A “new” Montbello – the danger of nostalgia
I respect the desire to try something “new” for Montbello High, but I hope it is not driven by nostalgia for what was, or by amnesia regarding what caused its closure ten years ago.
|
“… historical
nostalgia is often colored by personal nostalgia. When were the good old
days? Was it, by chance, the incredible short period in human history when
you happened to be young?” “Why We Can’t Stop Longing for the Good Old Days” [i] |
A simple question: Is the goal to recreate a comprehensive high school, or to create an exceptionally good school? Can you do both? Any examples? No one can want to recreate a school that, lest we forget, was doing such a poor job by its students.
I believe Denver Public Schools and its board mean well in addressing the needs of the Montbello community—and in a similar story at West High.[ii] I also appreciate what an incredibly challenging time this is for all in public education, especially in a large urban district. In that light, some will say, if Another View cannot be supportive of DPS in this difficult moment, wouldn’t it be best to be silent?
In AV #224 I argued that we should put the design for the new school in the hands of people willing to search for and adopt the best ideas out there. Denver Public Schools has strengths, but creating a high-quality secondary school is clearly not one of them. Let DPS get its own high schools in order first.
Not convinced? OK, but please, hit pause. Reflect. Ask tough questions. We cannot fail Montbello again.
In my research for AV #224 I found an old Rocky Mountain News article where “Bettina Basamow, a 29-year resident of the far northeast Denver community” told the school board, “You need to be sure you give Montbello its due.” Dated: November 2000.
Yes, the wait has been too long. But let’s make sure we do this right. Think. Plan. Be clear.
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Articles on a new
school at Montbello High: 2018-2020 Addendum A – Montbello High, 2006-2014. Academic performance, dropout & remediation rates, SPF, etc. Addendum B – “High-quality schools” – still the goal? Addendum C – Apply
DPS process for New Quality Schools Addendum D – 6 DPS
high schools performing well. Lessons? |
**
A compilation of recent articles (2018-2020) and DPS presentations on a new school/schools in the Montbello community. My comments and questions (in boxes) show why I am greatly troubled by where this work is going.
1) April 2, 2018
Chalkbeat
Colorado, by Melanie Asmar
(Bold
mine)
|
“To resurrect.” Surely not that. Or have we forgotten why Montbello High School was closed? See Addendum A for a review of MHS, 2006-2014. |
A community conversation in far northeast
Denver started as an effort to ask residents what they want in their schools.
It has boiled over into a heated debate about whether to resurrect the
region’s shuttered traditional high school.
The aim of a series of community meetings run by Denver Public Schools over the past year was to come to consensus on education priorities, a district spokeswoman said. Those priorities, she said, would “inform future district policy-making.”
But when word got out that some residents were
asking for the return of a traditional high school, the backlash was
fierce. Principals, teachers, parents, and students from some of the small
schools that have grown in the absence of a big high school lined up at a
recent school board meeting to give passionate testimony about what they
consider a flawed process and a dangerous recommendation that could threaten
their schools’ existence.
__
In 2010, the Denver school board approved
a massive turnaround plan involving six schools in the far northeast. The plan
called for Montbello High – where fewer than 60 percent of students were
graduating, and almost all who went on to college needed to take remedial
classes – to be phased out and replaced with three smaller schools.
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The plea in 2010 was for
“great schools in Far Northeast Denver.” Did any of the new schools inside
Montbello High prove to be great schools? Is the demand again for “great
schools,” or for something else? Something big? That looks like other
high schools - great or not? |
On the night of the vote, students, parents, and teachers pleaded with the school board to give Montbello High another chance. The board also heard from supporters of the plan, who wore graduation caps and T-shirts that said: “We Demand Great Schools in Far Northeast Denver.” In the end, a majority of the seven board members sided with Superintendent Tom Boasberg and a community committee that recommended the sweeping changes.
Today, there are 11 high schools in far
northeast Denver. They include the three schools that replaced Montbello, five
other district-run schools, and three charter schools, which are publicly
funded but independently run. Most have fewer than 500 students.
--
The topic of athletics hit a nerve in
Montbello, a neighborhood with a proud history of excelling at high school
sports, especially football. More than 60 people showed up to a November
meeting on the subject.
They included Brandon Pryor, [and] his wife
Samantha, an attorney who graduated from Montbello. [Pryor is] a football coach
for the Far Northeast Warriors, a team created after the closure of Montbello
High that draws players from several high schools in the region. “Black and
brown communities have been ignored as a whole and targeted for these Frankenstein
experiments, like co-location,” he said.
Samantha Pryor came up with a way to
visualize that feeling: Before giving public comment at a recent school board
meeting, she printed up T-shirts that said, “20%,” a reference to the
district’s goal that 80 percent of all students will attend high-quality
schools by 2020. “We really believe we are the 20 percent,” she said in an
interview.
Notes from commission meetings in November,
December, and January obtained in an open records request show many
participants shared the Pryors’ concerns. In January, the commission generated
lists of draft priorities to be discussed at the now-canceled March meeting.
The priorities included recruiting more
teachers of color, increasing funding for school counselors and social
workers, and installing lights on the Montbello playing fields.
Also on the list: Have a comprehensive
high school option in the far northeast.
__
Several high school athletes gave
public comment as well, including one who said he lost scholarships to play
football at several Division I colleges because he didn’t meet the academic
credit requirements. His small high school, he said, didn’t offer enough
courses.
Others spoke about how their schools don’t
have access to a library or computer lab, and how different bell schedules
make it hard for players to get to practice at the same time.
