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Ghost alumnus
Perhaps it is the proximity to Halloween, but what I find most troubling about the wrenching and difficult decision to close or transform schools are the ghosts: All of the kids who went through the...
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Bullseye, overlooked
Overlooked in the controversies of the board meeting on Thursday night was an important vote that signifies a considerable change in policy. The board was contemplating a course of action for Manny...
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The performance of Denver’s charter schools
The movie Waiting for Superman, and the recent signing of a district and charter compact, has energized an intense debate about the quality of charter schools compared to their traditional school...
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The price of milk in education (answers now provided)
I’ve updated this post with the answers and source links, which follow the questions below: – Last week I moderated a mayoral forum on education at KIPP. The candidates were, I thought, quite good –...
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The graduation-proficiency gap in DPS
The recent Westword article on Denver North High School’s manipulation of its graduation rates, the belief that “juking the stats” likely spreads beyond a single school and a sage comment at the end...
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Opinion: Board members, middle schools and truth
Jeannie Kaplan and Andrea Merida, two sitting members of Denver’s board of education, published this Op-Ed last Friday. Its genesis, they tell us, is in their conversations with Denver parents. “We...
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Our obsession with growth
The move towards increased accountability coupled with the creation and collection of new data mean K-12 education is constantly sorting through a variety of metrics to better understand what is...
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Signal Defeats Noise!
In my opinion, the biggest unheralded winner in yesterday’s election was Thomas Bayes. Now Bayes died back in 1761, but his influence lives on in Bayes’ Theorem, which is one of the tentpoles of modern...
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The Tragic Legacy of Rachel B. Noel
This week marks the 40th anniversary of the landmark Keyes case, which was instrumental in desegregating the Denver school system. Colorado Public Radio’s enterprising Jenny Brundin has a brief but...
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Scorpions and Frogs: A Parable about the DPS Board
You know the story. It goes like this: A scorpion and a frog meet on the bank of a wide river, and the scorpion asked the frog to carry him across on his back. “How do I know you won’t sting … Continue...
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Housing and Public Schools
Imagine, for a moment, that the public school district of the city in which you live decided to start a program to charge families who wanted to send their kids to a specific school. The price was...
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The False Dawn of Denver’s School Performance
Denver Public Schools has released their 2013 School Performance Framework (SPF). The summary is mixed — the distribution of performance has stretched, so there are more kids in both the...
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2013 Colorado Election Prediction
I find most political commentary spurious - either so far in advance that no one remembers how inaccurate it was, or done only in hindsight where one is merely suggesting explanations for outcomes...
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