanity in the world, even if it is in the form of cranky old Ralphie. At least if I decided my goal in life was to earn your approval, there’d be some rational and defined way to do it that doesn’t involve making death threats to my own neighbors because some guy of the same religion said something or other somewhere.
Then you must think I have more time on my hands than I actually have.
It’s much simpler than that. I think that you promote stupid diaries.
Or hell, just apply your “recommend” button liberally. I can only work with what’s posted, and we wouldn’t have FPEs or user diaries if this blog were intended just to be the guvs’ posts all day.
Thank you for the Merida diary. I think whenever an elected official agrees to show up and answer question, it is a great day in the neighborhood.
Diaries like this where the officeholder sticks around to answer should always be promoted. Well done PCG!!! (And no, you don’t have to get off Ralphie’s lawn when he yells at you.)
More opportunity for respectful dialogue is a good thing.
I mean, she’s a sitting DPS Board member, and a high-profile one. So I think her policy post and her sordid history both are proper subjects for our comments, and both are reasons her post warranted FP status.
Just my two cents’ worth.
I wish more stopped by and gave their 2cents on issues, regardless of party affiliation (who was the last R to post here?). I’m all for firing away with questions, while at the same time respecting the office and their willingness to be here.
…and you don’t have to like them.
And the fact that both diaries in question provoked so much spirited discussion speaks for itself.
I’m a Denver voter. 🙂
To recap, this was the first sentence of your last post:
Bush: “Is our children learning?”
Merida: “Some of the best ways is…”
For extra credit, Ms. Merida, ask any fourth-grade teacher in your district what’s wrong with this: “As adults, some of the best ways…”
But to give credit where credit is due, you clearly passed fourth grade grammar with flying colors since your last post. They grow up so fast!
It’s one thing to make fun of a typo, it’s quite another to dredge it up again and again. It was a single mistake. I’ll bet you’ve probably made at least one yourself in your hundreds of comments. Wouldn’t you think I was being silly if I found a typo in a comment of yours from March 13 and made it my signature?
A typo is accidentally hitting the wrong key, leaving an extraneous word in when you cut and paste, etc.
It isn’t a “typo” when you don’t get that you use “is” for singular nouns and “are” for plural nouns.
We Dems correctly thought Bush was an idiot for posing the question, “Is our children learning?” She also packed a second grammatical error into that same pretentious topic sentence. Face it, she’s an imbecile who’s not qualified to tutor eighth grade English, much less run a school system.
then that was petty too. She’s written a lot, almost all of it is grammatically correct, and she made one mistake, perhaps because (like I often do) she started writing a sentence, changed her mind halfway through about it, and forgot to fix everything else.
This is beneath you.
Across all the charts the average proficiency for any subject and grade is less than 50%. The majority of DPS students are not proficient.
And for the record I am a Denver voter, a native Spanish speaker, attended Smedley before any ESL programs, and wouldn’t send my kids to DPS if it was free.
What are you doing for the non-ELL students? It looks like they’re stuck with no improvement?
That’s typically the response from the district.
One thing that is happening in the district is that achievement is spiking in schools where there has been some seed money and some raising of the academic bar.
Here’s just a little sampling from another piece that should be published soon. These points are what has happened in the last 5 years:
It’s clear that what has to happen for ALL kids is to give them challenging academics, arts, music, languages, PE and the whole-child approach. When the kids are locked in, and when curriculum isn’t dumbed down or turned into test prep, they really rise to the challenge…just as you’d expect.
Obviously, we need to do more.
Okay, with the added money and the introduction of the Honors courses, etc: Are you “raising the bar” or changing the demographics of the school to attract the “Anglo” student from middle and upper class homes who, on the average, always score higher on achievement tests?
What are the achievement gaps in the schools that you are citing?
For example, Skinner Middle School brags that it enrolled students from the highly gifted program at Edison in its 6th
grade. Therefore, one would expect a spike in all scores in all subjects because the demographics of the student population in the 6th grade changed to include gifted students.