Opening a traditional high school would
remedy those issues, said Khaaliq Stevenson, a student athlete at Collegiate
Prep Academy, one of the three schools that replaced Montbello High. https://denverite.com/2018/04/02/montbello-high-school-northeast-denver/
2) July 31, 2019
Denver proposes rebuilding a campus that was the site of a controversial school closure
Chalkbeat Colorado, by Melanie Asmar
|
That was then. Now,
isn’t this exactly what DPS plans to do? |
“This is not relaunching the comprehensive high school,” said Dustin Kress, a senior operations program manager for Denver Public Schools. “This is planning for a new facility for the programs currently on the Montbello campus.”
Even so, the school board member who represents the area
said she hopes the new building would be flexible enough to accommodate
evolving community desires.
The programs currently on the campus include two
district-run programs that each have a middle and high school,
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Noel Community Arts School and Denver Center for International Studies at Montbello
are district-run schools that serve grades 6 through 12. |
and one charter middle school that is publicly funded but independently run.
|
STRIVE Prep - Montbello is a charter middle school. |
Together, the schools served about 1,630 students last year.
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The district should know that higher graduation
rates are not an indicator of schools offering a higher quality of education.
This very sentence reveals the contradiction. Several of us have made this point for years.[iii]As
AV #224 showed, the tragically high remediation rate for graduates of
Montbello H.S. in its final years continued in the new smaller schools - close
to 65%. |
The Montbello campus has been shared since 2011, after
the Denver school board voted to close the academically struggling Montbello
High School, which served a student body that was largely black and Latino.
The district replaced Montbello High with small schools it thought could do
better. The decision was controversial, and it remains so today.
While district officials point to rising graduation rates as proof the decision was a good one, the small schools have continued to struggle academically. Some parents and community members say the shared campus has created other academic and social inequities, as well.
Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said the
new building would be a way to recognize the hard work of the educators at
the small schools, while at the same time acknowledging that there is room for
improvement.
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Well said! Still the promise from DPS? |
“We have incredibly committed teachers and leaders working in the building right now,” she said. But, she added, “we’re nowhere close to realizing the promise we’ve made to the Montbello community about the quality of education on the Montbello campus.”
The building itself opened in
1980 and has an industrial look. … Noel
Community Arts School, an arts-focused school with nearly 500 students, has
no practice rooms and just a single dance studio. The curtain on the stage in
the auditorium, which theater classes must share with the other schools, is 40
years old and falling apart. Principal Rhonda Juett said that sends a negative
message to students and families.
“That reality for kids and for
parents, that hits home,” she said. “We want to have a facility that is
equitable and that allows you to compete with anybody anywhere.”
Cordova said she’s not naive about the call for a comprehensive high school. “I hear the call, the desire for a comprehensive high school,” she said. “This gives us an opportunity to say, ‘How do we create a pathway forward that gets at the best of everything we can offer?’”
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Confused? In July 2019 the plan called for
a new building that would host the three small schools, but might also offer
the benefits of a large school. Clear? In September 2019, the Denver School
Board’s resolution stated “that the design will … ensure that the facility will be able
to accommodate the three schools currently located on the campus and be
flexible to adapt to any changes in academic programming for decades to
come.” Any clearer? |
School board member Jennifer Bacon, who represents Montbello, supports rebuilding the campus. But she said she wants to ensure the design is flexible enough to accommodate a different configuration — including a return to a single comprehensive high school — if that’s what the community decides it wants down the road.
“This, to me, is a catalyst,”
Bacon said. “Even though we’re talking about the building, the questions can’t
be avoided — and I don’t intend to do that.”
3) February 29, 2020
Northeast Denver residents seek new high
school options, but DPS says there’s no need
Proposed expansion of DSST at Noel and new
Montbello High both have supporters
The Denver
Post, Meg Wingerter
Demand for a traditional high school
School board
Vice President Jennifer Bacon … said she thinks there is room for additional
options, because substantial development is going on in the Green Valley Ranch
neighborhood, but DPS will need to balance not building so much that other
schools lose students. It’s important to match any new schools with what the
community wants, and to consider what isn’t currently available — like a
comprehensive high school, she said.
“We’re not
just thinking about the seats, we’re thinking about the quality of the seats,”*
she said.
|
From a Letter
to the Editor from Gloria Zamora, then Board chair of DSST Public Schools
(March 15). “I read
with interest the piece on Sunday and in particular school board vice
president Jennifer Bacon’s statement [on the quality of the seats*]. I
applaud Ms. Bacon’s statement and believe city leaders should take a more
active role in helping Denver Public Schools achieve this result.” As you read on, ask if “the quality” of the education
offered by a new high school is central to the planning. |
There are ongoing conversations about whether
DPS can “reconfigure” use of the existing Montbello campus to accommodate a new
school and the current programs, said Jennifer Holladay, who oversees the
school district’s portfolio management.
4) June
3, 2020
‘We’ve
heard you:’ Denver pledges to reopen comprehensive high school in Montbello
Chalkbeat Colorado, by Melanie Asmar
Ten
years after the controversial closing of Denver’s Montbello High School, and
two years after community members reignited the debate about whether to reopen
it, new district leadership announced it is moving forward with opening a
traditional high school in the neighborhood.
|
A turning point, but why? Any
concern about the quality of the education offered by the three schools at
MHS? If not a factor, it says a lot about the new focus: we hear little now about
a desire to create “a great school” or to provide a “high quality education.”
More about electives, extracurricular options, sports… To be a
“comprehensive” high school comes first. In spite of an abundance of
research and work on how, in urban school districts, this model has failed to
serve students well. Let’s not forget The Shopping Mall High School
and its powerful critique of schools with no clear mission, trying to please
everyone – but ultimately not providing a high-quality education. (See
AV#161[iv]) |
“We’ve
heard you,” Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova said at a meeting about the Montbello campus
last week. “One of the most important things I think we can do is acknowledge
and work in collaboration with the community that has so clearly stated they
want to reopen a comprehensive high school on the Montbello campus.”
