From the editor

What’s summer vacation without the smell of union-district discord wafting on the Denverbreeze?

Stench is more like it. Unlike the evocative scents of charcoal, sunscreen and newly-mown grass, this odor is distinctly unpleasant, and, unfortunately, almost as seasonally predictable.

Denver, Aurora, Pueblo and Durango are among the school districts where bargaining teams have reached an impasse as teachers head off for their summer break.

This year, the stakes seem especially high in Denver. Denver Public Schools and the Denver Classroom Teachers Association have been justifiably lauded for the pioneering ProComp teacher compensation system. Voters approved ProComp in 2005, at an annual cost of $25 million, paid for through a small bump in the city sales tax. It turns out, however, that ProComp hasn’t been all that popular with teachers, and as a result, much of the money has gone unspent, and is piling up in a trust fund.

It’s hard for people running cash-strapped public enterprises to watch a heap of cash grow before their eyes without devising ways to spend it. In this case, Supt. Michael Bennet has what seems an eminently sensible idea: he wants to frontload teacher bonuses – and salary increases – in the early years of a teacher’s career. The union is crying foul, asserting that Bennet is dissing veteran teachers and violating the spirit of the voter-approved initiative. The word “strike” is floating around. DPS risks a black eye for what was once considered its crowning achievement.

Rather than expound further on something I find bewilderingly complex, I am going to place this in the capable hands of Alexander Ooms, a member of the A+ Denver independent citizens watchdog group. Alex wrote the following in response to a Schools for Tomorrow blog post. It’s clear, insightful and easy to understand:

Putting together some of the numbers from different sources of information on this dispute shows a connection that, for me at least, better explains the divide between the DCTA and DPS.

20% of teachers who start at DPS leave in the first 5 years; 9% of teachers who have taught 5 years leave before year 11; and only 1% of teachers who teach for 11 years ever leave. If you make it 11 years, the chances are overwhelmingly high that you are in for the full 30 to qualify for the DPS (now PERA) pension.

The economic incentives for these different groups — teachers with less than 11 years of service, and teachers with 11 years of more of service — are strikingly different. The pension benefits to a teacher with less than 11 years of service are minimal. The pension benefits for the full 30 years of service are extraordinary: for a teacher who began their career at age 25 or less and teaches for 30 years, the Piton Foundation calculated the pension value at about $1.25 million (yes, million). As with most things financial in the public sector, there is a downside and many economists would argue it is partly the considerable value of the pension which limits salaries, most significantly to new and young teachers (with a significant pension obligation, there is less money left over to increase base pay, particularly when that base pay has a multiplier effect that further increases pensions).

A significant, and perhaps even the core issue dividing the two sides, is which ProComp dollars are paid as a one-time bonus (DPS preference), or as part of base salary (DCTA position). The difference financially is significant: the final three years of base salary is the critical factor that determines pension amount. If an incentive bonus becomes part of base salary, instead of being a one-time payment, the increase factors into both every remaining year of salary and the entire life of the pension. A ProComp payment into base salary essentially becomes an increase that is paid out annually over potentially the next 30+ years.

So if you are the DCTA, which group is your core constituency? Teachers who will leave before 11 years of service, or teachers who will stay for between 11 and 30 years? It is hard to represent both groups equally well, so whom do you choose? Who do you think is the more vocal group? Who has more members on committees and in the governance structure? Who has more influence?

DCTA, regardless of one's opinion on their practices, are clearly smart (and historically very effective). As the Union negotiating team, would you fight hard for the interests of people who will be DCTA members for between 5 and 11 years and leave? Or for those who will be union members for 30 years?  No contest there, and it's clear who the current DCTA proposal favors.

At some point, young, smart teachers – the exact type that DPS and every other school system need most to recruit – even if they are not going to teach  for 30 years, need to better understand that they are supporting a system in which their voice is muted and from which they receive disproportionately small rewards. Maybe they would continue to retain the current structure, but not many people knowingly act against their own self-interest. The DCTA sure does not, nor do the teachers with 11 years experience.

Thank you, Alexander, for the helpful framing.

What follows is Valdez School Principal Peter Sherman’s final contribution to the enewsletter. Peter’s honest assessment of the challenges he faces is refreshing and important reading.

At Valdez, determined to prove a district school can break through

By Peter Sherman

My first year as principal at Valdez School is coming to a close.  By most measurements, public schools are not serving low-income and English-language learning students well, Valdez included.  It has become clear to me that business as usual is not bringing about the results that we need.  I am increasingly convinced that I need to think and act out of the box, building partnerships and alliances with other organizations and taking charge of the necessary conditions for the success of our students.

