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

Colorado High Schools that Prepare their Graduates for Life, Work and College

This month, 50,000 Colorado students will graduate from high school, but more than one third—about 17,500 students—will not be college ready. Most Colorado high schools graduate some of their students ready for the next steps in life, but far too few high schools graduate most of their students ready to take on the challenges of…

Continue Reading …


Out of Disappointment, An Opportunity?

Aurora School Board Director Cathy Wildman made multiple anti-immigrant statements at the Aurora Public Schools Board Meeting on May 15. The resolution brought before the school board should not have been controversial, Denver and many other school districts passed similar resolutions without controversy. The resolution, crafted by APS students and families convened through RISE Colorado,…

Continue Reading …


Suppressed and Unimpressed: Colorado’s Disappearing Data

Could you imagine a city that didn’t closely track the value of every house to assess property taxes? This data is ubiquitous and drives both individual decisions (like home buying) and policy decisions around budgeting, planning, zoning, and transit. This information is available to the public and policymakers nearly immediately and is just a google…

Continue Reading …


Educating for the Rise of the Robots

“We’ve managed to slip evolution’s leash now, haven’t we? We can cure any disease, keep even the weakest of us alive and one fine day perhaps we shall even resurrect the dead, call forth Lazarus from his cave. Do you know what that means? That means we are done, that this is as good as…

Continue Reading …


The End of School Accountability?

Last week, the Colorado State Board of Education turned its back on the 83,475 students in turnaround and priority improvement schools when they gave Aurora Central High School and HOPE Online a free pass to continue to continue to collect our tax dollars despite not educating our students.    The Colorado State Board of Education…

Continue Reading …


Colorado’s ESSA Plan: An Incomplete Pass

Originally appeared in Education Post. Published online: April 14, 2017, as “Colorado’s ESSA Plan Doesn’t Quite Get All Kids Across the Goal Line.” As Colorado updates its accountability system to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), we have the opportunity to rethink how it provides both accountability and transparency. Unfortunately, the ESSA State Plan…

Continue Reading …


How We Got Colorado’s Teacher-Evaluation Reform Wrong

Originally appeared in EdWeek Vol. 36, Issue 27, Page 28. Published in Print: April 5, 2017, as “The New Teacher-Evaluation Laws: Education’s Pyrrhic Victory?” Back in May 2010, hundreds of the nation’s education foundation, policy, and practice elites were gathered for the NewSchools Venture Fund meeting in Washington to celebrate and learn from the most recent education…

Continue Reading …


Why Can’t You Speak From the Heart? Race, Class & “Authentic” Community Engagement

College-educated power brokers are often skeptical of well-informed community voice, especially when it comes from families who are low income or people of color. Most recently, I saw this with an Aurora mother whose daughter graduated from Hinkley. She was motivated to join the Resident Leaders Council when her daughter had to enroll in remedial…

Continue Reading …


High Expectations have to Coincide with a Student-Centered Philosophy

By Chris Geary, Guest Blogger As an AP World History teacher at a charter school in the Far Northeast of Denver that holds uniquely high expectations for students, I have witnessed the fundamental necessity of expecting students to perform to the best of their ability on a daily basis. Students absolutely can, and will repeatedly,…

Continue Reading …


Time to Reflect on Colorado’s Teacher Evaluation System (SB-191)?

The long awaited Teacher Effectiveness Data from the 2014-2015 School Year arrived last week with remarkably little fanfare. It has been seven years since teacher evaluation bill SB-191 was passed. Who would have guessed that that there were fewer than 5 ineffective principals in all of Colorado or that most school districts had zero ineffective…

Continue Reading …