News

December 5, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

WHAT:  WEST DENVER PREP ONE OF TWO DPS MIDDLE SCHOOLS WITH “SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT” RATING
WHEN:  December 5, 2007
CONTACT:  Contact Chris Gibbons, Head of School, at 303-573-2017 x307.  www.westdenverprep.org

IN ITS FIRST YEAR, CHARTER SCHOOL RECEIVES “AVERAGE” RATING WITH STUDENTS SHOWING “SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT”

West Denver Preparatory Charter School, in it first year of operations, was one of only 2 DPS middle schools (among 45 total) to receive the designation of “Significant Improvement” in the academic growth of its students, according to the School Accountability Reports released today by the Colorado Department of Education.

West Denver Prep received an “Average” rating in its first year, generally recognized as a considerable achievement.  Among schools composed of more than two-thirds students who qualify for Federal Free or Reduced Lunch, the district average, only 4 middle schools received a rating of Average or better.

“This represents a significant first step that our students are taking toward a future of college success,” remarked Head of School Chris Gibbons.

West Denver Preparatory Charter School is a college-preparatory public charter middle school.  When the school first opened in 2006, one hundred and thirty-seven Southwest Denver families applied for the one hundred spots in West Denver Prep, following a door-to-door campaign reaching approximately 800 families.  In the most recent year, 181 students applied for about 100 spots.  As a public charter school, West Denver Prep is open to all students, and selects them by lottery, with no review of grades, test scores, or past academic experience.

Fully 66% of West Denver Prep’s sixth graders scored proficient or advanced in math, exceeding the district average by 26%.  Students also exceeded the district proficiency average by 13% in writing and 5% in reading.  These scores represent longitudinal progress of between 8-29% increased proficiency as compared to these same students’ 5th grade scores.

Key Facts

• West Denver Prep commenced operation on August 14, 2006 with 100 sixth-grade students who are 92% Latino and 84% free/reduced lunch.  The school will grow one grade each school year until reaching capacity of 300 students in grades 6-8 in the fall of 2008.

• West Denver Prep students participate in a longer school day and complete challenging homework assignments daily. 
• Students engage in an intensive curriculum with a strong focus on skill development, especially in the areas of literacy (150 minutes daily) and mathematics (110 minutes daily). 
• Students wear a simple uniform and adhere to a rigorous code of conduct. 
• The school holds weekly Community Meetings and daily Morning Meetings at which students develop excellent public speaking and self-advocacy skills. 
• Students live up to the school’s values by conducting themselves according to the principles of Scholarship, Teamwork, Respect, Intelligence, Virtue, and Effort (STRIVE).

Gibbons: Education inequity 'appalling'

Javier Manzano © News

Chris Gibbons, head of school at West Denver Preparatory Charter School, sits among students after a weekly community meeting. He returned to Colorado after graduating from Yale University and has worked in west Denver off and on for 10 years.

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
September 17, 2007

Chris Gibbons, 29, attended private schools growing up in Littleton and Denver before graduating from Yale University with a degree in biology. He came back to Denver to run a program called Denver Summerbridge, a tutoring program for low-income kids that sparked his interest in teaching. Two falls ago, he opened West Denver Prep, a school that embraces uniforms, nightly homework and a culture of high expectations. State test results show the school outperformed district averages in its first year. So why is someone with a middle-class background and an Ivy League degree running a school serving mostly Hispanic, mostly poor children on Denver's west side?

"I really believe education is the biggest social justice issue facing our country right now. I think the inequity of the education gap across race and class lines is both really significant and really appalling.

I feel grateful I got a great education. I really believe in public education. Knowing how much that education had an impact on me makes me passionate about everyone, regardless of color and income, having access to those opportunities.

I think the privileges and opportunities I have had carry a certain responsibility . . . the 'To whom much is given, much is required' sort of thing.

The structure, 'warm strict,' is the best way to get kids prepared for high levels of academic performance in a short period of time. It's similar to the idea of tough love. When I was out recruiting teachers for Summerbridge, I would ask, 'Do you love kids enough to hold them accountable?'

I don't believe the school is for every kid. That said, I think the increased structure creates opportunities for freedom and creativity. Once safety is in place, a lot of other things can happen. And I think it's in line with what parents want.