The details about how and when the district will do that are still to be determined. The district must decide the size of the school and how many students it will serve, what academic programs and sports it will offer, whether to renovate the current campus or build a new school, and which current high schools, if any, will be closed to make way for a new one.
Cordova, a career Denver educator who became Superintendent last year, said she wants the process of reopening a comprehensive high school in Montbello to feel more empowering than the one to close it, which she called “one of the hardest processes that I ever watched.”
“How
can we think about this being the union — the reunion — of school communities,
as opposed to the closure” of school communities? Cordova said.
|
“This fall”? More recently we have learned
that the timeline for this “community-driven design process” will not
conclude until spring of 2022. For over a year the plan was for a new
building that would host the three small schools. This radical shift to open
a comprehensive high school requires a new dialogue with parents and the
community. It needs time. |
Surveys
conducted and commissioned by the district show support among community
members and teachers for reopening a comprehensive high school.
|
1.
What does a “community-driven design process” mean? Can you a name a great
school designed this way? (Trying to please everyone? No clear mission?) 2.
Where is the expertise critical for such work? The district’s New Quality School
Process has accumulated a deep understanding of effective new school designs.
The Colorado Department of Education’s District and School Support team has also
learned of effective school designs[v]
and can point to a number of resources beyond our state that could help with this
work.[vi]
3.
DPS has overseen the schools operating there now, and yet not one is
“meeting expectations” (AV #224). Will DPS acknowledge that it needs all
the help it can get if we are to come up with the best design possible? |
In
a scientific poll of Montbello residents conducted by the Colorado survey firm
Keating Research, 85% of 472 residents polled said they support the return of a
comprehensive high school to the Montbello campus, according to a district presentation.
Separately, the district collected survey responses from 105 teachers and staff members at the schools on the campus…. According to the district, 87% of the educators surveyed supported the return of a comprehensive high school “with some reservations.”
But
some have questioned the validity of the survey results. “To just continuously
poll the community about a comprehensive high school without specifically
naming what will be and who will be the collateral damage of that, then it’s
just gaslighting* to our community,” said Stacy Parrish, principal of
Northeast Early College, another high school in far northeast Denver.
The closing of Montbello High
School was traumatic for many in the community. Though the school was
struggling academically, it was a community hub with fiercely loyal alumni. Families and educators urged
the district in 2010 to invest resources in the school, which served a largely
black and Hispanic student population, rather than shut it down.
Instead, the school board voted to “phase out” Montbello High one grade
at a time and replace it with smaller schools that board members believed would
better serve students.
But some of those schools continued to struggle with low test scores.
In 2018, when the district held
a series of community meetings in Montbello to ask residents what they want in
their schools, the idea of reopening a
comprehensive high school came up. The district did not act on it, instead pledging to continue the
conversation.
That happened in 2019, but not
in the way the district intended. Spurred by the deteriorating physical shape
of the 40-year-old Montbello campus, the district asked for community feedback on whether to renovate the
campus or build a new one. The intention was for the new campus to continue
to serve as a home for the small schools currently there.
But
the idea of reopening a comprehensive high school resurfaced. In
February, Cordova said the possibility was officially on the table. At last week’s meeting of a
process the district is calling “Reimagining Montbello Campus,” Cordova said
the district is pursuing it.
|
So we were told, then. (Was this the
plan all along, to close these schools?) “We still believe in those values.” What
values? In evidence with the new plan, to shut down these schools? “Both-and”? Sounds like all-of-the-above,
with no clarity on what the new school is really about. So much is vague.
Ill-defined. Again, I fear the community may have
forgotten what clearly did not work before (Addendum A). |
Educators
and community members who attended the virtual meeting had lots of questions,
including how opening a big, comprehensive high school would affect other
small high schools in the far northeast Denver region…
“This
is not an effort to gobble up all of the schools into one, because we still
believe in those values,” said
school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon, who represents Montbello.
Rather, Cordova said, it’s an effort to give the community a school option they’ve been wanting. “We really believe this is a way to have a ‘both-and’ solution, not an ‘either-or’ solution,” she said.
|
From Denver Public Schools – Reimagine Montbello Campus – Fall 2020 Update* DPS has
explored different timelines for opening the new Montbello high school and
feeder middle school, and have determined that we will launch the schools
in fall 2022. This gives us time for an extensive school design process
with the community, time to hire high-quality leaders and staff, and to allow
time for facility planning. We will begin
the hiring process for two principals this winter, one for the comprehensive
high school and one for the feeder middle school on the Montbello campus.
We will involve the community in each of the hiring processes. School leaders
will be given a full year and a half of collaborative school design planning
time with the community. Winter 2020-21
– Begin Middle School and High School principal selection process with
community Spring -
Summer 2021 - School Design planning begins with new MS and HS
principals, core design team, and community 2021-2022 -
Continue School Design Planning for new Middle School and High School
with core design team, and community New MS and HS student recruitment
(fall); School Choice processes (spring) Staff hiring processes for new MS
and HS schools (spring) 2022-2023
- Launch new feeder Middle School and comprehensive High School in August
2022 *https://www.dpsk12.org/reimagine-montbello-campus/reimagine-montbello-history/ |
5) Sept. 22, 2020
Hiring Principals,
Seeking Funds: Denver Is Moving Forward On Opening A Comprehensive High School
In Montbello
Chalkbeat Colorado, by Melanie Asmar
The new schools are set to open in the fall of 2022.
The announcement Tuesday is the latest step as Denver
moves ahead with reopening a comprehensive high school to serve far
northeast Denver. The district closed the former Montbello High School in 2010 and
replaced it with three smaller schools.