The challenge I took on this year at Valdez was to revitalize the school and change the low performance of its students. Our reform is one of conversion. But this type of reform leaves us in somewhat of a no-man’s land – we have initial permission to launch major changes, but we don’t have long-term backing or resources.  With all of the emphasis and politics focused on new schools lately, where does that leave Valdez and many other district schools doing good, hard work?

In nine months, I believe we’ve initiated some important and potentially potent changes.  We have:  implemented a new dual-language/Montessori program; acquired a school improvement grant through the state; improved our classroom environments; increased enrollment; built a strong partnership with Padres Unidos (a community organizing and advocacy organization); established a parent-teacher organization; and increased our third grade CSAP reading scores by a few percentage points.

More important than these accomplishments, we’ve put in place some essential conditions that, I believe, are necessary for reform and  student growth.

These conditions include:

·         building and identifying coherent goals and strategies for the school;

·         hiring and supporting strong and like-minded teachers;

·         building community support and partnerships; and

·         acquiring and allocating funds to target efforts.

Most of these conditions are hindered by bureaucratic systems.  Much of my work this year has been managing and steering a school through and around these obstacles.

District schools have obligations to the district.  Despite the strong leadership of Michael Bennet and his staff, DPS continues to be a large organization that operates centrally, demanding academic and organizational conformity. 

I appreciate and rely on many aspects of the district:  curricula, centralized assessments, payroll services, and facility maintenance.  Yet I struggle with departments that don’t have the necessary resources to support schools – resulting in hours of my time negotiating, navigating, and patching.  I don’t have the resources to spend on this type of management. Nor do I wish for complete organizational independence – I don’t want to have to do many of these tasks.  I wish for efficiency and sufficient resources so that I can focus on academics and instruction.

District schools have obligations to the numerous unions represented in DPS.  Our teacher’s union “advocates for the rights and responsibilities of educators and for an ethical system of quality public education for all students,”  according to the Denver Classroom Teachers Association website. Supporting my teachers is essential in building a cohesive and collaborative school staff.  These rights and responsibilities, however, often take precedence over the education of our students. 

Our unions dictate hiring timelines and procedures, teacher appraisal, accountability and non-renewal protocols and restrictions, daily and weekly work schedules, and criteria for professional development time.  These restrictions hinder the effective and efficient management of a school and my ability to build a strong school staff within a short period of time. Restrictions from the teacher’s union prohibit us from experimenting with some of the features that define successful local independent schools.

Finally, we are fortunate in Denver to have an active and intelligent community of school reformers – both individuals and organizations – who challenge the status quo.  Readers of this publication share the benefits of this community in many ways.  District schools however, are limited in the support they receive from reformers and funding organizations. 

Many of these organizations carry financial and political weight, yet they tend to fund schools that are new, different, and separate from districts.  They tend to fund middle and high schools.  86% of North High School entering ninth-graders were below grade level in literacy. These students needed extensive intervention long before they entered high school.  Academic proficiency begins at the elementary level, yet money often does not follow this need.

There is a prevailing belief that new schools hold promise; whereas existing (district) schools cannot fundamentally change.  Even the district has embraced this to some extent with the opening of the New Schools Office and the generous funding of the eight new/re-opened schools.

I look to my colleagues for ideas, inspiration and opportunities.  Most of my colleagues in charter schools simply do not have to operate under the same restrictions that guide my practice.  Many of them have demonstrated success where district schools have not.  I was told that I was the first DPS principal in four years to visit KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy – a school that employs many practices that can benefit my school. At least four DPS schools have either applied for or achieved autonomy from some of the district and union restrictions.  Will this route prove beneficial?  To be sure, we are exploring this as well.

It is clear that business as usual is not bringing about the results we need.  My interests draw me to seek out and develop partnerships that might support Valdez students, take advantage of our amazing location near downtown, and prove that a district school can be innovative and effective.  It is clear to me that, in order to accomplish school reform at Valdez, I will have to be creative, bold, and resourceful. 

Ednews highlights

Obama hammers education themes in Mapleton visit

Barack Obama used a rare visit to Colorado today to discuss his education agenda, and to heap praise upon a small suburban public high school run by one of his education advisors.

Obama, the almost-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, conducted a “town hall meeting” of about 1,000 people at the Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts (MESA). He spoke for about 30 minutes and answered questions from a largely adoring crowd for another half hour. Read his prepared remarks here.

Although much of what he said was stump speech boilerplate, Obama delved into the topic of education in more detail than usual, both during his remarks and in his answers to questions.

Throughout his remarks, Obama appeared careful to balance appeals to red-meat Democrat issues (No Child Left Behind is a mess, teachers are heroes) with carefully nuanced deviations from his party orthodoxy.