I have always had an affinity for Latino culture, from learning the language and from traveling to South America in college. I have always found a cultural value around warmth and inclusion and hospitality. I really enjoy in the Latino culture. Our first Summerbridge schools were in west Denver, so I've been working in this neighborhood off and on for the past 10 years.

I love my job. I love coming to work every day. I've never had a day here where I didn't feel like I'm really, really lucky to be here and excited to be doing this kind of work.

Raising the bar, raising success in schools

Javier Manzano © News

By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
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

July 31, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE.

WHAT:  WEST DENVER PREP CELEBRATES SOME OF THE CITY’S TOP CSAP SCORES
WHEN:  July 31, 2007
CONTACT:  Contact Chris Gibbons, Head of School, at 303-573-2017 x307.  www.westdenverprep.org

FIRST-YEAR CHARTER SCHOOL POSTS STRONG RESULTS

West Denver Prep, in its first year of operations, exceeded DPS average proficiency by double-digits in both mathematics and writing, and by 5% in reading.

Fully 66% of West Denver Prep’s sixth graders scored proficient or advanced in math, exceeding the district average by 26%.  Students also exceeded the district proficiency average by 13% in writing and 5% in reading.  These scores reflect an increase of proficiency of between 8-29% above the 5th grade CSAP scores of these same students.

Among schools composed of more than two-thirds students who qualify for Federal Free or Reduced Lunch, West Denver Prep’s scores ranked 1st in the city in Math, 2nd in Writing, and among the top ten in Reading.(1)  In mathematics proficiency, West Denver Prep ranked 3rd among open-enrollment school (2) and 5th among all schools, while exceeding the state average by 6%.

West Denver Preparatory Charter School is a college-preparatory public charter middle school.  When the school first opened in 2006, one hundred and thirty-seven Southwest Denver families applied for the one hundred spots in West Denver Prep, following a door-to-door campaign reaching approximately 800 families.  In the most recent year, 181 students applied for about 100 spots.  As a public charter school, West Denver Prep is open to all students, and selects them by lottery, with no review of grades, test scores, or past academic experience.

Key Facts

• West Denver Prep commenced operation on August 14, 2006 with 100 sixth-grade students who are 92% Latino and 84% free/reduced lunch.  The school will grow one grade each school year until reaching capacity of 300 students in grades 6-8 in the fall of 2008.
• West Denver Prep students participate in a longer school day and complete challenging homework assignments daily.
• Students engage in an intensive curriculum with a strong focus on skill development, especially in the areas of literacy (150 minutes daily) and mathematics (110 minutes daily). 
• Students wear a simple uniform and adhere to a rigorous code of conduct.
• The school holds weekly Community Meetings and daily Morning Meetings at which students develop excellent public speaking and self-advocacy skills. 
• Students live up to the school’s values by conducting themselves according to the principles of Scholarship, Teamwork, Respect, Intelligence, Virtue, and Effort (STRIVE).

(1)F/R Lunch numbers are for 2005-2006 school years, school accountability reports, www.rockymountainnews.com. 

DPS profiles in success
By Nancy Mitchell, Rocky Mountain News
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%

Hispanics get serious on choice

Judy DeHaas © News

John Youngquist, right, principal of Smedley Elementary School in northwest Denver, listens to Joleen Mendoza's concern about a teacher while her granddaughter, Serina Torres, 9, listens. They met during a February meeting to discuss adding a sixth grade in the fall. Hispanic students in Denver Public Schools are least likely to leave neighborhood schools for a charter, magnet or other choice, but that is changing as awareness of options increases.

