ScoopToo » DPS middle schools

DPS–A Quest to Change the Image of Middle School

KB — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:31:33 +0000

This recent article from the Denver Post highlights the different middle school programs across the city and the push by DPS to market and recruit families to learn further about their middle school options.

Although our blog focuses on elementary schools in the Denver area, I thought parents would appreciate this article. When discussing schools with friends and acquaintances, people are excited to discuss their DPS elementary school options, even high school, but middle school is overlooked. When the topic of middle schools arises, it’s usually met with angst and statements like, “I have no idea what I am going to do about middle school.” Many parents search for public schools with a K-8 or K-12 program. Other parents opt to send their children to private schools or even leave the city altogether to avoid public middle schools. DPS middle schools haven’t had the strongest reputation over the years due to low enrollment, poor test scores, and schools not doing much to improve the quality of their programs. However, over the past few years, DPS has been working hard to change the middle school image.

The below article discusses the latest efforts on the DPS middle school front. If you do have a child in middle school and you’d like to share your experience thus far, please do so by leaving a comment. We’d love to hear what you have to say.

Denver middle schools recruiting and captivating students

Posted: 11/27/2011 01:00:00 AM MST

By Karen Auge

At one recent Denver middle-school open house, the principal greased visiting fifth-graders’ palms with chocolate. Another dangled international travel before visitors. And one captivated recruits with classroom chairs that actually bounce, to accommodate fidgeting pre-teens.

Practically every Denver middle school now invites fifth-graders and their parents to an open house. Many host fifth-graders as they “shadow” an older kid through a middle-school day. And two share a full-time marketer whose job is to convince families that their neighborhood schools are worth a second look.

School choice is growing across Colorado. But perhaps nowhere is middle-school choice the complex exercise it is in Denver, a district where just a few years ago, failing middle schools sent many families fleeing to the suburbs.

Denver Public Schools set out to fix that flight, and the result is such a varied menu of middle schools that they are locked in competition and parents’ heads are spinning.

“Frankly, four or five years ago, it would have been very different. Middle-class parents would have been moving out of Denver” when their kids were about to enter sixth grade, said Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg.

Now, between the heavy recruiting and, at some schools, the required essays or entrance auditions, it can be easy to forget this is middle school.

“I feel like it’s college sometimes, like I’m trying to find the best college,” said Victoria Jaramillo, who has to find middle-school homes for her fifth- grade twins, Francisca and Francisco Salazar.

The differences among schools aren’t just cosmetic. In Denver, there is the Denver School of the Arts, Denver School of Science and Technology and Denver Center for International Studies. There is also Denver Green School and the Girls Athletic Leadership School, to name a few.

In Jaramillo’s case, what’s good for one of her twins won’t necessarily be right for the other. Francisco likes math and science, she said. For him, she prefers the Denver School of Science and Technology. Francisca, she said, “went with me to a school board meeting and heard about GALS. She plays softball, so she said, ‘Can you look into that school?’ ”

But the Montbello mom said she won’t make any decision until she attends open houses.

The district also hosted a Middle School Expo in October, and next month will offer five mini versions of the expo in regions across the city. DPS is also taking the expo show on the road, to elementary schools.

“We’re bringing their options to them so the students can be actively involved in their choices,” said district marketing director Marissa Ferrari.

This is all in the run-up to the Jan. 31 deadline when parents must submit a list — in order — of their top five middle- school choices.

There is a lot at stake for students, but also for schools.

At an October open house, McAuliffe International School principal Kurt Dennis laid out a vision for an International Baccalaureate school offering rigorous studies.

But much of McAuliffe’s success depends on funding. And funding depends on how many parents have faith enough to enroll their kids in McAuliffe’s first-ever sixth-grade class.

“Dollars follow pupils, and schools have a very clear incentive to attract kids to their schools,” Boasberg said.

For years, middle school was the black mark in DPS’s performance gradebook.

Between the 2005-06 school year and 2006-07, district enrollment went up by 381 — propelled by a 924 jump in elementary-school enrollment. But the number of middle-school students fell that year by 586.

A look at 2005′s middle- school CSAP scores may explain the exodus: That year, 23 percent of DPS middle-schoolers were proficient or better in math; 32 percent in writing and 37 percent in reading.

By this past spring, 42 percent of middle-schoolers were proficient or better in math; 43 percent in writing and 50 percent in reading.

At the same time, Denver middle-school enrollment climbed 4.3 percent this year over 2010, to 16,343.

Last month, Boasberg announced that good news from Grant Middle School, where enrollment had grown 16 percent, and he credited the district’s Denver Plan for improvements that spark enrollment gains.

But, in the bid to woo parents, Grant got extra help.

“We actually did invest in a marketing specialist for Merrill (Middle School), Grant and South High,” Boasberg said.

“We’re investing in that southeast area,” he said. “And with per-pupil funding, it’s an investment that will pay for itself.”

Karen Auge: 303-954-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com Staff writer Yesenia Robles contributed to this report.

