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

Are Colorado’s Charter Schools Public?

In order to answer the question, it is important to define what is a public school.  There are many ways to answer the question from a legal, political, practice and mission perspective.  Some of these are easier to answer than others. The simple but incomplete answer per Colorado law, a public school “is a school…

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Disrupt Implicit Bias by Personalizing Your District

By Keara Duggan, Partner at Education Elements, and Dr. Landon Mascareñaz, Senior Partner for Advocacy and Alliances at A+ Colorado This blog originally appeared on January 24, 2018 on Education Elements Personalization is everywhere you turn today – from your online shopping recommendations to your daily coffee order. Some districts have realized the power of personalization and…

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Transformative Transitions: Fletcher & Rocky Mountain Prep

This article is the first part of a multi-part series on potentially transformative school improvement initiatives, leading up to A+ Colorado’s Turnaround Convening on May 4, 2018. Save the date and stay tuned for more information.   Purpose A+ Colorado is deeply committed to understanding and sharing research and best practice that has the potential…

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Robin Lake: Denver’s Storied Portfolio District Is Starting to Act Like Just Another City School System

By Robin Lake, Director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, Affiliate faculty at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington Bothell This blog originally appeared on January 17, 2018 on the The74. Denver Public Schools hosts endless visits from civic and district leaders looking for ways to reinvent public education.…

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Does Race Matter for Colorado’s Influential Education Organization Boards?

  As we enter another education policy season with hundreds of legislative bills designed to improve public education, I thought it might be interesting to take a look at who sits on some of the state’s most influential education organizations. Colorado is a diverse state with a growing number of non-white students (46%). Our largest…

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A Call For Accurate School Performance Reporting in Denver Public Schools

The leaders of six civil rights and community groups (Urban League of Metropolitan Denver, NAACP Denver Branch, African Leadership Group, Together Colorado, Alpha Phi Alpha, Inc., and Padres & Jovenes Unidos) issued a joint letter calling on the Denver school board to immediately correct what they called misleading and inflated School Performance Framework ratings. View the letter here.


A-town on the Rise?

The Aurora school board race was its most expensive in history.  A+ Colorado extends congratulations to everyone who participated in the race. It was hard fought and raised big questions about the future of Aurora schools.   Chalkbeat Colorado has reported on the dynamics at play in Aurora immediately following the election of new school…

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Open Ecosystems

Part of a series on open systems in education A common question about open systems is “What is required beyond the school or district for an open system to succeed? What about the broader ecosystem?”  “Yeah, it’s great to have districts or schools work with parents in co-creation – but there is an entire civic…

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Has Denver Reached the Peak or is it Starting the Climb?

It’s been over a year since I opined about Denver Public Schools’ strategic direction What Will Tom Do? and I thought it would be a good time to reflect. In particular, the recent elections are the perfect time to step back and think through the next stage of the work in Denver.  I congratulate all…

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ELA Scores Hide the Gap: Give Us Reading and Writing Scores (Again)

by Peter Huidekoper Jr., Coordinator, Colorado Education Policy Fellowship Program, St. John’s College, New Mexico Remember the 3 R’s? Remember those days of yesteryear when our parents, grandparents, and other old fogeys thought it pretty important to be sure that, if nothing else, schools taught us reading, writing, and mathematics? Yes, writing.  Not the nebulous “language…

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