A community committee convened by the district in 2017
recommended bringing back a comprehensive high school. The idea met with pushback from some of the small schools that
opened in the wake of Montbello High's closure. But after a representative
survey showed 85% of 472 Montbello residents supported a comprehensive high
school, Superintendent Susana Cordova pledged earlier this year to make it happen.
However, some parents in the neighborhood say their
voices haven't been heard.
Angela Tzul's children attend one of the small schools on
the Montbello campus. She and other Spanish-speaking parents said they feel
left out of the decision-making process. Some didn't learn about the plan until
recently, even though meetings have been taking place for years.
"There is always another person making decisions
about our children," Tzul said.
The district has included $130 million* for the
project in a $795 million bond it will ask Denver voters
to approve in November. Depending on what voters decide, the district could
renovate the existing 1980 building or build one—or possibly two—new buildings.
Many details are still undecided, including what
will happen to the three schools that are currently on the Montbello campus: STRIVE
Prep Montbello middle school, Noel Community Arts School, and DCIS
Montbello. Noel and DCIS serve grades 6 through 12. Whereas STRIVE Prep is
an autonomous charter school, Noel and DCIS are run by the district.
|
“…through spring 2022.” Sounds realistic, less hurried. But if
it takes this long to determine the school’s vision, it will need another
year to plan, hire, etc. Opening August 2022 is too soon. |
On Tuesday, the district said the schools on the Montbello campus would continue to operate this school year and next. Planning for the design of the new comprehensive school and "overall vision" will begin this spring and continue through spring 2022, the district said.
Cordova said the district is also working on plans to
identify a middle school that would feed students to the new comprehensive high
school. It was unclear Tuesday whether the feeder middle school would be a
brand new school or an existing one. https://patch.com/colorado/denver/hiring-principals-seeking-funds-denver-moving-forward-opening-comprehensive-high
* Denver Voters Approve 2020 Bond, Mill
Levy
“On Tuesday,
Nov. 3, Denver voters approved bond and mill funding measures for students in
Denver Public Schools, agreeing to invest $795 million in bond funding to build
and improve schools … [including] A $130 million investment into a rebuild or
remodel of the former Montbello High School.” https://www.dpsk12.org/denver-voters-approve-2020-bond-mill-levy/
6)
Sept. 23, 2020
The Denver Post, Kieran Nicholson
|
Who would hire the leader of a school before its vision
and purpose are defined? Principals can succeed where they believe
in the school’s mission. School leaders are not widgets any more than
teachers.[vii]
As of now we have no idea of the mission of the “new” Montello High School.
The why—a well-defined purpose—precedes the who. |
In 2017, DPS received a recommendation from the Far
Northeast Education Commission to bring a “comprehensive high school to the
campus” as part of the Reimagine Montbello Campus project, the release
said.
|
“bring
back a comprehensive high school.” I repeat–see Addendum A—is this the school we want to “bring
back”? |
“We’ve heard from many voices in the Montbello
community,” said Susana Cordova, DPS superintendent, in the release. “We
want to bring back a comprehensive high school to the Far Northeast
area…” https://www.denverpost.com/2020/09/22/denver-public-schools-montbello-recruit-principals/
7) Sept.
24, 2020
Montbello community wants to be included
in plans to bring back comprehensive high school
Superintendent Susana Cordova announced DPS will move forward
with a comprehensive high school in Montbello, "filling a gap that's been
missing for the last decade."
9News, Allison
Levine
|
What is meant by “the gap that has been missing”? A big school—that
was failing? Or is it Friday night football, the community gathered in the
stands, cheering for their team? Isn’t the most troubling gap—the
one that should be the focus for a new high school —the gap in the
quality of education between what Montbello residents have experienced and
what is available in other parts of Denver? |
DPS
closed Montbello High School in 2010.
Jennifer
Bacon … called the decade-old decision "quick and not inclusive."
Steven
Griffin, who graduated from Montbello High School in 2000, agreed. He was
shocked to learn the school from which he'd received a diploma just a decade
before would be closed and reshaped into several smaller schools.
"It
felt like it just came out of nowhere," Griffin told 9NEWS. "I just
wanted to understand why.”
The
closure left a hole in Montbello. The high school was a uniting force,
providing family and community to all those in the area.”
"The decision that was made in 2010 was really very destructive to our community. The general consensus is shutting down the Montbello Campus ripped the heart out of our community," Donna Garnett, executive director of the Montbello Organizing Committee, said.
|
- “created inequities”? Please
explain. What about the inequity in the quality of education Montbello High
School students experienced 2000-2014? - “undoing” what “policies”? Of more
concern: what are this board’s policies? A board that voted last fall to
delay the opening of a new high school for students (94% FRL in 2020-21) from
the city’s highest performing middle school, DSST Noel? |
“We’re going to have to be deliberate about undoing the policies that we created that contributed to that," Jennifer Bacon told 9NEWS.
Donna
Garnett was once again surprised by the content of the announcement declaring a
path forward to a comprehensive high school. "It came really without
our even knowing about it," she said.
On
Tuesday, Superintendent Cordova said, "the decision came after several
years of community feedback that was further validated through conversations
with students, staff, families and community members, community-based
surveys."
To a certain extent, Bacon said she was also surprised, not by the decision to pursue a comprehensive high school but by the lack of language-centered on community involvement.
|
Yes, but it would help if board members could be less opaque.
