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

Announcing: The A+ Denver 2013 Game Changers!

Correction: In our original note, we incorrectly cited that GVE moved from “Red” to “Green,” when in reality it moved from “Yellow” to “Blue.” A remarkable feat. Our apologies for the mistake. —– While we often talk about how Denver schools need improvement, we also happily acknowledge that there are incredible developments underway.  Our 2013…

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Manual High principal out amid performance decline at Denver school

Originally Posted by The Denver Post on January 17, 2014. Copyright © denverpost.com. Written by Kevin Simpson. Read here. Denver’s beleaguered Manual High School named former middle school principal Don Roy to take over leadership a day after Brian Dale abruptly left the school, apparently at the district’s request. Dale has overseen the latest version of…

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Turnaround grants not paying off

Originally Posted by the Pueblo Chieftain on January 13, 2014. Copyright © chieftain.com. Written by Gayle Perez. Read here. Some of the state’s lowest performing schools — including several in Pueblo City Schools (D60) — are in worse shape today than before they received more than $60 million in federal grant money to improve achievement, a…

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Innovation schools showing mixed results in DPS

Originally Posted by Chalkbeat Colorado on January 13, 2014. Copyright © co.chalkbeat.org. Written by Nicholas Garcia. Read here. Denver innovation schools aren’t outperforming similar campuses tied to district bureaucracy, according to a report released today. Students at Denver Public Schools that operate under “innovation” agreements showed higher level of academic growth, the most highly scrutinized measures…

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Press Release: Innovation Schools in DPS

News Release  Monday, January 13, 2014 Media Contact Van Schoales, CEO, A+ Denver (303) 725-1151 van@aplusdenver.org Year Three Innovation Schools Study shows small differences in school culture, student achievement and workforce capacity between Innovation schools and comparison group  A+ Denver, Colorado Education Association, Denver Classroom Teachers Association, and Denver Public Schools released part three of an evaluation…

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School Improvement Grants in Colorado

Originally Posted by EducationNext on December 23, 2013. Copyright © educationnext.org. Written by Andy Smarick. Read here. I’ve obviously made up my mind about School Improvement Grants (SIG) and other school turnaround efforts. But I suspect many others are still wondering if turnaround attempts are a sensible strategy for creating more high-quality seats for kids in need. And I’m…

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Report Release – School Achievement in Denver: The Impact of Charter Schools

We are pleased to release our latest report, “School Achievement in Denver: The Impact of Charter Schools.” This report was created in response to one of many questions that were raised after we released “Start with the Facts: Strengthening the Denver Public Schools Pipeline”. We have disaggregated the school performance data for 2011 in the…

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Innovation law doesn’t spark major change

Originally posted on EdNewsColorado, Dec. 15, 2011. Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org Read here. Written by Nancy Mitchell. Colorado’s first schools granted more autonomy under the Innovation Schools Act don’t look a lot different today than they did before – particularly in terms of curriculum and instruction. That’s because principals have chosen to move slowly and have…

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The Good, The Bad, The Ugly: School Turnarounds and Profiteers

Written by Van Schoales, Dec. 13, 2011. Also posted on DFER.org here. We recently did some research on the state of school turnarounds in Colorado. I was reminded of that great “spaghetti” western The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. For those of you that don’t remember the movie, it was a tale of intrigue,…

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School Districts and Economic Development?

Written by Van Schoales. Also posted on EdNewsColorado.org, read here. Some of you may have seen an interesting article this week in Education Week about a recent study on the impact of Virginia Beach City School District on the economic development of the region. The study performed by a North Carolina State economics professor, Dr.…

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