Travel gap found with top schools

Low-income students have poor access to the best

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Monday, February 18, 2008

Poor children in Denver have to travel farther to get to the city's highest-performing schools, a study to be released today shows. Even if they can get there, chances are that those schools are full.

A report by the Piton Foundation shows Denver's top schools are clustered in the city's southeast quadrant, home to its wealthier families.

Thirteen of 18 Denver Public Schools rated "high" or "excellent" by the state of Colorado are there.

Yet only one school in the city's poorest areas - the broad swath of Denver west of Interstate 25 - is rated as highly by the state.

That's the charter school, KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy, which targets low-income kids. And in far northeast Denver, in the rapidly growing Montbello and Green Valley Ranch areas, no school has achieved an excellent or high rating.

Elementary students in those neighborhoods, who have a poverty rate of 75 percent, must travel more than four miles to reach top-rated schools.

Contrast that to southeast Denver, where more than 90 percent of children can find a high- or excellent-rated elementary school within two miles. That area's student poverty rate is 48 percent.

"Most people know that there's a relationship between test scores and the income of a neighborhood because there's a relationship between poverty and test scores," said Van Schoales, urban education officer for Piton, "which isn't to say it has to be that way."

Beating the odds

As proof, Schoales points to a growing number of schools nationwide achieving success with students in poverty.

In Denver, only three of the 18 schools rated high or excellent have student poverty rates of more than 50 percent.

They are Asbury Elementary, Dora Moore K-8 School and KIPP, which has the highest student poverty rate by far at 89 percent.

"There's an increasing number of schools showing they can outperform what their demographics might project, which is exciting," Schoales said.

The study, which involved nearly 65,000 students in elementary and middle schools in Denver, Aurora and the Mapleton Public Schools in Adams County, mapped the distances between lower-income families and higher-rated schools in the 2006-07 school year.

"We wanted to find out exactly how far people needed to travel to go to quality schools," Schoales said.

The study also considered whether those schools could enroll most students for whom they are the closest high- or excellent-rated school.

The answer in nearly every case is no.

Consider Morey Middle School, one of the few top-rated schools outside southeast Denver, which enrolled 773 students in fall 2006.

Morey is the closest high- or excellent-rated school for 2,477 students, the study found.

Piton included the three school districts in the study because all are undergoing major reforms, and all are, in one form or other, creating new schools.

The hope, Schoales said, is that district leaders will consider geography and locate new programs successful with poor children in low-income neighborhoods.

Siting new schools

This spring, DPS leaders are soliciting "requests for proposals" for new school programs from charters, traditional schools and others inside and outside the district.

Brad Jupp, Denver's senior academic policy adviser, said the district can, and has, told those interested in opening programs in Denver that a certain area is preferred.

For example, KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy was told to locate within the square bounded by Interstate 25, Alameda and Mississippi avenues and Federal Boulevard, said school founder Richard Barrett.

That wasn't because the area is impoverished, though it is, Barrett said, but because the nearby schools were then crowded. It worked out because KIPP's mission is preparing poor children for college.

"For us, it means fewer kids to have to bus," he said.

More recently, West Denver Preparatory Charter School chose to locate in southwest Denver because founder Chris Gibbons wanted to serve low-income families. Michelle Moss, the DPS school board member who represents southwest Denver, welcomed West Denver Prep.

"Southwest Denver just has not been a place where we have developed either magnet programs or high-quality schools," she said.

Choice in southwest

Moss believes that's partly because it's easy for families unhappy with DPS programs to slip across the county line into Jefferson County or Littleton schools.

So the parent activism in other areas, such as Padres Unidos, which led the effort to overhaul North High School in northwest Denver, has not developed in the poorest areas just south of Sixth Avenue.

A parent group has formed in the more affluent and more southern neighborhoods around John F. Kennedy High School.

The group, now known as the Southwest Denver Education Coalition, helped the high school and nearby Henry Middle School become part of the prestigious International Baccalaureate program. So options have improved in southwest Denver, Moss said, but she hopes the Piton study will lead to more.