The ultimate purpose remains unclear. |
Bacon said she discovered many in Montbello … who hope to be involved in the process. Though the haste of the 2010 decision has bred mistrust with the district.
|
Do we now trust a board that claims to UNIFY schools by
CLOSING them …? |
Superintendent Cordova said the district would continue to listen to those impacted, "getting their feedback and engagement on what the community would like to see in a new space as we recreate a comprehensive high school."
|
“recreate a comprehensive high school” - like Montbello High
School, 2000-2014? |
Regardless of the outcome of the
vote, Bacon told 9NEWS the focus should be not just on a comprehensive high
school, but a comprehensive plan for the region.
"This is the beginning of
evaluating and resetting based on what we’ve learned and based on what
we know our community wants and needs," she said. https://www.9news.com/article/news/education/montbello-community-wants-part-in-plans-return-comprehensive-high-school/73-69c73d97-ca5a-4517-8380-1822bcd433da
8) Summer/Fall 2020
From Reimagine Montbello Campus – prior to the November bond vote
Video produced by DPS featuring Jennifer Bacon, Susana Cordova, and Joe Amundsen. At Reimagine Montbello Campus on the DPS website: https://www.dpsk12.org/reimagine-montbello-campus/
Jennifer Bacon, Vice President of the Denver School Board of Education
|
What has DPS has learned from its
floundering efforts to bring about dramatic improvement in the comprehensive
high schools it currently oversees? Can it explain why it has not brought
about significant improvement in so many of them? Is it possible two of the
most fundamental impediments for such schools are 1) their very size and 2)
their lack of a clear mission? That in order to be “comprehensive” they try
“to do it all” – which leads to no clear purpose or direction? |
“Reimagining Montbello High School will
build upon, again, what we’ve learned from the past, the strengths and hopes
and opportunities, and I really hope this is an opportunity for
us a community to be able to dream and vision of what it is that we need
because are at the phase of being able to build from scratch.
|
Can we can agree that Montbello High School did not
offer a high-quality education? That the three smaller schools operating
inside the building are not providing a high-quality education?
And that “robust, diverse, and successful opportunities” are nice, but they are
not first and foremost what a family wants to hear? ABOVE ALL, a
family wants A GOOD SCHOOL - which has not existed at Montbello High for over
two decades. |
Joe Amundsen,
Director de Mejora Escolar, Division de Escuelas de DPS
“By opening the new comprehensive high school and feeder school … we will have the opportunity to come together to design these schools in a way that truly meets the needs and desires of the Far Northeast community.”
Superintendent Susana Cordova
“We welcome (all) to engage in this
collaborative process to reimagine what is possible for the future of the
Montbello campus.”
|
How have the last ten years given DPS one shred of evidence that
there are benefits in offering a comprehensive high school? Not one of the
new schools in DPS that meets expectations is a “comprehensive high school.”
There is a lesson in that, isn’t there? Each of these schools is smaller
(under 600 students). Each has a clear mission. Not one was designed by or is
run by the district. And all are charter schools. See Addendum D.
|
9) Nov. 2, 2020 –
Reimagine Montbello with Us* – from Denver Public
Schools
We will continue our partnership with community members throughout Montbello and working together with the staff, students, and families at DCIS-Montbello, Noel Community Arts, and Collegiate Prep as we prepare to unify these schools into the comprehensive high school and feeder middle school in the fall of 2022.
*https://www.dpsk12.org/reimagine-montbello-with-us/
|
So by November DPS had put a new
frame on the process: “To unify into…” But who believed you could take
three different programs with three distinct mission statements and “unify”
them? To be sure, TO UNIFY is a more appealing
term than TO CLOSE the schools. But as we learned last week: that is exactly the plan. |
**
Have we learned?
Aaron B. Powell, Voluntary
Addendum A
Another View has examined efforts to turn around
low-performing schools throughout the past decade. Much of the following comes
from previous newsletters that included updates on Montbello.
Anyone nostalgic
for the old Montbello High, even before the restructuring effort began in 2010-11,
would do well to see how the school performed the years before that, 2006-2010.
1. Dropout rate at Montbello leading up to the
closure – 2006-2008
|
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
|
|
State |
4.5 |
4.4 |
3.8 |
|
Montbello H.S.
- total |
10.4 |
13.3 |
9.0 |
|
Black/African
American students |
11.1 |
10.3 |
6.9 |
|
Hispanic/Latino
students |
10.4 |
15.2 |
10.2 |
2.
FNE Community Committee presents School
Performance Framework - 2008-2010
From AV #71- Anger,
blindness – and grading schools (Nov. 21, 2010)
Far
Northeast Schools – School Performance Framework (SPF)
|
FNE
Schools |
2007-08 |
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
Rationale for
Turnaround |
|
Noel |
24% |
30% |
27% |
2nd lowest
rated middle school in the city |
|
Montbello |
45% |
41% |
35% |
Lowest
rated comprehensive high school in the city. Graduation rate is only 59% and
for every 100 students who enter as freshmen, only 4 go on to graduate and go
to college without requiring remediation. |
From
presentation by the Far Northeast Community Committee at Noel Middle School,
Sept. 28, 2010.
Part of a
72-page Power Point presentation.
Produced by A+ Denver and Denver Public Schools.
