Schools the focus in last mayoral debate
The two candidates for Denver mayor pitched their education credentials in their final debate Tuesday. Video highlights, full debate podcast
Archive for: May, 2011
FNE update: Some teacher jobs uncertain
One in five teachers in schools affected by the turnaround in Far Northeast Denver is without a district job for the coming school year
From the publisher: “Juking the stats” in DPS
“Juking the stats. Making robberies into larcenies. Making rapes disappear. You juke the stats and majors become colonels. I’ve been here before.” – a cop-turned-teacher in HBO’s series “The Wire,” when asked to boost test scores.
Last week’s article in Westword about abuses in Denver North High School’s “credit recovery” program touched a nerve, and for good reason. It’s a textbook example of kids being used to make adults look better.
There’s no reason to believe the problems detailed in Melanie Asmar’s story are limited to North. In fact I’ve received emails from people at other Denver high schools alleging similarly questionable practices. And the New York Times wrote a national story about credit recovery abuses in April.
I’m sure most of the adults involved – heck, probably all of them – allowed and in some cases encouraged kids to cheat on credit recovery homework and exams thinking it was in the best interest of those kids. So many studies, after all, have shown that young people’s prospects improve significantly with a high school diploma.
District leadership needs to do some soul-searching about whether the pressure exerted on high schools to improve graduation rates tacitly encourages school administrators to juke the stats to make themselves and the district look better.
If the diploma has been watered down to the extent that the credential becomes meaningless, though, then every graduate of North High School is hurt by this extreme manifestation of the “pobrecito syndrome” (as in “oh, these poor babies’ lives are so hard we can’t expect too much of them.”)
There’s also an element here of gaming the system for less altruistic reasons. Juking the stats doesn’t just happen in “The Wire.” It’s exactly what happened in North High’s credit recovery program.
For those of you who haven’t read it, here are the main points from Asmar’s story.
READ THE REST OF THIS STORY IN THE BLOG ARCHIVE
Boy promotes Fast Food Free world
A 13-year-old Denver boy is the unlikely founder of a national campaign to stamp out fast food
Friday Churn: Wrong track?
Updated – A new report says U.S. education reforms are out of sync with higher-performing countries and unlikely to produce major improvements
Rhee pitches to supportive crowd
Education reformer Michelle Rhee brought her message of educational competitiveness, school choice and high student expectations to a friendly Denver audience Thursday.Video
Ed leaders sign on to TABOR suit
Several Colorado education figures are among the long list of plaintiffs on a lawsuit filed this week seeking to overturn the TABOR amendment.
Wednesday Churn: Another Race shot
Updated – Colorado is among nine runners-up in last year’s Race to the Top contest that will get another shot at $200 million
Find your school’s graduates in college
Search our database to see where your school and district graduates are going to college – or not – in Colorado
Future cloudy for reducing emissions
About 2,000 Colorado school buses have been retrofitted to cut down on diesel fumes – but that leaves 3,000 that haven’t been