Change is on the Way for Some DPS Schools

KB — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:19:37 +0000

The Board of Education has recommended changes for 6 schools within the Denver Public School system. The recommendations include transforming six low-performing DPS schools into successful schools, proposals for the overcrowding issues at the Stapleton schools, and proposed locations for new schools that would open for the 2010 school year. The board is expected to make their decisions at the end of this month.

Read the entire press release below:

DPS Announces Recommendations for 6 Low-Performing Schools

Denver, CO—The leadership of the Denver Public Schools today made a series of recommendations to the Board of Education for turning around low-performing schools and for locations of new schools that are scheduled to open in the fall of 2010.

“These are critically important decisions that are the result of long conversations, difficult discussions, and careful consideration,” DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg said. “Our absolute focus is on the decisions that will create the very best opportunities and the very best schools for the children and families of Denver.”

Boasberg also pointed to the Obama Administration’s investment in a broad range of turnaround strategies as another factor in the district’s recommendations. In announcing the contribution of billions of dollars of federal support for school-turnaround efforts, President Obama last week emphasized the importance of focusing on struggling schools. The federal government will be looking at “whether a state is focused on transforming not just its high-performing schools, not just the middle-of-the-pack schools, but the lowest-performing schools,” according to the president. “There’s always excuses for why these schools can’t perform. But part of what we want is an environment in which everybody agrees—from the governor to the school superintendent, teachers, principals, and most importantly parents and students—that there’s no excuse for mediocrity. And we will take drastic steps when schools aren’t working.”

There are now unprecedented resources available, through the multibillion-dollar “Race to the Top” program, to invest in struggling schools—approximately $13 million for DPS over the next three years, if the district meets the federal school turnaround criteria.

“This is some of the toughest and most important work we do—making very difficult decisions about dramatic school changes,” Boasberg said. “I understand the sensitivity of these decisions; they have great impact on our students and families, our teachers and our school leaders. In every school in the district we have wonderfully committed and talented teachers and school leaders working to improve opportunities for our students. We must recognize that commitment and talent and at the same time be willing to recognize some of our schools over the past several years have consistently failed to demonstrate satisfactory progress with their students. To recognize the latter is not to undermine the former. Rather it is to recognize that change is sometimes needed to allow our talented educators to establish and develop the kind of school cultures, atmosphere, and structures to best meet the needs of our students.”

In making the recommendations, the district’s leadership looked at the last four years of student growth data on the School Performance Framework. The six schools—three district-run schools and three charters—evaluated for turnaround strategies have each demonstrated student growth far below district averages over these last four years. The three district-run schools—Philips, Greenlee, and Lake—were the bottom-three performing schools out of the 130 schools on the district’s SPF rankings this year. The three charter schools—Northeast Academy, Skyland, and PS 1—are the three lowest-performing charter schools on the SPF.

Additionally, teams from the Colorado Department of Education performed an intensive diagnostic review on each of the schools. These qualitative diagnostics involve a week-long visit and conversations with school administrators, teachers, staff, students and parents and an evaluation of three areas: Academic Performance, Learning Environment, and Organizational Effectiveness. In each of these six schools, the CDE diagnostics emphasized significant shortcomings in each of these three major areas.

“It is essential that we engage the entire community in a discussion of the issues surrounding these decisions. Our strategies include turning around our lowest-performing schools in order to ensure that all of our students, in every neighborhood of the city, are graduating from our high schools prepared for college or career,” Boasberg added. “We have listened to the parents, students, teachers, and community members, beginning with regional meetings last spring and continuing this fall. We deeply appreciate their input and their commitment to our schools, and we believe these are the actions that will bring about the best outcomes for our students. We will continue to work with parents and the entire community going forward on these recommendations and more broadly on strategies to improve the performance of struggling schools elsewhere in district. ”

The Board of Education will hear public comment on these recommendations and those made last week at its Nov. 16 and Nov. 19 meetings, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The Board is expected to vote on all of the recommendations at its Nov. 30 meeting.

DPS November 9 Recommendations: A Regional Summary

Far Northeast

Proposed Turnaround of Northeast Academy, Charter School—The district has recommended an intensive school transformation initiative, including a comprehensive reorganization of the school’s academic program, in consultation and partnership with an education-management organization.

Proposed Co-Locations of SOAR, DSST, Multiple-Pathway Center at new Green Valley Ranch E-12 Campus

SOAR (charter school): Grades K-5 (over time); would serve 428 students at capacity; will provide a holistic educational approach with rigorous academic instruction and an extended school day; replication of FLI Academy in Harlem, NY—a proven model that has a school-wide proficiency rate of 85% in English language arts and 84% in math; plans to start with about 230 kindergarten through second-grade students in fall of 2010.