3. Academic
Achievement at Montbello – 2008-2012
From AV #81 -
$37 million to Colorado for Turnaround Schools (August 5, 2011)
Montbello High School – Percent Proficient and Advanced on
CMAS assessment
|
|
Grade |
2009 |
2010 |
GOAL for 2011 |
RESULTS 2011 |
GAP Between 2011 goal & results |
|
READING |
9 |
30 |
25 |
45 |
28 |
-17 |
|
|
10 |
35 |
31 |
45 |
18 |
-27 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
WRITING |
9 |
15 |
6 |
30 |
14 |
-16 |
|
|
10 |
15 |
11 |
30 |
6 |
-24 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
MATH |
9 |
6 |
6 |
20 |
9 |
-11 |
|
|
10 |
4 |
7 |
20 |
5 |
-15 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
From AV
#86 - The School Improvement Grant to DPS and Pueblo City 60 (August 23, 2012)
Page 5
Change in students scoring - Proficient and Advanced from
2011 to 2012
|
|
Reading |
Writing |
Math |
|
District
average |
2.71 |
2.2 |
1.3 |
|
Montbello High |
-3.44 |
-2.39 |
-1.03 |
|
Rachel Noel |
-6.47 |
2.68 |
-7.8 |
(http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/08/09/42243-voices-is-slow-and-steady-enough-for-dps)
Page 8
GROWTH[viii] – 2012 - Montbello
High School
|
Subject |
Median Growth Percentile |
Adequate Growth Percentile |
% Catching Up |
|
Reading |
25.5 |
95.0 |
6.4% |
|
Math |
30.0 |
99.0 |
1.8% |
|
Writing |
32.0 |
99.0 |
1.9 |
From CDE’s Growth
Fact Sheet:
“As defined by the Colorado State Board of Education,
a child who falls below the 35 percentile for growth is
considered to have made low growth. Typical growth is
between the 36th and 65th percentile. The state median growth
percentile is 50 for each grade and subject. High growth is
above the 65th percentile.”
www.cde.state.co.us › accountability › growth-fact-sheet
Page 10
Colorado State Assessment Program (CSAP) - % Proficient or Advanced
In 2012, the second full year of the 3-year
$3.4 million School Improvement Grant from the federal government, Montbello High School
showed:
1.
Its lowest 9th grade reading score in five years.
2.
Overall 9th grade scores lower from 2011, largely unchanged from
2010 before the SIG funds were made available.
3.
10th grade reading scores had fallen from 31% proficient in 2010—before
the SIG funds were available—to 18% proficient after year one of the grant,
to 16% proficient after year two of the grant.
4.
10th grade writing, math, and science scores - all lower than they
were in 2010 before the funds were made available.
[2008-2011 are
CSAP scores, 2012 are TCAP scores. % Proficient and Advanced.
Scores in single digits highlighted]
|
Reading |
9 |
23 |
28 |
25 |
30 |
31 |
86% |
|
Writing |
9 |
9 |
14 |
6 |
15 |
12 |
86% |
|
Math |
9 |
7 |
9 |
6 |
6 |
8 |
86% |
|
Reading |
10 |
16 |
18 |
31 |
35 |
31 |
86% |
|
Writing |
10 |
6 |
6 |
11 |
15 |
11 |
86% |
|
Math |
10 |
5 |
5 |
7 |
4 |
4 |
86% |
|
Science |
10 |
5 |
5 |
10 |
8 |
7 |
86% |
From - Public School Review – Montbello High School profile - for 2012-13 school year
·
The
percentage of students achieving proficiency in math was ≤10% (which was
lower than the Colorado state average of 57%) for the 2012-13 school
year.
·
The
percentage of students achieving proficiency in reading/language arts was 20-29%
(which was lower than the Colorado state average of 70%) for the 2012-13
school year.
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/montbello-high-school-profile
4. Remediation rates
[Chart showed 12 high schools, comparing]
“the number of graduates who enroll in college to the number who do so without
requiring extra help.” Bottom four high schools on the chart:
|
|
Enrollment of graduates, first fall after graduation |
Percent who enrolled in college without remediation |
|
Abraham
Lincoln High |
30% |
6% |
|
Montbello
High |
35% |
6% |
|
North
High |
37% |
4% |
|
West
High |
23% |
1% |
B.
2013 – 2014 - Remediation rate for Montbello
High: 62.5% (2013) 69.23% (2014)
Remediation rate for state: 33.2% (2013) 33.8% (2014)
From AV #131 - Higher graduation rates? A word of caution before we celebrate (June 10, 2015)
5. ACT scores – among lowest in the state – 2009- 2013
From AV #92
(January 1, 2013) and AV #131
|
|
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
|
Montbello
High School |
14.7 |
15.0 |
15.3 |
15.0 |
15.1 |
|
State
Average |
|
|
|
20.0 |
20.1 |
|
The college readiness benchmark, according to ACT: |
21 |
||||
|
Average score, according to CDE, of a 4-year college
graduate (Bachelor’s degree): |
24 |
||||
From AV #95–Mismatch – Adding more AP classes in low-performing high
schools (March 2013)
Page 8 - AP
Pass rates at 16 Denver high schools - highest to lowest – from 76% to 8%
Chart included all 16 high schools. Here are the highest and
lowest.
|
|
Number tested |
Number passed |
AP Pass rate 2012 |
|
Denver School of Science & Technology |
202 |
153 |
76% |
|
Montbello High |
312 |
25 |
8% |
Page 9 - Percentage
of students taking AP exam at low-achieving high schools
|
Montbello High School |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
|||
|
# tested |
% Passed |
# tested |
% Passed |
# tested |
% Passed |
|
|
357 |
8% |
434 |
10% |
312 |
8% |
|
7. School Performance Framework – Montbello – 2010 - 2014
Colorado’s School Performance Framework, a product of the Education Accountability Act of 2009, began its reports in 2010. Montbello High School, on Turnaround status that year on the state’s SPF, began its restructuring in 2010-11. A school being phased out is unlikely to improve – morale is low, perhaps for both teachers and students, as the building grows emptier each year – but still, the SPF ratings are a useful reminder of MHS, not so long ago.
