Blog posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.
It’s time to tie up some loose ends here at A+ Denver and fill you in on what we’ve been up to the past month. Introductions First, we would like to welcome and introduce our newest staff member, Kathryn Frazier, who is joining us for one year as a part of the AmeriCorps VISTA program.…
Originally posted on EdNewsColorado, April 25, 2012. Copyright © EdNewsColorado.org Read here. Written by Van Schoales. I recently completed a backyard construction project that got me thinking about early childhood education systems. My project has been a bit of an odyssey that began four or five years ago when I thought that with limited resources,…
News Release Thursday, February 16, 2012 at 6pm Media Contact: Van Schoales, CEO, A+ Denver (303) 725-1151 van@aplusdenver.org The Denver Plan and the Board of Education: Time to reevaluate the strategic plan to reflect current priorities and accountability measures. A+ Denver has submitted a letter to the DPS Board of Education addressing our concerns with…
Originally posted on DenverPost.com, Feb. 12, 2012. Copyright © DenverPost.com Read here. Written by Van Schoales and Barbara O’Brien. Too many students are graduating from Colorado high schools without the skills or knowledge to succeed in college. A little more than a decade ago, we were part of a team at the Colorado Children’s Campaign…
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…
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…
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,…
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.…
Originally posted on DenverPost.com, Dec. 1, 2011. Copyright © Denverpost.com Read here. Written by Yesenia Robles. A new report complied by a coalition of local nonprofit groups is urging Denver Public Schools to press for better data and to evaluate reforms more closely. “There’s a challenge in terms of getting good data, and having publicly…
News Release Wednesday, November 30, 2011 Media Contact Christine Rafanelli, Communications Director Colorado Children’s Campaign Office: (303) 620-4544, Cell: (720) 281-8175 Van Schoales, CEO, A+ Denver (303) 725-1151 DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS MAKES STEADY GAINS IN ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT, BUT OUTCOMES REMAIN BELOW STATE AVERAGES AND ACHIEVEMENT GAPS HAVE GROWN Start with the Facts Report Examines Student…