Blog posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.

A Call For Accurate School Performance Reporting in Denver Public Schools

The leaders of six civil rights and community groups (Urban League of Metropolitan Denver, NAACP Denver Branch, African Leadership Group, Together Colorado, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., and Padres & Jovenes Unidos) issued a joint letter calling on the Denver school board to immediately correct what they called misleading and inflated School Performance Framework ratings. View the letter here.


A-town on the Rise?

The Aurora school board race was its most expensive in history.  A+ Colorado extends congratulations to everyone who participated in the race. It was hard fought and raised big questions about the future of Aurora schools.   Chalkbeat Colorado has reported on the dynamics at play in Aurora immediately following the election of new school…

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Open Ecosystems

Part of a series on open systems in education A common question about open systems is “What is required beyond the school or district for an open system to succeed? What about the broader ecosystem?”  “Yeah, it’s great to have districts or schools work with parents in co-creation – but there is an entire civic…

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Has Denver Reached the Peak or is it Starting the Climb?

It’s been over a year since I opined about Denver Public Schools’ strategic direction What Will Tom Do? and I thought it would be a good time to reflect. In particular, the recent elections are the perfect time to step back and think through the next stage of the work in Denver.  I congratulate all…

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ELA Scores Hide the Gap: Give Us Reading and Writing Scores (Again)

by Peter Huidekoper Jr., Coordinator, Colorado Education Policy Fellowship Program, St. John’s College, New Mexico Remember the 3 R’s? Remember those days of yesteryear when our parents, grandparents, and other old fogeys thought it pretty important to be sure that, if nothing else, schools taught us reading, writing, and mathematics? Yes, writing.  Not the nebulous “language…

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State and District Coalitions Recalibrating Our Definition of “Possible”

This past week I had the opportunity to visit with colleagues in Illinois, fresh off a state funding victory.  I was hosted by Advance Illinois, a member of the Coalition Support Network I’m working with.  This year, the coalitions they supported scored a crucial state funding victory in coalition with districts, community organizations, and state…

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Denver’s Good But Is It That Good?

Reviewing the latest distribution of colors from the Denver Public Schools (DPS) release of the 2017 School Performance Framework (SPF), you would think that DPS made the biggest improvement of any school system in the history of American public education in just one year, where the district went from identifying 1 in 7 elementary schools…

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A Parent’s Perspective: Learning Disabilities and ESSA in Colorado

By Nicola Frost, Understood.org Regional Field Manager, National Center for Learning Disabilities (ncld.org) My son has always been inquisitive and full of life. He loved to build structures out of recycled materials, playing with friends and asking “why”.  But in first grade his curiosity began to be replaced with fear.  He struggled to write his name,…

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Learning from the Navy?

A few years ago, I had the privilege of spending a few days learning about the US Navy’s training programs which included 24 hours on the USS Stennis, one of ten Nimitz class aircraft carriers.  There is nothing like sitting on the deck of an aircraft carrier at 11 PM in total darkness and 10-…

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How Do We Get “The Big Mo” in Aurora?

Recent events (and upcoming elections) have education leaders in Colorado asking: is there momentum in Aurora? What is “The Big Mo”? Some folks may have heard about the idea of “The Big Mo.”  It’s shorthand for a term in behavioral momentum theory that suggests success breeds success.  It’s the idea that when a campaign or…

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