Student-Teacher Ratio, Salaries, School Board Squabbles
Drop Denver District’s Learning To The Lowest Level Ever
by Glen Richardson
Brimful Classes, Bickering Board: Crammed classrooms and squabbling schoolboard has plummeted Denver schools to the lowest level of academic learning ever.
Parent Protest: Parents are confused and angry as DPS teachers and principals leave or are replaced at schools. Principals at 46 of the district’s 134 non-charter schools were new to their position, their school, or both this year.
With Denver’s new school year now in full-swing, the turbulent return for students has been a rollercoaster of feelings, from worry and uncertainty to apathy. Despite reuniting with friends and peers bringing joy, the process of reentry is jarring and chaotic due to the short supply of classroom teachers coping with larger class sizes, fewer aids, a lack of supplies, and a dysfunctional school board. Comprised of nearly 200 schools — including traditional, magnet, charter, and pathways — the Denver Public School System has an enrollment of more than 92,000 students.
A total of 440 teaching positions were unfilled statewide as the 2022-23 classes started. Sorrier yet, another 1,128 or 20% were filled by hiring long-term substitutes, retired educators, alternative licensure program candidates, and “emergency authorization” candidates. The previous year (2021-22) 235 teaching vacancies remained unfilled for the entire school year and another 13% were filled by shortage mechanisms.
Board Bad Boy: School Board’s Tay Anderson continues to create chaos and erode community support. He is shown here refusing to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. Photo: Kevin J. Beaty, Denverite
When it comes to public education, Colorado is at the bottom of the barrel: The state has the eighth lowest average teachers’ pay of all states. Furthermore, it has the 11th highest student-to-teacher ratio in the nation at 31 students per teacher. The Outcome: Colorado’s high school graduation rate is the sixth lowest in the nation at 79.1%.
On The Ropes
Schools in Denver and statewide are at a critical point: Teachers are stressed, overworked, and exhausted. After the tremendous pressures of the past two years, many have reached the end of their rope, tied a knot, and are barely hanging on.
Meanwhile, second graders need to learn kindergarten and first grade academic and social skills while sixth graders are grappling with fourth and fifth grade concepts. Even if classes weren’t huge, teachers feel triple the workload within each child.
A survey by the Colorado Education Association found that 40% of licensed teachers statewide are considering leaving the profession. For those teaching this year, pandemic burnout, low
pay, and rising housing costs are the driving factors as they contemplate leaving the classroom. The kids are the only thing that makes that decision hard.
Learning Plummets
Academic learning in Denver has plummeted relative to other school districts in the state. In 2021, Denver Public Schools recorded the lowest level of academic learning ever, performing worse than all other large Colorado districts. Heretofore, Denver’s growth scores were beyond 50 every year for over a decade, outperforming nearly every school district in the state.
Among worrisome Denver scores were 22nd percentile growth for sixth-grade math, and 40th percentile growth for fifth-grade literacy. Denver’s fourth-grade students math achievement in 2021 was 7% proficient. In 2019, fourth-grade students were at 18% proficiency. Another troubling trend: For at least the past five years, the percentage of kindergarten-through-third-grade students who scored “significantly below grade level” on fall reading tests has hovered around 22%.
On the whole, Denver’s CMAS scores rebounded from last year, though not back to pre-pandemic levels. The one positive exception was third-grade reading, where the percentage of students meeting expectations — 39.9% — was slightly higher than in 2019. On the PSAT and SAT, however, Denver’s scores were lower than in 2019 or 2021. Students struggled the most in math. Just 29% of 11th graders met expectations on the math SAT. It’s long overdue for Denver’s district leadership to drop the magical thinking and honestly address the challenge of educating more than 92,000 students, submits Van Schoales, a Senior Policy Director at the Keystone Policy Center and former President of A+ Colorado.
Unproven Principals
Denver Public Schools opened its doors this year to more new principals than it has in at least six years. Principals at 46 of the district’s 134 non-charter schools — or 34% — were new to their position, their school, or both this year, according to district information. Sixteen of the new principals moved into the position from that of assistant principal.
If the 11 principals who simply moved laterally — jumping from the leadership of one Denver school to another — are not counted in the total, DPS still has 35 new principals. More: Twelve of the principals are external hires, new to DPS.
Henry Roman, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association, believes the district should focus on encouraging experienced teachers to enter its principal pipelines because he believes candidates with a strong background in instruction and curriculum development are needed. He’s also concerned that the DPS Ritchie Program for School Leaders at DU draws too much from a young, inexperienced pool of prospects.
School Board Squabbles
Even if DPS wasn’t already boiling over with troubles, the current Denver School Board may be the most counterproductive and contemptuous ever. Creating chaos, confusion, and uncertainty, members have eroded community support while sidetracking student and teacher problems and concerns.
Responsible for setting policy for Denver Public Schools, members in work sessions disagree on matters as small as whether to call each other by their first names and as big as how to gather feedback from the community. The board spent much of this winter-spring debating a single policy related to school autonomy and teachers’ rights. That, according to critics, left little time to talk about important issues such as helping students learn to read and improving their mental health.
At a meeting to fill a vacant board seat, it took nine rounds of voting and several heated and emotional exchanges for a majority of members to agree. A consultant specializing in conflict resolution was asked to attend a mid-June retreat. She reported the group’s energy was filled with “mistrust, fear, and hesitation.”