"This is something the board needs to pay serious attention to," she said. "It certainly helps us focus on the fact we do need to be more selective about where we're putting programs and encouraging people to put programs."

Others were less impressed with the findings.

In Mapleton, where one of the nation's most radical reform efforts is unfolding, Superintendent Charlotte Ciancio said it's not news that poor children don't perform well in school.

The 6,000-student district north of Denver eliminated neighborhood schools last fall and now requires parents to pick from among 17 small schools and academies. None of the schools was rated high or excellent.

"What is happening in these schools is new and exciting and different," Ciancio said, "and they don't get results in a year."

Maggie Gomer, who has four children in Denver schools, disagrees with the study's reliance on state ratings, which are based on state test results.

"There's a lot of things within schools other than test scores and, frankly, we focus way too much on those scores," said Gomer, who heads the Southwest Denver Education Coalition.

"A lower rating does not mean good things are not happening in those schools."

Schoales said the state rating was the only indicator that could be used across all three districts.

"It's important for us to know that those kids aren't performing where they need to be, and we now need to figure out how to get them to the next level," he said. "It's not a destiny," Schoales added about poverty.

"Many people think it is. . . . We now have enough evidence to prove it isn't."

In Denver and in Aurora, relatively new superintendents have launched districtwide reform efforts aimed at lifting all schools - not just those in poor areas. A majority of students in both districts are eligible for federal lunch aid, an indicator of poverty.

Districtwide improvement

So they're interested in programs successful with poor children, said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet and Aurora Superintendent John Barry, but they need to see improvement districtwide.

"Our efforts need to be about creating as many great schools throughout the district as we can," Bennet said, "so that your ZIP code doesn't determine whether you are going to be able to get a high-quality education."

Change is occurring in some of Denver's poorest neighborhoods. This fall, four out of five "transformed" schools slated to open are in impoverished areas. That means the schools will close this spring and reopen with new programs.

How those schools will fare, and whether their communities will rally around them, remains to be seen.

At North High School in northwest Denver, a school rated "low" in an area where the student poverty rate is 82 percent, a reform effort officially launched in August still feels new.

On Wednesday, scores of students and teachers and the occasional politician turned out for an evening open house showcasing academic programs and student clubs.

Cheerleaders leaped in the hallway beside the Chinese language table, and a teacher showed off student work in the school's state-of-the-art 3-D computer lab.

"We just decided we would come to North and give it a try," said Heather Kroona, who with her husband chose the school over East High for son Aaron Janicke, a ninth-grader.

"So far, so good."

But aside from Kroona and a few others, what was missing at the open house were parents - particularly the unfamiliar faces of parents of prospective students.

That disappointed Jennifer Draper Carson, whose job includes recruiting new families to the new North.

"I really want to dispel the urban mythology about this school," she said as she searched for moms and dads in the energy-filled main hall. "We need to reach the parents."

About the study

The Denver-based Piton Foundation explored where low-income students in the Denver and Aurora districts and the Mapleton district in Adams County live in relation to quality schools the state rates as "high" and "excellent."

The study involved nearly 65,000 students attending elementary and middle schools in the three school districts in 2006-07. In addition to income and geography, the foundation looked at capacity in the high- and excellent-rated schools.

The objective was to determine where the greatest need exists for quality schools to serve low-income students. The study also sought to answer the question: If low-income students could get to the top-rated schools, is there room for them to enroll?

To learn more about the Piton Foundation, log on to piton.org.

mitchelln@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5245

• February 18, 2008

  6:30 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Earl writes:

  how can this happen with all of the high quality teachers the union stands behind? why are these teachers not motivating the poor students? oh wait I think I remember a school up there that needed the unions to give an ok to do something for the kids but it required a change in the school day and the unions would not back it.
  dcta to the resuce once again. thank you for saving all the teachers.

