DPS profiles in success

Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

State test scores may be flat overall for Denver Public Schools this year, but some schools prove success is possible, in some unexpected places:

Playground games at Beach Court

There is little flashy about the work at Beach Court Elementary in a working-class neighborhood of far northwest Denver, except the results.

Readings scores climbed 25 percentage points on this year’s state tests. Writing scores were up 24 points. Math scores, likewise, jumped 24 points.

"I’m thrilled, excited, about the success our kids have shown," said an exuberant Frank Roti, principal of the 335-student school for the past five years.

Roti ticks off a textbook recipe for success — exemplary teachers and classroom aides, strong reading interventions in grades 1 through 3, an intense focus on student data to guide instruction.

So what’s different about their story?

They’re actually doing it, year in, year out. Beach Court is no one-year wonder. Two years ago, when the school also posted gains, the proud principal told a Rocky Mountain News reporter, "You’ll hear about us."

And Roti and his staff will keep at it this fall, though they must scramble to replace a grant supporting one of the reading programs. It went away this year.

"The teachers and I are going to figure it out," he said. "We have to."

There is one secret Roti has been keeping to himself — ferocious games of four-square, a playground ball game that Beach Court students adore.

It’s in the heat of those contests that Roti practices what he sees as another key to his school’s success. Bureaucratic types call it "relationship-building." Most people call it talking.

"It’s just a great way for me to spend time with the kids," said Roti, a classroom teacher for 11 years.

Beach Court Elementary

4950 Beach Court

Students: 89 percent eligible for free/reduced price lunch, an indicator of poverty; more than half are English language learners

Results: Reading — 69 percent of students at grade level or above; Writing — 49 percent at grade level or above; Math — 67 percent at grade level or above

100 minutes of math in West Denver

Hundreds of students have sought entry into West Denver Preparatory Charter School, in a part of the city where traditional DPS schools are struggling to keep kids.

The mostly low-income, mostly Hispanic families were operating on faith and hope — the school, which opened last fall, had no track record, no history of results.

Until now.

State test scores released Wednesday show West Denver Prep delivered on its promise. Its first class of sixth-graders outscored districtwide averages in reading, writing and math.

West Denver Prep’s results also beat those of the closest DPS middle schools — Kunsmiller, Rishel — by double and even triple the proficiency rates in those subjects.

One example — 66 percent of West Denver sixth-graders scored proficient or advanced on state math tests compared with 12 percent of Rishel students and 20 percent of Kunsmiller students.

"We’re very pleased," said Chris Gibbons, West Denver Prep’s head of school. "I think it shows strong progress toward the goals we’ve set. Our goal is 75 percent proficiency by eighth grade in all subjects."

Gibbons, who may define the term ‘data geek,’ then offered some numbers of his own. He compared the 2007 performance of his 101 students to how they did on the 2006 state tests, when they were fifth-graders.

He found 29 percent more students were proficient in math this year than last. In writing, the increase was 28 percent. In reading, it was 8 percent.

"I think that’s a really important measure," he said.

Gibbons is not sure why his students seem to be excelling more in math, other than the fact they’re in math class 100 minutes daily, five days a week.

"It’s an area of emphasis," he said, noting research showing students who pass algebra in the eighth grade are more likely to succeed in college.

One more set of numbers — Gibbons compared the fifth-grade test scores of his students against those of kids at the 14 elementary schools near West Denver Prep.

"There’s very little difference," he said, heading off the argument that some charter schools serve a special set of students.

West Denver Preparatory Charter

1825 S. Federal Blvd.

Students: 84 percent of students eligible for free/reduced-price lunches, an indicator of poverty

Results: Reading — 49 percent of students at grade level or above; Writing — 50 percent of students at grade level or above; Math — 66 percent of students at grade level or above

Rising above at KIPP Cole

Daisy Rocha was barely into her seventh-grade year at Cole Middle School in north Denver by October 2005 — and she was already on her fifth principal in 18 months.

"I thought you were going to quit, too," Rocha said Monday to Rich Harrison, principal No. 5.

Harrison did not give up. Or maybe he just didn’t know any better.

But over the next two years, Harrison, a first-time principal, and his two newbie teachers accomplished something decades of more experienced educators could not:

Cole students outperformed the district averages on three out of four state tests given in spring 2007.

That’s right. Students at Cole, once the lowest-performing middle school in the state. The only school in Colorado — so far — to be taken over by the state and forcibly converted into a charter.

"The biggest lesson is that, any student can learn, no matter what people’s perceptions of them are," said Vachon Brackett, who taught math. "Just rise above."

When Daisy was a sixth-grader at Cole in 2004-05, it became clear the DPS efforts to improve test scores and stave off state takeover had failed. State officials picked the Knowledge Is Power Program or KIPP, a national charter schools network, to run Cole.

That school year, Cole went through two DPS principals. Then the principal hired by KIPP to open the new Cole in fall 2005 quit. Then the second principal hired by KIPP quit.

Then came Harrison, who was supposed to be the English teacher. He stuck. So did Brackett and Stefan McVoy. They all pulled double duty — Harrison became principal and still taught English. Brackett added reading to his math duties. McVoy, a science teacher, also taught social studies.

"We kind of all did our own thing and just tried things," McVoy said. "If they worked, we went with them. If not, we rearranged them."

KIPP schools specialize in longer school days and longer school years. Teachers pass out their cell phone numbers to students, encouraging them to call day or night if they have questions. College is always the goal and, for eighth-graders, the focus is finding a good prep high school.

It was no different at KIPP Cole. In May, Harrison cheered his 39 eighth-graders, who had gained admission to some of Denver’s top high schools.

Daisy, for one, who on Monday was visiting principal No. 5 at his new job at the Denver School of Science and Technology Charter School. This fall, all KIPP Cole students having entered high school, Cole returns to DPS. The future of the school is undecided.

Harrison will lead the effort to build a middle school at the already successful DSST high school. Brackett and McVoy will teach at Denver’s other KIPP school, Sunshine Peak Academy.

And Daisy, 14, will enter the private Kent Denver High School on scholarship.

She doesn’t know anyone from her neighborhood going there. She knows she’ll be one of the minority there — a brown face amidst lots of white ones. No white students attended KIPP Cole this past year.

So what, she seems to shrug, as Harrison helps her order more than $500 in textbooks for the year ahead.

"It’s not like they’re going to stop me from going there," she said.

Success at KIPP Cole

Students at KIPP Cole College Prep Charter — the former Cole Middle School — outperformed DPS district averages in nearly every subject in 2007. KIPP, also known as the Knowledge Is Power Program, began operating the school in fall 2005 after a state takeover for poor performance.

2007

Reading: 25%

Writing: 30%

Math: 25%

Science: 45%

2006

Reading: 10%

Writing: 8%

Math: 18%

Science: 10%

2005

Reading: 10%

Writing: 3%

Math: 4%

Science: 1%