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

Can We Finally Fix Colorado’s Broken School Finance System?

In spite of the largest blue wave to hit Colorado in many decades, voters turned down Amendment 73, the tax measure to increase funding to public education. How can this be? Many school districts across the state are clearly struggling for funds. Few have full-day kindergarten for all students. Colorado currently has one of the…

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A Reflection on A+ Colorado’s Many Languages, One Future Report Release

By Guest Blogger: Dan Lutz On October 30 at Bear Creek High School, several of us on the A+ Action Team attended the A+ report release and presentation regarding the status and progress of English language learners in schools and districts around Colorado.  It was an impressive event about an arena that is important to me.…

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Democracy & Distrust

Democracy & Distrust I recently attended a conference where I was fortunate to hear from individuals from across sectors, from all levels of government, and from different areas of study (health, education, etc.) on the way that data can benefit social change. We all, ostensibly, shared the same belief: data can be leveraged to drive…

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Families searching for signal in the noise

October came in with a rush of winter weather and seasonal colors.  With the early onset of winter weather, I always worry that the colors will disappear before I’ve had a chance to really enjoy the leaves. Like the fall leaves disappearing before we’ve had a chance to enjoy them, I also worry that here…

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Denver’s 2018 SPF: Recognizing Our Gaps

Recognizing Our Gaps Denver’s release of its School Performance Framework begs many questions about school quality in Denver and how to expand academic opportunity across the city. The SPF serves a great number of purposes to a great number of people. But there are a few things it is not. First, the SPF is not…

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Stay Sharp Newsletter: October 2018

Trick or treat season is upon us and we have plenty of news to go around. We’re covering the unmasking of Denver’s SPF ratings, a Halloween Eve report release, and a (hopefully) less scary road ahead for Adams 14 school district. A+ Updates Many Languages, One Future A+ Colorado is thrilled to announce the upcoming…

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A+ Visits the Outliers: Schools Who Are Beating the Odds

Outlier School Visits Last spring, A+ Colorado released our report Outliers that dived into district data across Colorado to see where districts are succeeding and thriving with students of all backgrounds.  Coming out of the report, A+ was curious about the next set of questions: What is making these districts do better than their peers?…

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Denver’s SPF: Promise Kept, Now Time for Version 2.0

Denver Public Schools (DPS) kept the promise made last winter to repair the mistakes made on the 2017 School Performance Framework (SPF) and to raise the bar for what makes a high quality school.  We thank DPS for its leadership and willingness to make corrections to better reflect student learning across the district. DPS remedied…

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Student Calls For A Right to Know

By Guest Blogger: Jasmine Kabiri Good morning, my name is Jasmine Kabiri, and I’m a junior at Silver Creek High School in Longmont. I am also a member of the Colorado Youth Congress, which is an organization of young people taking action on issues we care about. Today I’d like to talk with you about…

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What I Did on My Summer Vacation

My summer vacation took me to Berlin, Germany for several weeks to better understand the culture, art and history of this remarkable city in late August. While I was focused on taking a break from education, I couldn’t help but reflect on how Berlin has been shaped by education while I enjoyed the art, music…

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