By Burt Hubbard, Rocky Mountain News
April 20, 2007

Fine.
That was the gist of the answer most of the time when Rosanna Torres asked her son, Hugo, how his day had gone at Johnson Elementary in west Denver.
This year, the sixth-grader attends West Denver Prep charter middle school, and he has a lot more to say.
"Now I ask Hugo, 'How was your day?' and it's, 'Mom, I did this and I did that,' " Torres said. "He's really talking."
Torres is scouring the Internet for a charter school for older daughter Brittany, too.
Torres and West Denver Prep are part of a slowly emerging trend among Hispanic families to exercise more choice in where their kids go to school.
Most Hispanic families still attend Denver's traditional neighborhood schools — even when those schools are failing or underperforming.
Hispanic students, who account for 57 percent of DPS enrollment, are the least likely to leave their neighborhood schools for a charter, magnet or other DPS school, according to a Rocky Mountain News analysis of DPS data. About 80 percent of DPS' Hispanic students are low-income.
Still, among Hispanic DPS students, a hefty 37 percent chose a school other than their assigned neighborhood school in 2005-2006. The figure was more than 50 percent for Anglo and black students.
And interest in school choice has accelerated among all students. Since 2002, the percentages of DPS students bypassing neighborhood schools have grown 10 percentage points for black and Hispanic students and 6 percentage points for Anglo kids.
As choice widens, a sense of urgency is pushing DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet. He is leading a fast-paced effort to improve neighborhood schools because they're hemorrhaging enrollment. Preschool and kindergarten are growing, and so are DPS charter schools. But the district doesn't get full state and local funding for the youngest children, and for DPS charters, an average of 95 percent of per-pupil funding goes to the independent groups running them.
Bennet knows DPS must improve.
"We can't expect people, no matter the ethnicity, to compromise the education of their child," Bennet said.

Keeping kids close to home
Jaime Aquino, chief academic officer for DPS, said a tendency to choose neighborhood schools rather than send kids too far from home fits with Hispanics' strong belief in close-knit families.
"Hispanic families will be comforted to know their kids are near them," Aquino said. "If anything happens, they can get there very easily. We are very protective, sometimes overly protective, of our kids."
A recent DPS-commissioned survey of Denver parents found that Hispanics gave DPS a higher grade than Anglo or black parents did. The survey also found that low-income and high-income parents gave DPS higher marks than middle-income parents did.
In almost half of the predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods on the west side of Denver, fewer than 5 percent of students go to charter schools, the Rocky analysis shows. Districtwide, 6 percent of Hispanic DPS students and 6.6 percent of Anglo students attend charters, compared with 13 percent of black DPS students.
Private schools draw about 5 percent of Hispanic students, compared with 26 percent of Anglo students and 5 percent of black students, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Denver Hispanics' reliance on neighborhood schools reflects a national pattern.

Looking for structure
The discipline, academic rigor and uniform dress code are major reasons Rosanna Torres and fellow parent Olivia Sanchez chose West Denver Prep.
Every school day, West Denver Prep Director Chris Gibbons stands outside the two-story building on South Federal Boulevard, shaking the hands of all students as parents drop them off at 8 a.m. The school, in its first year, has only sixth-graders but will expand through eighth grade.
"Are you ready to strive for college today?" Gibbons asks.
The predominantly Hispanic and low-income students quietly enter the school and walk to their classrooms, passing a banner touting their college graduating class of 2017. Each classroom has the college pennant of its teacher on the door.
Students spend 2 1/2 hours a day on reading and writing and almost two hours on math. Homework averages two hours a night. Students stay in the same room to minimize disruptions in the hallways. Instead, the teachers change classes, wheeling carts filled with their books and eraser boards.
Students all wear blue polo shirts, dress shoes and jeans with belts. Discipline is strictly enforced.
"If you make a big deal out of the little stuff, the big stuff doesn't happen," Gibbons said.
Unlike Torres, Sanchez is a veteran of choice, with her four oldest sons going back and forth among neighborhood schools, private schools and charters.
She learned a hard lesson with her oldest son, Christopher. He went to DPS' Kunsmiller Middle School and did poorly, she said. Sanchez said she did not find out from school officials until weeks before the grading period ended that Christopher hadn't done his homework.
She and her husband enrolled him at Mile High Baptist, a private school in Jefferson County, to finish middle school. Christopher persuaded his parents to let him go to Lincoln High School.
He dropped out after two years.
"I just couldn't get him motivated," Sanchez said.
Christopher's younger brother, Danny, also wanted to go to Lincoln with his friends, but Sanchez prevailed.
"We almost gave in," she said.
Instead, Danny and younger brother Louie attend Southwest Early College, a charter high school in west Denver.
Their youngest boy, Marcos, went to Mile High Baptist through third grade, then returned to his neighborhood DPS school, Doull, for fourth and fifth grades. He's doing well as a sixth-grader at West Denver Prep, she said.
During a schoolwide community meeting held each Friday, Marcos was part of the choir that sang "Seasons of Love" from the Broadway musical Rent. The teachers used the song's "525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year?" to review math techniques.
Earlier, during a discussion of the book Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry on segregation in the South, Marcos asked a pointed question.
"What would the story say from the white person's point of view?" he said.