It’s true that a school like Skinner has been in a somewhat slow metamorphosis of being in a majority-minority neighborhood to now being completely different. But it still has (as of 2009-2010) 90% minority and 86% low-income (free/reduced lunch) students.
It’s also true that a lot of more affluent parents are asking for the bar to be raised, and sometimes they’re the ones doing the heavy lifting to advocate for the change. I can’t really say with any certainty that they’re mostly Anglo. Only Henry is in my district.
Let me see if I can get some specific achievement gap analysis for you. In the meantime, there is always SchoolView: http://www.schoolview.org/
I am concerned that the schools you listed are cherry picking, but if you are also looking at what is going on district wide and will have results from that soon – then we can see.
My big worry, as this is what BVSD does, is they trumpet the good news each year and say they’ll work on the other parts. But over time there is no actual improvement, just one score goes up 2% as another goes down 2% and they flip the next year.
I agree, David. I am constantly having to fact-check the press releases that come from the district for the sake of accuracy. For example, the latest one was about graduation rates. There was a number that was accurately reported to CDE, and then there was a number that was released in the press, which represented some strange amalgam of some anticipated number or some such thing.
I believe we need to start from the truth, find the reasons behind what may be broken, and present the game plan to the public. That’s typically not what happens in DPS. I really couldn’t say about BVSD.
With regard to the cherry picking, I have to say that the examples that I cited were neighborhood middle schools, which of course are set up to take all comers.
The biggest takeaway from the experience we have with these middle schools is that when you raise the bar for kids, they step up to the challenge.
Ms. Merida –
First, thanks for posting. It is good that electeds post here under their names, even if they are busy and can’t (often shouldn’t) respond to all our questions or criticisms.
I appreciate you highlighting the success of the ELL learners and the program in DPS.
You state
According to your info, DPS is heeding the evidence, except for a small number of schools. If the parents in those schools feel the need for ELL in the school, than DPS can implement the program there.
I can’t help but think that in most cases these students are doing better becaue they are in smaller classes with more individualized attention from teachers. Additionally, learning language is easier for kids, especially with qualified language instructors whose goal is language acquisition and not CSAP test scores.
I don’t judge DPS on how well it serves ELL students. I judge DPS, and hence you, on how well all students are served.
You stopped by to highlight the success of a program that helps 35% of DPS children.
Good.
I hope you and the other Board members stop by more often to highlight what is being done to help the other 65% DPS students.
(And so he’ll never have to ask – I live in Denver and have two children attending DPS)
(and as a final aside, this diary should not have been promoted – cheerleading for a program that works for Denver is hardly front page worthy, IMHO)
In many of the elementary schools in my district, which has the majority of ELL students, a 35-student class size is the norm. One of my schools is at 120% capacity. Kepner Middle School, in my district, has over 1100 students and is the largest middle school in the state.
I think they would do better if they DID have smaller class sizes…in fact, all kids would. A study in TN last year or so showed that when kids have small class sizes in the primary grades, it helps to stabilize achievement later on, even with larger class sizes later in their academic career.
I did answer a similar question earlier about what we’re doing for everyone else, and the short story is that in the schools where there is a large gain in improvement, those schools have revamped the academic program to include honors classes, languages, arts, music, etc. They expect more from their kids and the kids, consequently, respond.
Fair answer and agreed with the class size. ELL class sizes vary, but your point is well taken. My kids have 30 others in the room with them. We’re lucky to be involved and active – many other parents don’t have that option.
Higher expectations work for the students, the teachers and the administration. Also works for Board members.
Thanks for sticking around. Appreciate the work, whether I agree with some of your views or not. DPS Board member is a thankless job – again, appreciate the work!
…for getting some skin in the game by being involved. I’m sure it’s making all the difference for your kids.
I see the numbers, but what do they mean in terms of overall student achievement? Are the changes bringing back things like arts and music responsible for an improvement in overall scores for all learners? Or are we talking more about the honors classes and languages improving the performance of the top learners? Or is the updated program mostly successful at bringing nearly proficient students in to full proficiency?
Thanks for stopping by and providing your input.
