Blog posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.
Imagine this crazy story: every year, kids across Colorado take assessments to help us understand how much they’ve learned. Weeks of student, teacher, and district time go into making sure we really know how kids are doing. Families, education leaders, and civil rights groups ask the question – well, how are they doing? The State’s…
I am with the teachers here in Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona that are calling for higher pay and more funding for public education. This is my thirtieth year in education. So much has changed in public education over the past three decades, yet the calls for professional pay for teachers remain much as they were in…
Guest Blogger: Dajia Maestas “ [You] were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that [you] were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: [you] were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” It was my freshman year at Manual High school.…
Guest Blogger: Richard D. Lamm, Governor of Colorado 1975-1987 Let me suggest that there is a single thing you can do in your new role to improve education in Colorado, that won’t cost much money, doesn’t require legislative approval and is not controversial. It is also simple: find ways to say “Thank You” to…
Denver has had a remarkable transformation from the sleepy cow town that I moved to 20 years ago. We now have five nationally recognized art museums (we had only one back then) and many new amazing restaurants, some with James Beard awards. Denver has a thriving economy with a 2.8% unemployment rate with impressive growth…
Anxiety combined with rising expectations is revolutionary rocket fuel. Amidst their wandering, can different generations of educational leaders come together for what we all know is possible? Or will they fail each other and future generations? I was recently speaking with a group of national education experts who were asking my opinion about current issues…
Last month, the Denver Public School Board engaged in a conversation with the district leadership about the current state of yellow schools. It was a welcome and long overdue conversation. In the DPS system red and orange schools are bound to draw the eye of both families, community leaders and DPS leadership. These are our…
This post originally appeared on the blog The Open System. I’m really excited about our March podcast. This month we get to talk to someone who I really love working with in the open system space – Reilly Pharo Carter. Reilly is the Executive Director of Climb Higher Colorado, an organization formed for the purpose…
Guest Blogger: Alexis Senger “I don’t want to talk about it anymore!” My fifth grader was at the end of her rope. No, we weren’t talking about her grades or her daily grind of Wolfgang at the keys. We were talking about choosing middle schools. Denver Public Schools (DPS) has a school choice process for…
An Open Response to A+ Colorado Orange Paper: Learn Together, Live Together: A Call to Integrate Denver’s Schools (February 2018)Author: antwan jefferson, Date: 26 March 2018 University of Colorado Denver, School of Education and Human Development—————————— In its February 2018 Orange Paper, A+ Colorado published a report entitled “Learn Together, Live Together: A Call to…