2010-12 from AV #92,
Why not a regional recovery school district? (January 2013)
|
|
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
|
Montbello High School |
Turnaround Plan |
Priority Improvement Plan |
Turnaround Plan |
Turnaround Plan |
School Closed |
|
Percentage pts earned |
41.2% |
44.2% |
40.8% |
41.3% |
31.2% |
Addendum B
GOAL: high-quality schools – Denver school
board revises its School Performance Compact
School
Performance Compact –
This policy passed in December 2015. It included one phrase and/or idea
numerous times. The school board, in
approving of this policy, revealed its focus on quality for any new
school, or for any plan to replace existing low-performing schools.
·
“create
new high quality schools”
·
“to
expand high quality school choices” (from Denver Plan 2020)
·
“increase
the number of high quality schools”
·
“so
that all students have access to highly effective schools”
·
“provides
a high quality education for DPS students”
·
“focused
on improving the quality of its schools for all students”
·
“to
ensure all students have access to high quality schools”
·
“the
District will seek to promptly intervene to ensure that students have access to
higher quality education”
·
“Every
family deserves choice and access to high quality schools in their
neighborhood.”
·
“for
the community to provide input and evaluate all approved and high-quality
school applicants”
·
“District
staff shall be responsible for identifying and attracting a pipeline so high
quality school applicants”
In 2018, however, the board no
longer applied the policy guidelines in the 2015 Compact.
The
School Performance Compact (SPC) is a Board policy adopted in December 2015
with the intention of defining a clear process for how DPS will identify
the most persistently low-performing schools. [The Portfolio Management Team]
PMT uses the SPC to inform its charter renewal and innovation authorization
processes.
SPC Implementation
The DPS Board of Education decided in fall
2018 that the previous implementation guidelines of the SPC would not be
applied. Considering the community dialogue, they launched new
implementation guidelines during the 2018-19 school year, and these guidelines
will continue during the 2019-20 school year. The Board and the District share
an ongoing responsibility to ensure students have access to high-quality
schools in their neighborhoods and the SPC continues to provide important
guideposts in efforts to improve DPS schools. http://thecommons.dpsk12.org/Page/1946
A
summary of that decision by the board (School Performance Compact for 2018-19 to Focus on Board
Oversight of Improvement Plans[ix] included this passage to stress that there would still be a real focus on
quality:
DPS’ top priority is to ensure students have access to
high-quality schools in every neighborhood. “The School Performance Compact
is a promise to both internal and external stakeholders — our communities, our
kids, our students’ families — for quality schools,” said District 5
Board Representative Lisa Flores. (June 12, 2018) https://www.dpsk12.org/school-performance-compact-for-2018-19-to-focus-on-board-oversight-of-improvement-plans/
Reassuring words. And yet the shift invites the question: how much of a top priority, and why the change?
More specifically, how much is it a top priority to the Denver School Board, or to the district, in creating a new comprehensive high school and its feeder school at Montbello?
We hear about dreams and opportunities. We hear about competing
against the big high schools in sports, a wider choice of courses, a community
hub… Do we hear a focus on creating a good school?
Addendum C
|
The Reimagining
Montbello Timeline now indicates
the design planning for the new middle and high school will continue into
the spring of 2022. If so, any completed design for a new school at
Montbello would be A YEAR LATE - if it were to meet the district’s own
guidelines for a school set to open in the fall of 2022. Why not follow the New Quality
Schools Process? It has a history and a well-developed series of steps that
might prove extremely helpful to this work. |
My assumptions
were wrong. I asked the Portfolio Management Team at DPS if it would be involved.
This was part of their response:
...the new Montbello High School and Feeder Middle School will not go through a Call for New Quality Schools application process. This process is outside of the Facility Allocation Policy as the board resolution is to unify DCIS Montbello, Noel Community Arts School, and Collegiate Prep Academy into these two schools, as opposed to creating new schools as a result of school turnaround or opening a new school based on new capacity needs (where the Facility Allocation Policy applies). (email to me, Feb. 4, 2021) (Bold mine)
Now that we know that unify into means close, perhaps the board and district will reassess this position.
You might compare the latest timeline that DPS has presented for the design of the new Montbello High with the more deliberate timeline of the New Quality Schools Process. There are many good reasons it expects a sound proposal to be submitted 16 months before a school might open.
From the website of Denver Public School’s Portfolio Management Team.
DPS
believes new schools play a critical role in ensuring all students have access
to great schools. DPS determines if new schools are needed based on two primary
factors: school performance and district enrollment needs. New schools are
authorized through DPS’ rigorous quality authorizing process, the Call for New
Quality Schools. https://portfolio.dpsk12.org/create-new-schools/
2. See New Quality Schools Process
To learn more about the process or to apply, read the application
materials below. Letters of Intent are due February 26, 2021 by 12PM to
CNQS@dpsk12.org.
2021 DPS
New Quality School Application
2021 New
Quality School District-Run Budget Template
2021 New
Quality School Charter Budget Template
https://portfolio.dpsk12.org/applicant-supports/#1531770545016-3e5bf9fc-208f
3. For
new District-run and public charter schools intending to open in fall 2022
See Copy of 2021 DPS New Quality School Application – 113 pages (Revised January 2021) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-7V0mDhpWtmdRqTibFz8JM5NzWx0UUrsWXhUinUSPGA/edit
The Letter to New School Developers from
the Portfolio Management Team at DPS includes this statement:
The 2021 application release introduces the
rigorous Quality Authorizing Process DPS offers for developers of new
district-run and charter schools and provides important contextual information,
which include a focus on designing for equity,
that we encourage school developers and community partners to consider as they
design new programs. (Bold mine)
4.
