Schools for Tomorrow Blog

Seems like Denver Public Schools is overdue for some good news: Even as the rest of the state treads water, today’s release of CSAP results underscores a positive trend in Colorado’s 2^nd largest school district:

Denver Public Schools made substantial 3.6 percentage point gains in reading scores, according to an internal memo obtained by Education News Colorado.

DPS also outpaced the state in terms of reading gains at all eight grade levels tested, the memo said. However, the urban district still lags far behind Colorado’s overall reading scores.

The Denver district made more modest gains in writing, mathematics and science, though even those gains – in the vicinity of 1 percent –  bested the state, which had a flat year.

“Though we always aspire for better outcomes, we are pleased with this year’s CSAP results,” DPS’ departing Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino wrote in an email to district staff.  “The scores are a validation…

Today’s press conference unveiling 2008 CSAP scores was, when you get right down to it, much ado about, well, nothing much.

Windy speeches abounded, the crowd in the packed lobby of the Colorado Department of Education’s ornate HQ applauded dutifully at all the right moments. The word of the day was ‘mixed,” as in CSAP results were “mixed,” which is a polite synonym for not so great, or maybe even lousy.

As usual, some schools and districts did better than expected while others did worse. This year, Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools exceeded expectations, giving those beleaguered urban districts, and their break-the-mold superintendents a boost, and raising expectations for next year.

But the whole event had an anticlimactic air about it, because the big shoe has yet to drop. That would be detailed data from the gaudy new Colorado Growth Model, also known as Information That Actually Means Something. We got…

It’s a fair piece, right down the middle. Read it here. Registration required.