• February 18, 2008

  6:33 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  I hate my children's school.It is in the Adams 12 district. They have an open school policy. I have been trying to get my children out of this school for 3 years.All the schools I apply for are full and have waiting lists a mile long. My children's school is rated average.That's an understatement.I asked the principal why the low CSAP scores 2 years ago and he blamed it on the ELL learner's.I have never hears a child speak spanish in the school.I've heard parents but most children speak english.This wouldn't be the 1st time this principal has lied.I've caught him in so many ,i don't trust him what so ever.I live in a nice middle class area.I expect better schools.I send my children to school and teach them what they need to know to fill in the very wide gaps.Something that amazes me is,in my school boundaries it is all houses with some apartments,very few.I went on my children's school website.There are 634 children in the school,312 are hispanic,kids who recieve school lunches are 312,This is an example.I wonder why the number of hispanics are the exact or within 1 or 2 the same number as free lunches?This is not isolated.I've looked on other school websites and I find the same thing.Yet I don't see any poor hispanics in and around school. I am there alot.Most are driving new cars,talking on cell phones,their children dress very nice as do their parents. I really haven't seen any poor people at the school.Surely something isn't right when the number of hispanics is the same number as children getting free lunches in all the schools I have checked out.Is this just a coincidence?
  My kids can't get into a high rated school.At least my oldest will,she will be attending the IB program at a school nearby that is rated high to excellent.The school I can't get my one child into that should be is Stargate.A publically funded school paid with our tax dollars,who has just opened a big brand new school a few years ago. This school is for kids that are geniuses or extremely high achievers.My tax money paid for that school to be built,the school is a public school in the Adams 12 District.I however have to pay $300 to get my child tested to get into that school.I am only allowed to use their small list of Phsycologists to do the test.There is a waiting list.I find this a little suspicious,why?Because only 2% of the population are geniuses.My husband being one of them.The school is full already?

  The whole Adams 12 district is a joke.There is so much bull going on here it's unbeliveable.

• February 18, 2008

  8:39 a.m.

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  Kslayer writes:

  Kids do poor in low income area schools because the parents have no intrest in their own childrens education. When your poor, your focus shifts from what the kids are doing in school, to daily survival. It doesn't matter what kind of programs you put into schools, or the quality of teachers. You could take all the best teachers in the state, and put them in one school, with the poorest performance record, and it wouldn't make that much of a difference. It starts with the parents involvment first! When parents show no intrest, then the kids show no intrest, and then the teachers start to show no intrest. That is why the poor will always stay poor, and the rich, rich!

• February 18, 2008

  8:59 a.m.

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  stella writes:

  It is not about motivating these kids. They get plenty of motivation...at school. At home, it is a completely different matter. If a parent doesn't value education or homework or thinks that filling free time with nothing but video games and R-rated movies is fine, then that trickles to the student. Unless the student can rise above his home environment and find/see the value in education, it won't happen. Take any teacher in the highly rated Cherry Creek system and throw them in a low-performing DPS school and I guarantee you the results will be the same. The home environment is the make or break component but apparently it's easier to make teachers the scapegoat for just about everything.

• February 18, 2008

  9:05 a.m.

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  natasha writes:

  Kslayer and stella,
  Exactly I couldn't have said it better myself.

• February 18, 2008

  9:34 a.m.

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  Eric writes:

  I'm with Kslayer and Stella here. My cousin (a teacher) was the recipient of the "Golden-Apple Award" (teachers equivalent to the Heisman) in Parker a couple years ago. She has since moved to NYC and became a teacher in Harlem. Her school is closing at the end of this academic year due to poor test scores. Just a prime example of quality teaching in an area that does not prioritize education.

• February 18, 2008

  9:47 a.m.

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  mytwosense writes:

  It appears the coalition parents formed in the southeast region have a lot to do with the quality of schools there. I imagine many members of that coalition have the luxury of not having to hold down a full time job, and thus, have the time to get more involved in what is going on in their child's school district.

• February 18, 2008

  9:48 a.m.

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  BetterEducated writes:

  If you distribute lesser supplies and teachers to schools in poor areas, the educational results of those schools will deteriorate.
  DPS knows this, doesn't care, and continues its "elite vs peasant" theories while having the nerve to wonder why they don't result in high test scores for the peasant class. Duh.

