Transcript: Chat with Nancy Mitchell and Holly Yettick

Published May 19, 2005 at midnight

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More Education

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reader_question Question: I will not be able to join the live chat but I do have a question. In Tuesday's issue, the review of site based management or decentralization in schools did not mention Denver Public Schools' experiment with site based management. From 1991 to 2002, the schools were governed by CDM committees, a type of site based management. An independent evaluation of this system was done in 1991 and funded by the BOE and the DCTA. The study found many problems with this system and could not find any association between CDMs and improved student achievement. The High School Reform Committee was never shown this evaluation, as far as I can determine. Did the reporters know of this history? If so, why wasn't it included?

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dps_ Question:is there significant statistical data on the number of muslim students in denver? i didn't see them in any charts.

Nancy Answer:No, we are not aware of any organizations, including DPS, that survey students based on religion. You can certainly see students at several high schools, such as South High, which has a large immigrant population, wearing traditional Muslim garb. But we have no way of knowing at this point how many Muslim students there are in DPS.

Holly You are correct. We should have mentioned CDMs. However, time and space limitations severely limited what we we could include. Also, I would argue that, for a variety of reasons, CDMs never had true, site-based power over the budgeting and decisions at their schools.

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JJ_ Question:How does DPS fare with other major school districts in helping out mentally handicapped kids?

Holly Answer:That's a good question and I'm not sure how to answer it since we focused this series on DPS.

JJ_ Question:How does DPS fare with other major school districts in helping out mentally handicapped kids?

Holly Answer:However, a good source of information for you might be the Mental Health Association of Colorado at http://www.mhacolorado.org/

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JJ_ Question:but does dps have a lot of mentally handicapped students?

Holly Answer:According to the state of Colorado, 8,324 DPS students are special education students. We did a quick analysis of third graders and found that about 1 percent were classified as emotionally disabled last year. However, that percentage will probably rise as students get older since emotional handicaps don't always manifest themselves or get diagnosed when a child is young.

future_teacher Question:read the ditching story today. why don't schools kick those kids butts and get them to class! what is this school district doing about ditching?

Holly Answer:Ditching is definitely a big issue in DPS and other school districts. One major problem in DPS is that the district no longer has districtwide truancy officers for middle and high school. Each school must dip into its budget or solicit grant money to deal with the problem on its own. Principals say that is increasingly difficult due to budget cuts in recent years.

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future_teacher Question:I'm planning on teaching soon — I'm getting my masters in education. From what you know, do principals make a big difference in how kids enjoy schools in DPS — or is the teachers?

Nancy Answer:Principals make a big difference in school leadership, in setting a school environment and in demanding excellence from teachers. So I do think principals are key but teachers are on the front lines. Principals set the conditions for good student-teacher relationshps but teachers are the ones in contact with students on a daily basis.

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Hi. This is Tim, the moderator. We'll be wrapping up the chat here in a few minutes. Thanks to Nancy and Holly for answering readers' questions. I'll be posting the transcript on the site soon.

Holly Answer: This is a continuation of the answer to the question about ditching school...That said--some schools do a better job than others at fighting truancy. In tomorrow's paper, for instance, Burt Hubbard profiles a man at Lincoln High School who is one two para-professionals assigned to reducing truancy at that school. This para earns just $12 an hour but has helped reduce the school's absence rate.

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