Study spotlights teacher attrition in Colorado

Strengthening teacher quality and increasing teacher retention are key to reducing Colorado Alliance for Quality Teaching. achievement gaps, according to a new study by the

The report noted that the achievement gap is a particular problem in Colorado, and “Overall there are few examples of significant improvement.”

The study, “Shining the Light II,” was released last week and follows up on a 2006 study of the state of teaching in Colorado.

The major conclusion of that earlier study was that “the greater the proportion of minority students or students eligible for the Free and Reduced Lunch Program (FRL) within a school or district, the lower the experience, education level and salary of the teachers and the greater the attrition rate. … The existence of this gap is particularly troublesome because these teacher characteristics are fundamental indicators of teacher quality and are positively correlated with student achievement.”

Blog highlights

Maybe if we ignore them they’ll go away

Monday, June 2, 2008

Written by: Alan Gottlieb

Montclair School of Academics and Enrichment wants to be the third Denver school to be set free from district and union rules and regulations. The Denver school board has approved the request. And the Denver Classroom Teachers Association?  Leadership is doing its best ostrich imitation. Read here for the details.

A new teacher-blogger weighs in

Friday, May 30, 2008

Written by: Rachel Pickett

Hello! My name is Rachel, and I’m a new blogger and also a new teacher.  To begin my first post I figured I’d let you know a little about me and why I’m interested in blogging about education.  I’m training to be a teacher through the Boettcher Teachers Program, and have just recently been hired for next year: I’m going to teach 7^th/8^th grade Humanities at Clayton Partnership (a school in Mapleton).

I’m very excited about this job! I have so many ideas of how I want to set up my classroom, and am curious about ways the Thornton and Denver community can get involved in my students’ education. I’m interested in writing for this blog because I see it as a space where we can communicate and talk through ideas about how best to serve kids, whether that be contemplating educational policy or contemplating classroom practice. It’s vital to have these conversations, and having them definitely helps me grow as a teacher. I look forward to our conversation, and your questions and musings are most welcome.

I’m currently finishing up my residency year (similar to student teaching) at Skyview Academy. Earlier this week we had a huge and exciting surprise: Barack Obama visited and spoke in our building. The principal of MESA ( Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts) is one of Obama’s educational advisors, and MESA is in the same building as Skyview, so we got to hear him talk about education in our auditorium. He spoke about bringing our schools into the 21^st century through revamping NCLB and rewarding innovative teaching.

As a teacher, I’m designing learning experiences that prepare students for a workforce that is not yet in existence. Our society is changing and growing so fast that we literally can’t imagine the jobs that will be here 10 or 20 years from now.  Obama was saying that, while we can’t know what these jobs are, what we do know is that they require an educated workforce.

I am wondering how to frame educational reform in a way that is relevant to this emerging society. I don’t know that higher test scores are fully reliable indicators of the learning our kids need to prepare them for the future. For example, will these tests help them to learn graphic design, website creation, and how to interact in multi-national environments? I’m not certain that the traditional way we have ‘done school’ in this country is deeply connected with the skills students will need in the future, though of course there is a basic connection in the foundation of knowledge that math, science, and humanities currently offer.

One reason kids can disengage in school is because we haven’t adequately answered their questions, “What’s the point of this? Why are we learning it? How will it help me?” My thinking is that educational reform needs to be able to answer these questions in ways that students understand, so that their own education makes sense to them and relates to their futures.

What do you think?

Why do some insist on setting kids up for failure?

Friday, May 30, 2008

Written by: Sari Levy

There always has to be someone who says it. I got to the bottom of the Rocky article on the Obama visit… Eureka!

While the speech - and the several questions afterward - generated applause, one area that Christina Eyre said Obama didn’t sufficiently address was vocational training.

The 39-year-old Denver resident and Obama supporter since the February caucus said it is a mistake to think every high school student is suited for college. She said more should be done to allow those teens to learn trades.

"We’re always going to need people that are auto mechanics or in other trades," she said. "When we think every kid should go and graduate from college, we set some of them up for failure."

Could we please get past this? Please? Please? There are somewhere around 800,000 auto mechanics in this country (.5% of the workforce) making about $16 an hour.  That’s what? Maybe $30,000/year? To top it off, if that would-be mechanic doesn’t go to college, his or her kids are less likely to go, regardless of their intelligence. I’m not the first to regurgitate the research that parents’ education level has more effect on children’s achievement and attainment than almost anything else.

Who’s setting who up for failure?

One Response to “Why do some insist on setting kids up for failure?”

1. Jumbo Says:
   May 30th, 2008 at 1:17 pm e

So auto mechanics are failures?

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