Blog posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.
Edwina Maben is a singer, songwriter and producer, and participant in Youth on Record’s FEMpowered. A+ Colorado was pleased to co-host the Arts Education for All Forum where Edwina performed and shared her story. Songwriting has given me the ability to let certain chapters of my life live forever. Particularly in my high school years,…
I’m not sure why, but I resisted writing this blog. It may be because I don’t consider myself a “blogger,” or because I’m not convinced I have anything substantive to put in writing. (It feels way too permanent to me.) Or, perhaps it’s the juxtaposition of my resistance to the “worship of the written word”…
The beginning of a new superintendency is a time of great opportunity for a school district like the Denver Public Schools. After a roaring start with a teacher strike, with an outcome deemed a success by the DPS administration and the DCTA (union) alike, Denver now needs to reflect on the value of a principal.…
A+ Colorado recently had the opportunity to collaborate with the African Leadership Group on their new report, Your Community, Your Schools as part of our new initiative, the Community EdData Hub. We invited Juliet Sebold, Associate Director of the African Leadership Group, to share some thoughts about her experience: As an organization, we understand that…
Teachers, the teacher union, district leaders, the school board and community leaders are unanimous in calling for an effort to close our deplorable achievement gap yet the outcome of the current teacher compensation impasse (and possible strike) will likely determine what happens to the achievement gap. We need to think far bigger about how we…
By Lisa Berdie, Policy & Research Director, A+ Colorado DPS and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA) are staring down a January 18th expiration of the current ProComp agreement, and, potentially, a strike if an agreement is not reached. Where DCTA and DPS will land on the system design and overall amount allocated to teacher…
A version of this post originally appeared on the blog The Open System. As some readers know, I regularly publish podcasts on my website The Open System. The podcast and website explores themes of family engagement, feedback loops between systems and communities and ways to make our education system work for the communities they serve. This…
By Guest Blogger: John Youngquist, East High School Principal For over a quarter of a century I have served in Denver Public Schools, and beyond, as a teacher, principal, mentor and coach, area superintendent and chief academic officer. As a proud alumnus of a Denver Public School, I have experienced many successes that many of my fellow…
In spite of the largest blue wave to hit Colorado in many decades, voters turned down Amendment 73, the tax measure to increase funding to public education. How can this be? Many school districts across the state are clearly struggling for funds. Few have full-day kindergarten for all students. Colorado currently has one of the…
By Guest Blogger: Dan Lutz On October 30 at Bear Creek High School, several of us on the A+ Action Team attended the A+ report release and presentation regarding the status and progress of English language learners in schools and districts around Colorado. It was an impressive event about an arena that is important to me.…