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

On the Good Ship Stennis: A+ Goes to Sea

Last week, I had the of privilege being flown by a C-2 Greyhound from San Diego’s Naval Air Station to the USS John Stennis, a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, to spend 24 hours learning about the US Navy’s training and operations with a small group of educators and business leaders. The Stennis is one of ten…

Continue Reading …


Talking About Race and Achievement

I started working in Denver twenty years ago, the same year that forced busing, the federally mandated school integration plan, ended.  That year many schools went through a dramatic change in population as schools returned to primarily serving neighborhood students. There were few schools post-busing that were both effective and racially integrated. Those schools (mostly middle…

Continue Reading …


A Tale of 5 Reform Districts

 Colorado’s system of academic standards and assessments started in 1995, making 2015 the 20thanniversary of the standards movement. With the introduction of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (better known as CSAP) came the acknowledgement that Colorado had large pockets of underperforming schools. Districts in Colorado began acting on this information. In particular, five large districts…

Continue Reading …


Do Denver Schools Teach Kids to Write?

If we measure only one skill, it should be writing. A national commission from a decade ago Writing: A Ticket to Work… Or a Ticket Out surveyed America’s top 120 corporations and found that writing is a “threshold skill” for hiring and promotion in every industry.  Two-thirds of salaried employees have some writing responsibility. Half of these…

Continue Reading …


Opting into a Worthwhile Experiment

Twenty years ago, the introduction of charter schools changed Denver Public Schools more than any single policy since busing had done. Then, last month the Board said that schools should have to “opt-in” rather than “opt-out” of district supports like curriculum, school-based assessments, and professional development.   It’s nothing short of a paradigm shift. Not…

Continue Reading …


Tilting toward Dystopia

Colorado’s 20-year record of steady (if slow) improvement may be dashed in coming weeks if political leaders do not stand up for accountability. We’re one of many states in the midst of a series of critical education policy battles that could send us back to a time when there was little information about the quality…

Continue Reading …


Is a Colorado high school diploma really worth anything?

In 2013 the Colorado Department of Education sat down to take a look at what a high school diploma in Colorado was worth. In releasing the first recommendation of graduation guidelines, the State Board recognized students will need to function in “a modern information dependent society,” where there is a need “for a ‘floor’ of…

Continue Reading …


Van’s Ramblings: A Plea for Inquiry on this year’s TCAP results

Dear friends, On August 13 Colorado’s 2014 TCAP scores will be released, and as has happened since “Nation at Risk” was released in 1983, almost everyone will be frustrated with what will likely be only small, incremental improvement. Some will blame reforms, saying they’ve been too weak, too strong, or misguided. Others will point to…

Continue Reading …


Van’s Ramblings: Less is more

Dear friends, In 2013, Mat Honan wrote an article for WIRED called Why Subtraction Is the Hardest Math in Product Design. He points out that simplicity sticks, saying it has “made hits of the Nest thermostat, Fitbit, and TiVo. Simple brought Apple back from the dead. It’s why you have Netflix. The Fisher Space Pen,…

Continue Reading …


Van’s Ramblings: A high school diploma, a ticket to where?

Dear friends, This month, thousands of DPS high school students will celebrate their graduation, smiling and holding freshly printed diplomas- feeling empowered by having achieved a milestone, ready to tackle the next, but are they truly prepared for their next? From this class, about 4,000 kids will go on to college — roughly 1000 more…

Continue Reading …