• February 18, 2008

  10:05 a.m.

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  soccer_mama writes:

  When will people take responsibility for the test scores and the academic achievement (or lack there of) of their own kids? I have two kids in DPS-one in the IB program at Henry Middle School and another at Traylor Elementary. When my eldest started bringing home "average" grades on her progress report, I made her start going to the after school tutoring program Henry offers. It's that simple, your kid needs help, then you get it. We are not rich, we are not poor, I work, but I will be damned if my kids don't get everything they possibly can out of school. If you want your kids to do good, step in and be active in their education. It really is that simple!

• February 18, 2008

  10:45 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  Brockage writes:

  This is news!?!? Aren't better schools likely to be in places where people pay more taxes? Does anyone think great schools locate where education funding is low and where the valuing of education is low - where people would rather watch tv than read or read to their kids?!? Hmmmm, I wonder, where are teacher salaries highest - in Cherry Creek or........

• February 18, 2008

  10:55 a.m.

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  PajamaPulitzer writes:

  The glaring point missed by by Nancy Mitchell is that teacher pay in the poor performing schools is the same as in top notch schools. Since the district has trouble firing poor teachers because of union protection those lousy teachers transfer to inner-city schools. After all, public schools are not about kids, their about teacher jobs.

• February 18, 2008

  12:08 p.m.

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  Scott writes:

  I agree soccer_mama and gasgirl_72 with one addition. I number of times I offered to tutor high school kids in math and physics at both Adams Districts 1 and 12 ... FOR FREE! No responses from either of the districts. Some, not all, just some, of the responsibility lies with the Districts. Most of the responsibility lies with the parents.

  Scott

• February 18, 2008

  12:21 p.m.

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  hakj writes:

  It took a study to figure this out? Gee look around. High-income houses equal higher funded local schools and usually equal better education. Low-income houses equal lower funded local schools and usually equal lower education.

  The lack of intelligence of some organizations to me is astounding. Are these the same people that produced the ten-year CSAP report that said that CSAP is pointing out flaws in our education but the flaws are not being fixed? Are these the same people that said the students in the higher income areas do better on the CSAPS than the students in the lower income areas?

  The students between the ages of 5 and 18 are not the problem. It's the students between the ages of 22 and 60 that are the problem, or should I say those that supposedly have all these degrees acting as teachers and educators that should STILL be students.

  They have such a wonderful knack of pointing out the obvious while wasting valuable resources (time, money, personnel) to do so.

• February 18, 2008

  12:25 p.m.

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  mytwosense writes:

  Scott, do you mind if I ask how you proposed your offer? A flyer at a school...a letter to the school district...? The reason why I ask is because I think that is an amazing offer, and one you should attempt again. I bet if it's in front of the students and parents, you'll get plenty of response.

  I've always said that math and science often require additional one-on-one tutoring, because many kids are embarrassed to speak up in class when they don't "get it." And once you get behind in math, it becomes harder and harder to catch up. I never would have passed some of my math classes in college without the individual tutors they provided in the math labs. (I use college math as an example, but students of all ages struggle with math.)

  Scott, kudos to you and please don't give up. Your help is desperately needed by some kid out there.

• February 18, 2008

  12:43 p.m.

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  stella writes:

  Scott...to echo mytwosense, you would probably get better response if you went directly to the schools themselves and requested the ability to post a flyer on the doors or to be sent home to students.

  As for hakj, I think that in DPS, it actually works out to be lower income neighborhoods equals higher funding for corresponding schools.

  Again, throwing money at the schools isn't necessarily the answer. Getting parents/guardians/family members involved is key.

• February 18, 2008

  12:49 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  soccer_mama,The IB program is for high performing students.If your child is getting average grades,the IB program has to tutor your child.If they can't bring up their grades they are supposed to ask the child to leave the IB program.At least this is how the IB program works that my daughter is applying to.Do you realize your IB student is in a low rated school?How do you expect your child to get a good education in a low rated school?IB program or not.
  You may want to rethink where your kids are.What is your role in this.The schools can't do it all.The IB program is for students that have a lot of academic home support and students that are highly self motivated.Average should not be in the IB program.

