The city and county website touts: “Denver is strengthening its reputation as one of America’s most livable cities. As a destination that simply ‘has it all.’ Denver, more than ever, is a top choice to live, work and enjoy life.” And isn’t it true? Don’t you feel pride when you share that you live in this city?
Except that Denver doesn’t “have it all.”
The backbone of Denver – our public education system – is broken. The most recent CMAS data suggests that among black and Latino students, only 24% and 14% perform at grade level in reading and math, respectively. District interim assessment data indicates that only 5% of black and Latino 3rd graders read proficiently. Facing the largest test score gaps by race of any district in the state, it’s difficult to suggest that these kids and their families “have it all.”
We didn’t get here overnight. We didn’t get here because of one particular school board. We didn’t get here because of one Superintendent, union politics, or unwillingness among residents to provide resources to our schools.
We got here when we, Denver, lost sight of our responsibility to students and became entirely too comfortable with, even expectant of, poor student outcomes. We became passive observers instead of active participants in the success of our schools.
The situation in Denver today should fuel outrage. It wastes taxpayer money, neglects the future of our children, and risks the future of our city. Academics and policymakers broadly agree that education is the key to a healthy economy and high-functioning community. Geographies with the best-educated human capital, the product of an ECE-12 education system, experience the greatest growth and the least income disparity as children become students, and then leaders, in their locales. Denver will only ever be as vibrant as the young minds it cultivates.
Throughout the summer, this concept circulated among several civic leaders who know that Denver can “have it all.”
We launched EDUCATE Denver: A Civic Coalition for Denver Public School students to make it happen. We are 30 diverse and committed leaders from all corners of the city with unique backgrounds and a broad range of experiences.
In addition to ourselves as co-chairs, our group includes long-time education advocates such as former mayors Federico Peña and Wellington Webb; businessmen Bruce Benson and Lee White; Professor Emeritus Dr. Brenda Allen; and past Board of Education members Elaine Gantz Berman and Theresa Peña. It also includes newer voices Raymond Gonzales, president of the Metro Economic Development Corporation; Lindy Eichenbaum Lent, CEO of Rose Community Foundation; and Clarence Burton Jr., CEO of Denver Families for Public Schools.
We don’t agree on everything, but we do agree that every young person in Denver deserves a high-quality public education and believe that each of us, and all of you, have a responsibility to ensure that privilege for our kids. We’re stepping up because a healthy city and high-quality public schools go hand-in-hand.
Our objective is exactly what our name implies: to EDUCATE Denver. We will provide the community with the knowledge and tools it needs to advocate for the high-quality education our students deserve. We will make sure families know exactly how their schools are performing and understand their full range of school options.
We will help businesses identify opportunities for program support that tie directly to positive student outcomes, and we will actively monitor Board of Education decisions while holding them accountable to transparency and a much higher standard in terms of academic achievement and skills development. Through all of this, we commit to being a good faith partner to the district and offer guidance, mentorship, and resources that move kids toward success and improve the governance of the district.
Immediately, we will tackle both district-facing and community-facing work. These efforts will include feedback on the DPS Strategic Roadmap to ensure that student growth targets and related strategies reflect the urgency of the situation; we will encourage mayoral candidates to consider the role of the city in DPS challenges; and we will help other civic and elected leaders understand that their participation in building and sustaining high-quality schools ties directly to the quality of life factors in Denver – employment rates; home values; crime; homelessness; informed voting; and good citizenship.
Before we get to work, however, we must set aside our differences and agree to a community-wide expectation for high-quality education in our city. We must agree that academic achievement, social and emotional health, and the development of life skills should be prioritized above all else.
We must prepare ourselves for tough decision-making that may be necessary as demographics, birth rates and population patterns change throughout the city. We must respect talented educators who work with our children and partner with them to find best practice programs that elevate learning for all students. Ultimately, we must all find a way to prepare our kids better, because they are the next generation of business, philanthropy, education, faith, public policy, family and community leaders.
Denver is touted as the second-most college-educated city per capita in the country. Disappointingly, this reference does not apply to the thousands upon thousands of students who fail to receive even an average education in Denver Public Schools.
Every day that goes by that we, as a community, fail to solve for better student outcomes, our children lose out on opportunities to participate in a Denver employment market that calls for skilled labor and highly educated workers. Let’s make the accolade real for our students. Let’s engage together to build the number one ECE-12 public school district in the country, and then, we’ll truly “have it all.”
James Coleman and Rosemary Rodriguez are co-chairs of Educate Denver.
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