Even though Denver public schools are out for the summer and most graduation ceremonies are over, the debate over DPS’s increasing graduation rates continues. For more, read our feature, “Passing on Education.” Today, Education News Colorado contributor Alexander Ooms weighs in with an opinion piece that includes two helpful charts…
Four months after President Barack Obama shouted out Denver’s Bruce Randolph School in his State of the Union Address, lauding the fact that the formerly low-performing school graduated 97 percent of its seniors last year, education writer Diane Ravitch gave the school a different kind of shout-out in the New…
“Passing on Education,” this week’s cover story, examines rising graduation rates at North High School and questions whether part of the reason is because students were allowed to cheat in online credit recovery courses designed to help them make up classes they’d failed. In the wake of the story, Denver…
“Passing on Education,” this week’s cover story, questions whether students at North High School were allowed to cheat in online credit recovery courses in order to make up classes they’d failed — and ultimately, graduate. In the three years that North has used credit recovery, graduation rates have increased. And…
North High School has long suffered from abysmal graduation rates — so, in 2008, Denver Public Schools added credit recovery, which allows students to retake courses online. Since then, grad rates have skyrocketed. But some North teachers wonder whether the gains are legit, and whether credit recovery is doing more…
Maestro en Casa (Teacher at Home), a Denver Public Schools-funded radio series aimed at teaching English to Spanish-speaking parents, was launched last year. This week, 220 completed the program…
Earlier this year, Greeley-Evans school board member Brett Reese received Shmuck of the Week honors for being a gun-totin’ hater of Martin Luther King, Jr. But that’s only the tip of his shmuckiness according to his fellow board members, who’ve censured him after accusations arose that he touched a teacher…
North High school will have a new principal next year, its fourth in six years. Nicole Veltze, the current principal at nearby Skinner Middle School, will take over for Ed Salem, who has helmed North since the fall of 2008. Tomorrow, the North community will have the opportunity to meet…
Theron and Teague Harrison, Manual High School’s top debaters and the subjects of our recent feature, “Say What?”, were in New York City this past weekend for the Urban Debate National Championship, along with Thomas Jefferson High debaters Danite Reda and Talan Lousignont. So how did Denver’s debaters stack up?…
Theron and Teague Harrison, Manual High School’s top debaters and the subjects of our recent feature, “Say What?”, left Denver yesterday bound for New York City and the Urban Debate National Championship. Their coach, Charlie Smith, went with them, as did debaters Danite Reda and Talon Lousignont from Thomas Jefferson…
Last August, CU journalism school dean Paul Voakes insisted that reports about the impending death of the J-school were hysterical and premature. Not anymore. Yesterday, at the urging of CU prez Bruce Benson, regents voted for a shutdown by a 5-4 vote — one closer than anticipated, but no less…
Update below: Denver Public School board president Nate Easley has survived an attempt to recall him. Supporters of the effort failed to collect enough valid signatures to place the recall question on an upcoming ballot. They needed 5,363. They collected 5,899. But of those, the Denver Elections Division found that…
With a nickname like “Buffs,” it’s no wonder that the naked-lady-lovin’ folks at Playboy magazine would have a hard-on for the University of Colorado at Boulder. And now they’ve expressed their affection for the school’s lifestyle by naming CU America’s number one party school (Link is NSFW). Which probably won’t…
Tomorrow, Vally Dikovitskaya and seven other members of the Boulder Youth Body Alliance (BYBA), a program dedicated to helping teens with body image concerns and eating disorders, will be in Washington, D.C. They’re hoping to convince Colorado officials to co-sponsor the Federal Response to Eliminate Eating Disorders (FREED) Act, which…
Supporters of the effort to recall Denver Public Schools president Nate Easley say they turned in more than 6,000 signatures yesterday to the Denver Elections Division. In order to place the recall question on an upcoming ballot, they need 5,363 valid signatures from voters. The Elections Division now has ten…
Supporters of the effort to recall Denver Public Schools board president Nate Easley have until tomorrow at 5 p.m. to turn in 5,363 valid signatures from voters in Easley’s district of northeast Denver in order to put the recall question on an upcoming ballot. They’ve been at it for the…
Manual High School, home to top debaters Theron and Teague Harrison and a school with a long history of struggle, has picked a new principal: Brian Dale, who currently serves as assistant principal at Bruce Randolph School, another acclaimed “turnaround” story…
Theron and Teague Harrison, Manual High School’s all-star brother-sister debate team and Westword cover siblings, are going to the Urban Debate National Championship in New York City next month. The pair snagged second place at the Denver Urban Debate League City Championship this past Saturday, losing in the finals to…
This week’s cover story, “Say What?,” tells the story of the Manual High School debate team and specifically, brother-sister debaters Theron and Teague Harrison. Westword hung out with the team all year, watching as they practiced and competed, and won and lost. Why do the students participate in debate? Here…
More than one-hundred Denver high schoolers will spend all day Friday and Saturday talking about military spending, nuclear proliferation and dehumanization. It’s all part of the Denver Urban Debate League’s end-all, be-all tournament: the City Championship. Read about the league and two of its stars, Teague and Theron Harrison of…
The drama around the effort to recall Denver Public Schools board president Nate Easley has reached a new low. We recently learned of a blog called “Decline to Sign — Easley for Better Schools.” The first words on the homepage are this: “I’m Dr. Nate Easley, and I am on…
Good news from Denver Public Schools headquarters: In the past five years, the district’s dropout rate has declined 42 percent. In the 2005-06 school year, 11.1 percent of students dropped out. In the 2009-10 school year, 6.4 percent of students dropped out. In real numbers, that means an estimated 1,700…
