These posts are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of A+ Colorado.
The decision of the DPS School Board to press “pause” on the School Performance Compact should cause concern and honest reflection from all education observers and advocates in the city. Community groups who engaged with the district on this policy over the last three years were taken by surprise by the sudden decision. This is…
Guest Blogger: Kristin Barnes I am the proud mama of three boys who attend our Northwest Denver neighborhood elementary school. When my oldest son started ECE there in the fall of 2012, I co-founded a PTO and immediately became more involved in the school. I later joined the Collaborative School Committee (CSC) and after that…
There has a been a good deal of discussion about whether it will be good or bad for Denver land the next headquarters for Amazon. How will it impact our already congested roads and growing housing costs? What will happen to the economy with a new big fish? There has been a…
DPS is promising more community engagement than ever before. Yet, by spinning this many plates at the same time, they create potential for overloading their ability to process the information and underwhelming community members with their inability to act on feedback or commitments. Last week, over 100 education advocates attended our launch event for our…
It’s almost summer and A+ Colorado is racing towards the finish line just like many students and educators as the school year winds down. Read on to find out what’s keeping us busy. A+ Updates Welcome to Laura Valle-Gutierrez, A+’s Newest Team Member We are thrilled to announce that we have hired Laura Valle-Gutierrez to…
Imagine this crazy story: every year, kids across Colorado take assessments to help us understand how much they’ve learned. Weeks of student, teacher, and district time go into making sure we really know how kids are doing. Families, education leaders, and civil rights groups ask the question – well, how are they doing? The State’s…
I am with the teachers here in Colorado, Oklahoma, Arizona that are calling for higher pay and more funding for public education. This is my thirtieth year in education. So much has changed in public education over the past three decades, yet the calls for professional pay for teachers remain much as they were in…
Guest Blogger: Dajia Maestas “ [You] were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that [you] were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: [you] were expected to make peace with mediocrity.” It was my freshman year at Manual High school.…
Guest Blogger: Richard D. Lamm, Governor of Colorado 1975-1987 Let me suggest that there is a single thing you can do in your new role to improve education in Colorado, that won’t cost much money, doesn’t require legislative approval and is not controversial. It is also simple: find ways to say “Thank You” to…
Denver has had a remarkable transformation from the sleepy cow town that I moved to 20 years ago. We now have five nationally recognized art museums (we had only one back then) and many new amazing restaurants, some with James Beard awards. Denver has a thriving economy with a 2.8% unemployment rate with impressive growth…