Awareness growing
Word of mouth, federal education mandates and recruiting campaigns are spreading awareness about school choice in the Hispanic community, said Scott Flores, trustee for the non-profit Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options in Colorado, a group that advocates for choice and vouchers.
Every month, CREO holds classes for Hispanics on school choice and their rights. In February at American Lutheran Memorial Church in west Denver, about 10 Spanish-speaking parents showed up to hear Linda Sosa, a CREO leader, explain choice in Spanish.
Some had heard about choice from other parents. Others had received letters from school. The federal No Child Left Behind program requires school districts to inform parents of students at low-performing schools that they have the right to switch their child to another public school, with transportation provided.
Last year, 1,500 of DPS' 73,000 students took advantage of the program, a DPS study found.
Flores estimates that CREO worked with about 4,000 parents in the metro area last year. About 70 percent were Spanish speakers, he said.
Some of the Hispanic interest in choice might come from new options springing up. West Denver Prep is only the fourth charter school in the city's western neighborhoods. Denver has 20 charters.
For this year's class, the charter had 138 applicants for 100 spots. More than 180 students applied for 110 positions in next fall's class. The school eventually will serve about 300 sixth- to eighth-graders.
The waiting lists show the demand among Hispanic families, Gibbons said.
"That tells me, wow, if we had more room, people would come," he said.
Both KIPP Sunshine Peak Academy in central Denver and Cesar Chavez Academy in Pueblo have shown that charter schools can succeed with low-income Hispanic students. KIPP's middle school was rated average by the state last year, while Chavez's middle school was rated high.
Another charter is on the way.
The Ricardo Flores Magon Academy at West 72nd Avenue and Irving Street expects to open in August with kindergarteners and first-graders, with plans to expand through eighth grade. The DPS school board turned down a contract with the charter last year, but the Charter School Institute, a state body that can overrule school districts, approved it to serve Denver and Adams County students.
The school day will run from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. to accommodate working parents and increase academic achievement, said school leader Marcos Martinez. Summer break will be cut short and the Christmas break extended because many parents take their children to relatives in Mexico during that time of year.
"We're trying to cater to the community," Martinez said.

Recruiting heavily
After West Denver Prep obtained its charter last year, Gibbons and the school's teachers went door-to-door to encourage parents to apply.
The first year, his student body was 91 percent Hispanic, with 84 percent eligible for free or reduced-priced lunches. Gibbons estimated a third came in proficient at grade level, another third were two to three grades behind and the rest were even further behind. Almost all the students came from DPS elementary schools in west Denver.
Students took the CSAP standardized tests for the first time this March and won't know results until summer.
But Rosanna Torres and Olivia Sanchez said they already have seen results with their sons.
For hyperactive Marcos, the uniforms and structure are comforting, Sanchez said.
Torres said Hugo fought back tears during the first weeks when he struggled with hours of homework. Now, he has set his sights high academically.
"Every day he's saying, 'I'm going to go to college, mom. "

Big growth in choice
The number of DPS students who don't go to their neighborhood schools has jumped dramatically, even among Hispanics, who are least likely to bypass the closest school.

YEAR BLACK HISPANIC ANGLO
2000 43% 29% 44%
2001 43% 28% 46%
2002 43% 27% 46%
2003 45% 29% 48%
2004 50% 32% 51%
2005 53% 37% 52%
Source: Denver Public Schools

Tech literacy a core value at charter school
West Denver Prep designed network for teachers, students

Ahmad Terry © News
Jose Cruz, a sixth-grader at West Denver Preparatory Charter School, works in the school's computer lab.