I would say that the unglamorous technique of collaboration and team strategizing is what’s making the difference. The one factor in all the middle schools I cited is that the principal is predisposed to working with teachers as a team. When you have that kind of environment, where everyone’s input is valued, it’s much easier to lay the facts out on the table, be brutally honest about what’s not working, and devise a game plan to get back on track.
In these same schools, there are things like arts and music and languages. At Henry, they have the IB program, which requires all these different disciplines to keep their certification. The great thing about Henry, too, is that IB is for every kid. It’s not a selective program like at some schools.
At any rate, I would want to remove the ceiling from the top learners too. One of the reasons why families opt out of DPS in our southeast area is because the programs are not all that challenging.
When I look at the data across the board, not only do I see larger numbers of ELLs at or above proficiency, but I also see last year’s “underperformers” moving too. When I look at overall numbers in these schools, not just ELLs, all kids are definitely moving upward.
It’s just that a lot of this work is being done in the background, while the bright shiny new programs get all the press…and often a lot more support and wiggle room.
You have pointed out a correlation between test scores and exiting ELLs. However, you improperly conclude that the ELA program is what caused the higher test scores. Have you ruled out all other factors that could have contributed to these results?
A major issue that DPS will face in the near future is that they are receiving grant money to implement all sorts of different reforms but will have no way of measuring which of those reforms are responsible for any gains.
In the end, if DPS does see overall gains in achievement all of the various reforms introduced will be lauded as successful when it may only be one or two that made all the difference.
The way education research is being conducted is an utter waste of time and resources. There is no science behind it. Schools and districts should be targeted for research not because they are the lowest performing, but because they are good in all but one or two areas. Then reforms can be applied to those areas and we can truly see what works. We can then apply all the reforms that we know work to the lowest performing schools and get real results for the lowest cost.
You’re right about that. For example, I think that class size has a big effect on where these scores could go. But that part that’s important is that these kids are “exited.” That means they’ve all been through the program and now test in English. That is the common thread in all these kids. The factors that would typically count against them, like poverty status or no English spoken at home, don’t apply here. It’s simply a lens on a particular thrust of our educational program.
You’re also right about grant-funded programs. It’s a very sketchy proposition; much of the grant money comes with strings that don’t have basis in research or evidence, and we actually have programs moving forward right now that are only funded for three years. We don’t have the systems or metrics in place to look at what happens. We tend to aggregate data instead of looking at how certain slices of the population are improving or not.
Generally speaking, we’re not good at replicating good schools. And by “good,” I mean the schools that are able to give the classic, whole-child education that Denver residents overwhelmingly prefer.
You take a school like Bruce Randolph, for example, whose kids are hard working and just as smart as any other kids. We hear all the fanfare about the graduation rate, yet when we look at how kids are actually performing even just on the CSAP, the lion’s share is in the “unsatisfactory” category of proficiency, and worse, the needle hasn’t moved or has gone backward.
To me, graduation isn’t the only metric, and we sell out the wonderful kids like at Bruce Randolph when we rest on our laurels and don’t analyze just as you suggest.
It is no doubt a wonderful thing that these exited students are doing well. It looks like your data lumps all exited ELLs together. Do you know if there are differences within exited ELLs based on their primary language? In other words, if 57% of DPS ELLs are spanish-speaking are 57% of the proficeint exited ELLs spanish-speaking? I just wonder if there is an achievement gap within the ELA program.
I believe we aren’t good at replicating good schools because we don’t know what makes them good. It’s usually a combination of many factors that may or may not be under the control of the school or policymakers.
There is something to be said for having an educator at the helm of this ship. There has to be a grounding in real classroom experience so that the right factors can be looked for. I think a lot of times, the people who do know education in the district (meaning staff) are drowned out because of preconceived notions that are not based in how education actually works. Therefore, the leadership isn’t there to even listen to advice about what to analyze in the first place.
You’re right: it does lump all ELLs together, and the objective was to talk about the program as a whole. I am getting even more disaggregated data, and I can add the language differentiation to the pile. I’ll see what I can scare up. It’s a great question.
I’m talking about your crooked overbilling of DPS, of course. Feel free to proceed to ignore this, of course.