Blog posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.
For the nation, this year’s NAEP results have garnered a lot of attention, shining a light on low-performance, minimal progress, and large achievement gaps. However, while NAEP has brought renewed attention to the severity of the state of public education, it still hasn’t shown us why large financial investments and policy innovations have yielded, seemingly,…
Aurora Public Schools (APS) has school board elections on November 5. Here is a quick overview view of who the students in APS are, and how they’re being served so that voters can better understand the challenges facing Aurora Public Schools. Who is running? There are 5 candidates running for 3 seats. Amber Drevon Stephanie…
As we approach the year anniversary of our Many Languages, One Future report release, and celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, in this month’s A+ Answers, we highlight emerging multilingual students, students who make up a large amount of the growing number of Colorado students. These are students who speak a language other than English and are…
An A+ community member asked A+ Answers, “With the “expanding concurrent enrollment” bill on the table, I’m curious, what schools in Colorado are doing concurrent enrollment the best?” Concurrent Enrollment (CE) is a way for students that are still in high school to take classes for college credit. These can either be taken within the…
A community member asked A+ Answers, “How does a rural district like North Conejos have such high graduation rates?” This seemingly simple question is incredibly complicated. Intrinsic in this question are further questions that merit further research, like resource allocation to rural schools and the interplay between graduation rates and other measures of success. To…
The community voted and 62% of voters wanted to know, “Where are students of color graduating at a high rate in Colorado?” Over the past several years, Colorado’s graduation rates for all groups of students has been increasing, across the state. However, when looking at where students of color are graduating at the highest rate, it’s…
Denver resident and community member, Mike Galvin submitted a question to A+ Answers. Mike asked, “DPS long term improvement trends appear to correlate with the gentrification of Denver neighborhoods. Have you controlled for demographic (economic class) change in any of your studies of schools that have improved, or for the overall change in DPS achievement?”…
Erin Ellis, Office Support II from Denver Public Schools Early Education Department asked, How has Early Childhood Education improved in Denver Public Schools over the last 15 years? How can families and community members become more actively involved so that the gains and/or challenges that are being seen are equitable across all groups of students?…
In 2017, Colorado ranked #47 of 51 (states and D.C.). The rankings here show interesting trends across time. While the average salary has gone down since 2000, nationally, there are a few states that increased their average salaries significantly. Not only was the U.S. in an economic boom in the year 2000, but the Great…
A note on using average salaries to understand relative teacher pay. Average salaries are often more a measure of average teacher education levels and experience than of pay. The vast majority of school districts use a salary schedule defined by “steps and lanes” to determine teacher pay, meaning that teachers get more money for…