Marvin Hamlisch, one of the most famous and decorated film and theater composers of the 1970s and beyond, died this week at age 68. But when he passed, few remembered his connection to Metropolitan State University of Denver, for which he wrote the now-anachronistic school song, “The Fire of M.S.C.”…
CU-Boulder has spent a lot of time and effort trying to ditch its party-school reputation — by, for example, cracking down on the annual 4/20 celebration this year. Nonetheless, Newsweek has just placed the university third on its new party-school list, using unusual criteria: the number of arrests and disciplinary…
The war in Iraq has forced many Iraqi students to abandon their hopes of an education. Some fled the country and had to put their education on hold, while others found their schools destroyed. Recognizing these problems, the Iraqi Student Project, a St. Louis-based organization that has volunteers and support…
Lobato v. Colorado argues that school funding in the state is woefully inadequate — and in a December decision, a Denver District judge agreed. Colorado responded by appealing the ruling to the state supreme court, and in his official response, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers demands a reversal, maintaining in…
The Boy Scouts of America have reaffirmed a ban of gays from participation as organization members or leaders. This move prompted the ACLU of Boulder to renew an old complaint over the Boulder Valley School District allowing scout groups to use its facilities at free or discounted rates despite its…
After months of planning and fundraising, this year’s BoldLeaders trip to Kenya has been grounded, thanks to threats of violence from the Somali militant group, Al-Shabaab. The Denver-based group had flights arranged and was within a week of departure when the U.S. Department of State and its embassy in Kenya…
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of reports about biking and bike safety in Denver and beyond. If you’re a cycling fan, the good news is that a lot more folks are biking in Denver and the city is spending significantly more money to build paths for…
Here’s the problem: In Denver, 56 percent of public school fourth graders are not proficient in reading — a measurement that experts say is closely linked to dropout rates, graduation rates and possibly even incarceration. It’s an alarming trend that is much worse for minority and low-income students. And it’s…
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of reports about biking and bike safety in Denver and beyond. Denver has dramatically increased its spending on bike lanes and other bike-related projects over the last six years, and for good reason. The advocacy group BikeDenver reports a major increase…
Jim Griffin, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools, has been inducted into the Charter Schools Hall of Fame. “Colorado has been on the forefront of our nation’s charter school movement and has provided other states with examples of how strong policies and effective leadership can have a positive…
When it comes to state anti-bullying laws, Colorado’s gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender kids are among the most protected in the country. But individual school district policies are a different story. A policy scan by LGBT advocacy organization One Colorado found that, more than a year after Governor John Hickenlooper…
Earlier this month, Patricia Calhoun lauded Metro State College for creating a new tuition category for undocumented students, with the rate only modestly higher than the one offered to in-state residents. But Colorado Attorney General John Suthers isn’t joining her on the cheer squad. He’s offered a formal opinion (read…
Bid a bittersweet farewell to Life Skills, Denver’s own last-chance high school. Last year, Denver Public Schools announced that Life Skills would close — a decision backed by the state board of education. As such, the graduation ceremony that took place at the King Performing Arts Center on Friday will…
Tonight, Life Skills Center will graduate its last-ever class. Back in November, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education voted to shutter the last-chance high school, a decision that the State Board of Education upheld on appeal in March. That left about 180 kids without a school for next year…
North High School has had many struggles. Among them: poor test scores, low enrollment, myriad redesigns and lax oversight of the school’s credit recovery program. But a community group called Choose North Now thinks the historic high school is beginning to turn around — and that co-locating a charter school…
At a Denver Public Schools event about so-called “health justice” earlier today, Alicia Leon, a Denver single mother of four, said the challenge of living healthily is simple: Processed food is cheap, available, and easy to prepare, while fresh produce and healthy meals are expensive, harder to find, and time-consuming…
Back in February, we told you about a Vail sex assault investigation targeting three Kent Denver students. The trio in question evaded criminal charges in the case, but the story’s not over. None of the three is returning to the exclusive, ultra-pricey private school, and the father of an expelled…
Betcha the folks at the Boulder Valley School District are breathing a sigh of relief…. Nancy Sebring was reportedly a finalist for the BVSD’s top job last year. Instead, she was slated to become the superintendent in Omaha, until her prospects were felled by the release of sex-obsessed e-mails, samples…
Update: When speaking about the decision of three CU-Boulder students arrested for trespassing on the closed Norlin Quad amid the university’s effort to shrink the annual 4/20 event to fight the charge on First Amendment grounds, attorney Sean McAllister described the school’s tactics as “fascist” in an interview shared in…
After a long delay, CU-Boulder has finally released the figures about how much it spent to shrink the annual 4/20 event on campus. The administration doled out $124,561.34, while student government spent $154,236.18. CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard thinks those numbers should be considered separately, rather than as a combined $278,797.52…
The statistics are heartbreaking. In five Denver neighborhoods — Baker, Westwood, Whittier, Villa Park and Valverde — residents are several times more likely to experience cardiac arrests than anywhere else in the city. Worse, locals who had heart attacks in three of the five communities during two recent years didn’t…
The Colorado Department of Education is conducting an investigation into possible cheating at two schools in Denver where a review of state test results showed “statistical irregularities,” according to a press release just sent out by Denver Public Schools. DPS doesn’t identify the schools, but Education News Colorado reports that…