Denver School of Science and Technology (charter school): Grades 6-12 (over time); would serve 800 students at capacity; a liberal arts college preparatory school with a science and technology focus; replication of a proven model—the only DPS high school that is rated as “Distinguished” on the SPF and is the highest-performing school in the district; plans to start with about 140 6th-graders in fall of 2010.
Multiple-Pathway Center: Currently, the multiple pathways (or alternative options/transfer schools) in DPS are extremely limited for the district’s size and difficult to access from some parts of the city; the center would serve students in grades 9-12 who are over age and under credit and have not experienced success in traditional high schools and/or are not engaged in traditional high school offerings.

Northeast

Proposed Replacement of Philips Elementary School—The district has recommended that Philips be closed and replaced in fall of 2010 with Odyssey Charter School, which currently resides in Westerly Creek Elementary School. Philips’ neighborhood students in grades K-4, would be offered seats at Stapleton schools (Roberts or Westerly Creek) or Park Hill for the 2010-2011 school year. Students who currently choice-in to Philips would return to their home school or choice to other district schools. The Autistic Special Education Center Programs would be re-located to Stapleton schools. Transportation would be provided according to district transportation policy. Boundary changes would be necessary for all students living in the Philips attendance area.

Proposed Closure of Skyland Charter School—The district has recommended that Skyland be closed and its charter contract be non-renewed. The majority of students live in the attendance areas of Manual, East, George Washington and outside the district. Better-performing options are available for those students in these high schools, as well as in Colorado High School Charter and Community Challenge School.

Proposed Solutions to Stapleton Overcrowding—Rapid growth in student demand requires provision of additional capacity; near and mid-term solutions were developed with strong community input and civic leadership, with a focus on high quality schools that reflect the diversity of the Stapleton ring community; relocation of Odyssey Charter School, construction of third elementary school, temporary ECE center in Westerly Creek facility, and boundary change with Philips would address capacity concerns for near and mid–term.

Proposed location of Denver Language School at former Whiteman—The charter school would serve about 470 K-8 students at full capacity and offer full immersion in Mandarin and Spanish; would open with about 200 K-2 students in fall of 2010.

Southeast

Proposed location of Denver Green School at former Fallis—The Performance School would serve about 550 E-8 students at capacity; will implement a flexible, student-centered, standards-based curriculum that will emphasize hands-on and project-based learning with an emphasis on environmental sustainability; would open in fall of 2010 with about 240 preschool-2 and 6th-grade students.

Northwest

Proposed Turnaround/Restart of Greenlee Elementary School—The district has recommended that Greenlee change from a ECE-8 school to a ECE-5 school and that a comprehensive literacy program be implemented for the 2010-2011 school year. Students currently in ECE through grade four would be able to continue at Greenlee next year without disruption. Students currently in grades five, six and seven would be offered seats at Manny Martinez Charter School, which will become a boundary school, or Dora Moore.

Proposed Turnaround of Lake Middle School and Co-Location with West Denver Prep #3—The district has recommended that:

Lake continue as the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program (IBMYP) at Lake International School;
Students currently in grades six and seven be able to continue at the Lake International School in a combined IBMYP 7th and 8th Grade Academy next year without disruption;
The incoming Lake sixth grade class be part of an IBMYP 6th Grade Academy program; and
The Lake facility become a shared campus with West Denver Prep School #3, which would begin operating with sixth grade students in the 2010-2011 school year.

The Lake facility’s capacity is 1000 students, which provides plenty of space for both schools to thrive and grow. As part of this recommendation, Lake’s boundary for the incoming class of 6th-graders in the 2010-2011 school year would be changed. WDP is a charter school that provides a college-preparatory focus, rigorous middle grades education of high standards, structure, and accountability; it is a replication of a proven school model—the only middle school rated as “Distinguished” on the SPF and the only “Distinguished” school with more than 50% of its enrollment eligible for free/reduced-priced meals. The school will serve about 300 6-8 students at capacity. A new boundary would be phased-in starting in the 2010-11 school year for incoming 6th-grade students who live in the Lake attendance area. The Board of Education in June unanimously approved West Denver Prep #3 and #4 for a 2010 opening, with approval specifying that both schools be located in Northwest Denver.

Proposed Location of West Denver Prep #4 at Emerson Street facility—Another replication of the successful charter school at the building that currently houses the Emerson Street alternative school. If approved, the Emerson and P.R.E.P. alternative-education programs would be consolidated into one facility located at P.R.E.P.; each program would continue to offer the same educational and social services previously offered. WDP would have an attendance boundary and serve about 300 6-8 students at full capacity.

Proposed one-year renewal of PS 1 Charter School and replacement through the new-school RFP process—The district has recommended that because this school serves a significant population of students with special needs who lack a strong array of other educational options, the Board grant PS 1 a one-year renewal and replace the school through the RFP process with a new school that can serve the existing students in the fall of 2011.

Announcement: DPS Releases School Scorecards

KB — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:24:17 +0000

Denver Public Schools recently released the updated School Performance Framework (SPF) reports for the district’s 140 schools. The reports focus on the year-to-year growth of each school. It includes the academic progress of the students, along with other areas such as attendance, student and parent satisfaction, etc. Click on the link below to see how your school measures up.

School Performance Framework (SPF) Reports