Denver schools pick up the pace

After years of flat scores in reading, DPS sees a big jump

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Published August 3, 2006 at midnight

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Test results released Wednesday show Denver Public Schools outpaced the state in gains on most exams for the first time in years and posted the urban district's biggest jump ever in reading.

At least 40 percent of Denver students in grades 3 through 10 were reading at grade level on state exams given in English last spring, another first in 10 years of the Colorado Student Assessment Program.

"We've got a long way to go, obviously," said an exultant DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet, "but we're extremely pleased with the results."

Bennet, who took over DPS with little K-12 experience in July 2005, said the 73,000-student district still lags statewide averages in reading, writing, math and science.

Consider that 68 percent of Colorado fourth-graders were proficient readers on the 2006 exams, compared with 42 percent of their Denver classmates.

So outpacing the state - as DPS did on 18 of the 29 exams given this year - is the only way the district can ever catch up.

"We are much lower than where the state is and we should be going faster than the state," Bennet said. "We need to do it again next year and the next year and the year after that."

"Huge" reading gain

The 2006 achievement spike breaks what has been a pattern of stagnant achievement in DPS.

Reading scores particularly have been flat in recent years, despite expensive literacy campaigns launched in 1998 and in 2002.

But results released Wednesday show an average gain across grades 3 through 10 of 4 percentage points, a bigger jump than the past five years combined.

The exception came in Spanish- language reading exams given in grades 3 and 4, where results dropped. About 1,000 students took those exams.

Reading scores on English exams in every grade except third - which saw a 1 point dip - increased between 3 and 7 points.

"It's a huge one-year increase," Bennet said.

Math scores also improved at every grade but third and seventh, where they were unchanged. Science scores rose 2 points. Writing scores were flat overall, with increases in grades 7 through 10 but declines in grades 3 and 4.

Bennet and Jaime Aquino, the chief academic officer he recruited from New York City in October, said it's tough to credit any one change for the gains in their first year.

They point to an eight-week tutoring program for one in three DPS students that began in January and near daily meetings with principals.

"I would also say there's been a change in culture and beliefs to high expectations," said Aquino, whose first steps when hired included passing out research on high-performing, high-poverty schools. "We know it is possible. We can do this."

High, middle school growth

Results for Denver middle and high schools, despite little progress in recent years, also improved.

Growth in every subject in grades 6 through 10 either met or beat statewide average gains. In reading, DPS sixth-graders improved by 7 percentage points.

"There's a lot of good news here," said Kunsmiller Middle School Principal Alex Magaña.

Kunsmiller, in southwest Denver, and Martin Luther King Jr. Early College, in far northeast Denver, reported the top gains in all subjects among the city's neighborhood middle schools. Both schools saw their students' reading proficiency jump by more than 7 points.

Magaña, who came to Kunsmiller this year from nearby Lake Middle School, was in the midst of student home visits on Wednesday. He said Kunsmiller staff has built strong after-school programs to support a quarter of their students.

Also, "Teachers are focusing a lot more strategically on reading skills," he said. "Everyone's a reading teacher."

Among neighborhood high schools, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson in southeast Denver posted the strongest gains in proficiency in all subjects. Their growth edged even East High, the city's traditional academic powerhouse.

Low-performers struggle

Other schools did not do as well as DPS leaders had hoped.

Bruce Randolph School in north Denver, where reforms included a new principal and staff, saw gains in reading and writing but was mostly flat in math and science.

And results for Montbello High School in far northeast Denver were largely flat. The school, the site of a lunchroom homicide in January 2005, saw a year of major change under new Principal Antwan Wilson.

"None of it surprised me," Wilson said. "You've got to have teachers in classrooms. We had a number of classrooms last year that didn't have teachers."

The school will launch year one of an ambitious reform plan this fall. Wednesday, about 350 students attended Montbello's first Freshman Academy, learning about the school and brushing up on literacy and math skills. The program began Monday and wraps up Wednesday.

"The idea is, once school starts, they'll be ready," Wilson said, predicting stronger gains for 2007.

Bennet and Aquino also predict bigger gains for DPS next year. When school resumes Aug. 21 for most campuses, the district reform plan kicks in, including double doses of literacy and math for struggling students.

"They should be bigger," Aquino said.

"They need to be," Bennet said, "but this is a good start."

Denver Public Schools highlights

More Denver students achieved proficiency on state reading, math and science exams this year, but they flatlined on the writing tests.

Subject % proficient / advanced Change

Reading, grades 3-10 39.9% 43.6% Up 3.7 points

Writing, grades 3-10 30.5% 30.5% 0 change

Math, grades 3-10 28.6% 31.5% Up 2.9 points

Science, grade 8 20% 22% Up 2 points

• DPS posted stronger gains than most of its neighbors. Among the 15 metro-area school districts, only Adams Five-Star and Sheridan school districts saw greater increases in the percentage of students achieving proficiency on all state tests between 2005 and 2006.

• Redesigned schools saw improvement. Four low-performing schools were designated for "redesign" a year ago, meaning teachers had to reapply for their jobs and academic programs changed. Here's how they did based on students scoring proficient or advanced:

School Reading / Change from 2005 Math / Change from 2005

Brown Elementary 44% / Up 14 points 38% / Up 7 points

Bruce Randolph 6-12 School 17% / Up 6 points 5%/Down 1.2

Martin Luther King Jr. Early College 36% / Up 8 points 19% / Up 7 points

Mitchell Elementary 22% / Up 3 points 23% / Down 0.1

• Cole makes gains. Cole Middle School in north Denver was taken over by the state after years of dismal student achievement and has been operated since fall 2005 by the Knowledge Is Power Program, or KIPP Charter Schools Network. Here's how the school, now called Cole College Prep, performed based on eighth-graders scoring proficient and advanced:

Cole Reading Writing Math Science

2006 10% 8% 18% 10%

2005 10% 3% 4% 1%

• Unsatisfactory schools struggle. Two neighborhood elementary schools rated unsatisfactory by the state saw small improvement:

School Reading % prof/adv grades 3-5 Change from 2005 Math % prof/adv grades 3-5 Change from 2005

Johnson Elementary 18% Up 1.3 points 21.2% Up 4.9 points

Smith Elementary 22% Up 0.8 12.7% Up 0.1

• No bonus for Bennet. DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet will not earn his $40,000 bonus for improved student achievement. While CSAP scores increased, they did not rise by 5 percentage points in grades three, four and five in reading, writing and math. Reading scores fell in one grade and writing in two grades.

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