  Check out the test scores and school rating at Henry.It isn't pretty.So what do you expect them to do for your child?

• February 18, 2008

  12:52 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  Dan2 writes:

  Yet another example of why my child will never set foot in a public school...

• February 18, 2008

  1:10 p.m.

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  Scott writes:

  mytwosense & stella,

  I contacted head of the math department at both Thornton High School and Skyview High School. Pathetic, ain't it.

  About fifteen years ago I approached Skyview (same gig) and was hooked up with two kids by the brain dead (counselors). They hooked me up with the kids, but did not set up a classroom for me! I ended up being contacted by the physics teacher at that time and helped her tutor over twenty kids! I even BS'ed three of my coworker (all engineers) to come in and help us. I loved it! The loser principal ended up "pocket firing" the physics teacher by not give her a contract after her third year. BTW the principal at that time had a Ph D so she "must" have been "much" brighter that the physics teacher (MS) and myself (BS). Right? 8^)

  I went on to teach part time at Denver Tech College and later at Front Range. I'm now teaching part time at CCD. Wanna guess what subject I have to spend the first four classes reviewing?

  Scott

• February 18, 2008

  1:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  BMat writes:

  You're kidding me.

  You mean the best schools aren't located where 25 people that don't speak English are packed into a 900 sq foot single family residence?

  Next thing you'll tell me is the sun rises in the east.

  Preposterous!

• February 18, 2008

  1:41 p.m.

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  JMac writes:

  I have a good friend who was enrolled in the IB program at a low ranking school. He was Valedictorin in '00. It seems to me that if the student is motivated enough and has support from both home and in school. The student can excel and be successful whether they attend a high or low ranking school. Check out some of what this gentlemen accomplished after graduating from a low ranking Aurora Public High School. BTW I'm a very successful individual (PharmD) and went to Regis Juesuit and could never hold his jock strap when it came to research. He IS a true genius and a product of Aurora Public Schools.

  http://aspen.conncoll.edu/news/893.cfm

• February 18, 2008

  4:33 p.m.

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  stella writes:

  vudumom,
  I'm sure she is quite aware Henry is a low-rated school. The IB program is part of the school...as in a magnet-program but it isn't necessarily the whole school.

  And truthfully, I hate when people look at a one-word description as to whether a school is good or not. That one word doesn't take into account whether or not scores are skewed because of a high GT population or a large Special Ed population. Either way, the SAR of a school is affected. It would be great if the SAR reports would pull out levels of data. In other words, what chunk of the school's scores are Special Ed and what chunk is regular ed? What percentage is GT? A school like Southmoor is rated excellent but has a GT magnet program. Would the rating still be the same if just the regular ed classes were measured? I wonder.

• February 18, 2008

  4:42 p.m.

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  stella writes:

  Sorry, I spoke too soon. Turns out Henry operates as my IB school does: for every student. Some students will embrace it; others will not. Still Henry's program is fairly new so improvement will come.

• February 19, 2008

  5:09 a.m.

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  jane writes:

  A school rating measures the students, not the school. Work for a while with at-risk kids and you will know that so much of the preparedness comes from parents - their support to make the kids do the work, their vocabulary, the fact that they have books and globes in the home, that they go to museums, zoos, camps, after school programs, and trips. Even who their friends are and therefore what they do with their time. A great teacher can make a difference for at-risk kids, but they can't work miracles. What's amazing is that study after study shows that poor kids do better in less impoverished student population schools, but middle class kids do the same no matter where they go to school. That should tell you that most teachers ARE doing their jobs.

  The best way to get poor kids to do well in school is to increase the school day/# of days and have strong discipline in the schools. Those are the two major changes that all these "wonder schools" like West Charter Prep and KIPP academy make. But in a litigious environment, a regular public school can't do the latter and with big money going to administration, they can't do the former either.