Raising the bar, raising success in schools

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Monday, September 17, 2007

On Thursday, the word of the day for the 200 students who attend West Denver Preparatory Charter School was urgent.

As in, urgent, urgency, urgently.

"Your education is urgent, your future is urgent," head of school Chris Gibbons told the uniform-clad students circled around him in the school's daily morning meeting.

"Go into class urgently," he said, and then almost offhandedly, "Why are you here?"

The response was immediate, a chorus of voices slowly enunciating every word.

"I am here to strive for college," the sixth- and seventh-graders recited in unison.

Then they turned and marched out quickly, single file, silently, past the day's visitors - the admissions counselor of a prestigious private school and the head of a charter school across town - who have come to see how this fledging school works.

Success, amid failure

In a single year, in a former nursing home on the busy stretch of South Federal Boulevard that runs through the impoverished Westwood neighborhood, Gibbons and his staff have created a school that succeeds where others have failed.

They knocked on doors and recruited families. Today, West Denver Prep has a waiting list in a part of the city where neighborhood schools were losing students.

Gibbons and his staff asked children ages 10 and 11 to wear uniforms, to do homework every night, to come to school earlier and stay later, to not cuss or talk back or fight - and, for the most part, the kids complied.

They took sixth-graders from neighborhood elementaries who were, on average, two years below grade level and accelerated their skills, on average, three years in math, two years in writing and 1 1/2 years in reading.

West Denver Prep opened its doors in fall 2006 and, in its first round of state tests the following spring, outperformed district averages in reading, writing and math.

Yet not a single principal from a DPS neighborhood school has come to visit West Denver Prep or, for that matter, the nearby KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy, a charter school serving a similarly high-poverty population with similarly successful results.

Richard Barrett, who runs KIPP Sunshine Peak and who is both more experienced and opinionated than Gibbons, shakes his head when asked about the lack of interest.

"The biggest things we do you can do in every school," he said. "Our job would be so much easier if every school did this. Because then it would be the norm."

Charter vs. traditional

Turns out, lawyers - and DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet - agree with Barrett. Much of what is happening at his school, and at West Denver Prep, could happen in DPS neighborhood schools.

Want to limit enrollment to a certain number of kids? Manual High School did it this year, allowing a maximum of 180 ninth-graders to enroll.

Want to raise the bar higher than DPS policy? Try it. Bruce Randolph 6-12 School is doing it, deviating from a district policy that requires parental approval to hold kids back a grade.

"The legal advice is, as long as we're providing opportunities for all school-aged children in the city and county of Denver, there are no legal prohibitions on schools being able to establish sets of expectations with kids," Bennet said.

In other words, any Denver school can take a tough academic stance, such as requiring kids to do two hours of homework every night, as long as a student unable or unwilling to accept the work can attend another school in DPS.

"Schools can effect policies that set admissions criteria or requirements like Saturday school or other things," he said, "but the district needs to make sure it is providing education to kids who, for whatever reason, aren't served by places like that."

An issue of equity

Bennet and his senior academic adviser, Brad Jupp, say DPS schools may be reluctant to set admissions criteria or otherwise raise the bar for all the right reasons.

Namely, the long-held value that public schools should serve every child who walks in their doors.

"We don't want to create something inadvertently bigoted or unfair," Jupp said.

That argument falls flat with Gibbons and Barrett, who contend there's little equitable about a system of schools where minority and poor children trail their Anglo and affluent classmates in every subject tested.

Consider that 75 percent of Anglo seventh-graders in DPS were reading at grade level in spring 2007, compared with 29 percent of Hispanic seventh-graders.

The two also have little patience for the claim that they're serving a select group of students whose parents are involved enough to make a school choice.

Barrett, in recruiting students for his first year, drove up and down South Federal with school fliers, pulling over when he saw kids of middle-school age.

He also stood outside Elitch Gardens amusement park, passing out fliers to families.

Gibbons obtained a list of fifth-graders in selected West Denver neighborhoods - such student lists are available to every principal - and he and his staff went door to door.

'I don't like easy'

Alfredo Huerta, whose daughter Karina is a sixth-grader at West Denver Prep, learned about the school when John Dues, the school's academic chief, knocked on his door.

"We were looking for something better for her," said Huerta, whose older daughter went to the neighborhood middle school, Kepner, and who was concerned about rumors of bullying there.

While an increasing number of families in DPS choose to attend a school outside their neighborhood - nearly 40 percent in 2005-06 - that trend has largely eluded the less affluent and Hispanic children who form the core at West Denver Prep and KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy.

The fact that both schools have waiting lists proves such families, informed of an option, are happy to take it.

Huerta, for one, likes that his daughter is being challenged by hours of daily homework.

"I don't like easy," he said. "I think it's good for her because it is forming her character."

Kristin Waters, principal of Bruce Randolph 6-12 School in north Denver, said she hopes parents of her students feel the same.

Waters held a series of meetings in August to explain to families that the school will no longer promote students who do not meet grade-level expectations.

That's a deviation from the DPS policy giving parents the final say in whether their kids in grades one through eight are held back, even if teachers say they're not ready.

An all-choice district

Waters, a DPS traditional school principal who admits checking out charters for ideas, consulted attorneys to ensure she could enforce the change.