By Darrell Proctor, Rocky Mountain News
November 13, 2006

The stage was set for the first year of classes at West Denver Preparatory Charter School, and the school needed computers.
It wasn't as simple as buying PCs and plugging them in. Security, privacy - and the school's detailed standards for learning - were part of the equation.
There needed to be a network. With servers. Hardware and software. Students would need learning opportunities in a laboratory setting. Teachers would need to track students' progress across the curriculum.
Faculty also needed to be able to work from home, and students needed not only to learn their way around a keyboard but also the challenge of learning about - and using - digital media.
"This is a college prep school," said Chris Gibbons, head of school at West Denver Prep. "Our kids have to be technologically literate, and we need to assess our kids' progress as frequently as we can."
So Gibbons set about creating a technology plan for the school in order to qualify for a federal grant to help build a computer network.
Here's how the plan came together:

Step one: choosing a bid
West Denver Prep got three competitive bids for setting up its computer system, and Gibbons & Co. reviewed them.
They chose Business Network Consulting (terms were not disclosed), a Denver company, because "we were pleased with their work and they had the most competitive bid," said Gibbons. "They were going to give us the tools to be successful."
That meant:
• Laptops for teachers.
• Desktops for students in the school's computer lab, set up so 25 students - with 25 computers - would be able to get instruction and work in one room.
• The ability for teachers to access the school's network to work from home and to move among classes.
• Two servers at the school - Gibbons didn't want them off-site - with BNC having remote access so any network or other problems could be fixed more expeditiously.

Step two: finding software
While BNC went about securing the hardware, Gibbons and his faculty were sifting through software.
"We do online computer assessment (of students) every week," he said. "And we wanted technology that included digital media.
"We wanted the students to be able to learn about (Microsoft) Word, Excel and PowerPoint." And they would learn to type as part of that study.
The school settled on Yearly Progress Pro (http://yearlyprogresspro.com/), a "research-based, assessment, instructional and intervention tool" from McGraw-Hill Digital Learning that would enable teachers to track students' progress online.
"It's a powerful piece of software," Gibbons said. "It's aligned with all the Colorado (mandated) standards really well. It enables the computer to do all the data analysis.
"It's a progress-monitoring tool."

Step three: faculty training
Faculty would need five weeks of training on the computer system, using both wireless and hard-line hookups, to learn how best to utilize the hardware and software.
And they'd have to hit the ground running from the first day of school.
So along with Yearly Progress Pro, the school would use Infinite Campus (www.infinitecampus.com). Since West Denver Prep falls under the purview of Denver Public Schools, there were requirements - say, tracking attendance - that would need to be met. Infinite Campus, an information management solution tailored to local school districts, would provide an online way to organize that information.
"Data analysis is not just about giving (students) tests, it drives instruction," said Whitney Bride, the school's director of operations. "It gears instruction to what (students) need."

Step four: student use
Ultimately, the success of the technology plan depended on the school's students, currently all sixth-graders (the school plans to expand with seventh and eighth grades over the next two years).
"I love coming (to computer lab) on Fridays," said Mariana Avitia. "It's a chance to show what we learned over the week."
Betsy Peterson, a math teacher at the school who conducts technology classes, said the lab "is good preparation for actually using computers in life.
"It's exposing (the students) early on how to type, how to do research, learning how to name a file, how to transfer data into a file.
"It teaches them how to use basic programs, everything they'll need to do in high school and college."
Said student Kenny Gaytan: "Teachers ask us a question, and we can google or yahoo, and we can have the answer."
Students also can do projects. Blanca Favela had put together "a PowerPoint presentation on nebulas," and Antonio Grijalva was editing pictures. A far cry from the days of book reports.

Hardware and software
Equipment to implement the technology plan at West Denver Prep, a first-year charter school with 100 students:
FOR FACULTY
• 10 Dell Latitude laptops loaded with Windows XP Office 2003 Professional Academic Edition.
FOR STUDENTS
• 25 Dell Dimension computers loaded with Windows XP Microsoft 2003 Student Teacher Edition.
COMPUTER LAB
• 25 workstations integrated with speakers and optics to minimize desktop footprint. Internet access through an Iprism Internet Content Filter.
• A Dell Poweredge Server was used to accommodate more students and faculty as needed. A dedicated Microsoft Exchange Server would allow faculty to sync locally or remotely with the server to send and receive e-mail, among other functions.
Source: Business Network Consulting