A parent who refuses to comply with the plan will be told, "There are 17 other middle schools in the district - maybe this isn't a good fit for you," Waters said.

Key to the change, she said, is that her teachers are increasing academic support such as tutoring for their students. She's figuring out how to pay for that.

"It does take total staff buy-in. It does take a community that is willing to support it and say, 'Hey, we want the best for our kids,' " Waters said, "and a belief in the kids that it can be done."

Nationally, school districts from San Francisco to Cambridge, Mass., are requiring parents to pick among a set of school choices for their children.

That includes Mapleton Public Schools, a 6,000-student district north of Denver, which last fall eliminated neighborhood schools altogether.

Instead, the "all-choice" district requires parents to pick from among 17 small schools and academies, such as a Montessori elementary, a K-12 international academy and a technology-rich high school.

"I believe that choice is what will fill our kids' schools in the future," said Superintendent Charlotte Ciancio. "I don't think people will settle any more for the school in their community, unless they choose the community for the school."

Seeking innovation

On Oct. 1, when DPS announces its long-awaited list of proposed school closures, Bennet also is expected to release a plan for more innovation in Denver schools.

That will likely include a process allowing principals and others to pitch new school designs.

While Bennet won't talk about what that will look like, he will say that he is interested in new ideas. And he prefers they bubble up from communities rather than be dictated from his corner office.

"I'd like to see schools do whatever it is they can do to establish very intentional school cultures with a very high set of expectations for conduct," he said. "What we have said to principals is, 'The day has long gone when you can simply unlock your front door and expect to fill your school.' "

What is different also can be difficult.

During the first week of school at West Denver Prep, as students adjusted to more rules and more homework, Gibbons talked to them about a Nelson Mandela quote they will hear throughout the year:

It always seems impossible until it's done.

Admissions policies

• Issue: Can a traditional DPS neighborhood school set standards for admissions?

• Answer: Yes. Any public school can require students to wear uniforms, sign contracts spelling out homework obligations or limit the number of children per classroom, grade and campus.

• What the law says: "The legal question is, are you providing them an education in the system?" said Maree Sneed, a Washington, D.C., attorney who has argued student assignment issues before the U.S. Supreme Court. "Parents may say, 'I have a right to go to that school; I can see it from my kitchen window' . . . But no one has a constitutional right to go to any particular school."

SUCCESSFUL CHARTER SCHOOLS

• KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy

Teachers, students and parents sign a commitment-to-excellence form outlining the commitments of each party. Examples: Students commit to coming to school from 7:25 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday and 7:25 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Friday.

• West Denver Prep Students, parents, teachers and the head of school sign a family contract outlining expectations for all. Students "commit to do my homework every night" while teachers "commit to grading and returning all homework within one day."

• One DPS school takes a tough stance: Under a new policy at Bruce Randolph 6-12 School, the school will not promote students who do not meet grade-level expectations. This deviates from district policy allowing parents to decide if their children are promoted to the next grade.

• How DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet sees it: "Schools can effect policies that set admissions criteria or requirements like Saturday school or other things. There's an apparent conflict between the ideas of establishing these kinds of rules of the road and serving everyone . . . We have to find a way for that conflict to be resolved. It's a balance, and for a long time, it's been struck in favor of insufficient rules and expectations."

A closer look at two charters

WEST DENVER PREP

• Location: 1825 S. Federal Blvd.

• Enrollment: 200 students in grades six and seven

• Demographics: 91 percent Hispanic, 87 percent poverty rate

• Percentage passing the 2007 sixth-grade state test

West Denver Prep

Reading Math

49% 66%

Denver Public Schools average

Reading Math

44% 40%

KIPP SUNSHINE PEAK ACADEMY

• Location: 375 S. Tejon St.

• Enrollment: 342 students in grades five through eight

• Demographics: 89 percent Hispanic, 91 percent poverty rate

• Percentage passing the 2007 eighth-grade state test

KIPP Sunshine Peak

Reading Math

67% 65%

Denver Public Schools average

Reading Math

38% 22%

About the series

Denver Public Schools is at a crossroads. The district can change the way it serves 72,000 children - or continue a downward spiral of declining enrollment and dismal achievement.

DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet admitted this reality in April after a series in the Rocky Mountain News explored why one in four Denver children do not attend the city's schools.

"It is hard to admit," he wrote in a letter signed by all seven DPS school board members, "but it is abundantly clear that we will fail the vast majority of children in Denver if we try to run our schools the same old way."

Yet the way ahead is not clear. On Oct. 1, Bennet will announce a list of Denver schools to be closed in a bid to save money and funnel those dollars into the district's reform plan to raise achievement.

He'll also announce a way for innovative ideas to take root in DPS, allowing requests to reimagine how some schools operate.

What should the new DPS look like? A district of small, specialized schools? A district of improved neighborhood schools? Or some of both?

Starting today, the Rocky begins an occasional series looking at outside-the-box strategies already working in Denver. Some charter schools, in particular, are making gains with the very children - Hispanic, poor, middle school-aged or older - floundering in traditional DPS schools.

What are schools such as West Denver Preparatory and KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy doing to create success? And is the rest of DPS paying attention?

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245