Quality Authorizing Process Timeline
|
Item |
Dates |
|
Application Materials
Released |
January 15, 2021 |
|
Letters of Intent Due |
February 26, 2021 |
|
New School Applications
Due |
April 9, 2021 |
|
District Sponsored
Community Events |
April 19, 2021 - April
30, 2021 |
|
Applicant Interviews |
May 3, 2021 - May 7,
2021 |
|
Applicant Presentations
to DPS Board of Education |
June 7, 2021 |
|
District Accountability
Committee (DAC) Recommendations to DPS Board of Education |
June 7, 2021 |
|
Superintendent
Recommendations to DPS Board of Education |
June 7, 2021 |
|
Public Comment with DPS
Board of Education |
June 10, 2021 |
|
DPS Board of Education
Vote on Quality of Applications |
June 10, 2021 |
Addendum
D
Where
can we see evidence of success in Denver? What can we learn from six of the
newer high schools authorized by Denver Public Schools, but not created
or designed by the district?
P = Performance (highest
rating) I = Improvement (second highest
rating)
|
6 Denver charter schools serving a majority of
students on FRL, with the state’s two highest ratings |
% of students FRL (on Free or
Reduced Lunch) |
# of students enrolled |
State’s School Performance
Framework |
Denver’s School Performance
Framework |
|
|
2020-21 |
2019 (most recent year
available) |
||
|
DSST: Cole High |
87% |
348 |
I |
Accredited on Watch |
|
DSST: College View High |
86% |
558 |
P |
Meets Expectations |
|
KIPP Northeast Denver Leadership Academy |
80% |
574 |
I |
Meets Expectations |
|
DSST: Green Valley Ranch High |
70% |
580 |
P |
Meets Expectations |
|
DSST: Montview High |
67% |
578 |
P |
Meets Expectations |
|
KIPP Denver Collegiate High |
66% |
492 |
I |
Accredited on Watch |
|
% of students enrolled in 2020-21 on Free or Reduced Lunch |
|
|
DCIS at Montbello |
93% |
|
Noel Community Arts School |
84% |
|
STRIVE Prep - Montbello |
91% |
|
“When [a] crisis occurs, the actions
that are taken depend on
the ideas that are lying around.” Milton Friedman |
Ditto re designing the school around a clear mission. Never once thinking that it would be a good idea to try to be comprehensive. Certain that it is best to be about something, to have strong beliefs about the kind of school it envisioned.
Ditto re designing the school’s governance, knowing how critical it would be to have considerable autonomy from the district.
Good ideas, “lying around.” Worth
considering. If we would only look…
Endnotes
[i]
“Why We Can’t Stop Longing for the Good Old Days,” Wall Street Journal, by Johan Norberg, Dec.
26-27, 2020.
[ii] “The reunification of
West High is one of two efforts underway to bring comprehensive high schools
back to neighborhoods where they were dismantled. The hope at the time was that
smaller schools would better serve students there, many of whom are Hispanic or
Black.
“But a decade later, communities in west and far northeast Denver are calling for the return of their traditional high schools. The process to reunify West has been faster and simpler than one to bring a comprehensive high school back to the northeast Montbello neighborhood.” “Denver school board votes to reunify West High School,” by Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado, Nov 19, 2020. https://co.chalkbeat.org/2020/11/19/21578841/denver-vote-to-reunify-west-high-school
[iii]
“Huidekoper: High school graduation rates aren’t
necessarily a reason to celebrate,” The Denver Post, July 2,
2015. https://www.denverpost.com/2015/07/02/huidekoper-high-school-graduation-rates-arent-necessarily-a-reason-to-celebrate/
ALSO-
Another View #131: “Higher graduation rates? A word of caution before we celebrate,” June 15, 2015.
Another View #162: “Higher
graduation rates in Colorado – fake news,” June 6, 2017.
Another View #183: “Remediation
rates suggest our graduation rates will soon fall,” Sept. 5, 2018.
[iv]
AV #161 - Schools
with a mission - What if all public
schools (not just charters) were asked to define what they are about? (May 23, 2017).
Excerpt: We just say
yes
One of the most
profound remarks I heard about public education in the past quarter century was
this “joke”: Q: What is the mission of our public schools?
A: You name it, we start it.
Or-
A: We just say yes.
[v]
CDE – District and School Support - http://www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/performance
[vi] 2019 Request for
Information - School Redesign - Release of CDE’s
2019 School Redesign Request for Information (RFI)
CDE has released its
2019 School Redesign Request for Information (RFI), in which it invites
partners to join the state’s effort to transform low-performing schools and
ensure that all students – regardless of where they live – have access to
schools that prepare them for college and career…Through the 2019 RFI, CDE will
accept new submissions as well as continuation submissions from organizations
who are already on CDE’s Advisory List of
Providers. http://www.cde.state.co.us/accountability/cde-advisory-list-of-providers
[vii] THE WIDGET
EFFECT - ERIC - US Department of Education
files.eric.ed.gov
- “The Widget Effect describes the tendency of school
districts to assume classroom effectiveness is the same from teacher to teacher.
This decades-old fallacy fosters an environment in which teachers cease
to be understood as individual professionals, but rather as interchangeable
parts.”
[viii] From AV
#86 – The notes on page 7 of that newsletter came from EdNewsColorado.
*The Colorado Growth Model uses four
key indicators – based on an analysis of students’ testing history – to paint a
picture of academic progress by school and district:
Median Growth Percentile: Shows how much a group of students
is progressing compared to others. Typical growth for an individual student
centers around 50. Lower means slower growth, higher means better than average.
Adequate Growth Percentile: Shows the growth that students
needed on average in the past year to reach or maintain proficiency within
three years or by the tenth grade, whichever comes first. With this
indicator, lower is better. Lower numbers mean less growth is required.
“Catching up”: The percentage
of students who previously scored below proficient in this subject but who have
shown enough growth in the past year to reach proficiency within three years or
by 10th grade. They’re “catching up” to proficiency so a higher number is
better. http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/08/08/42114-find-your-schools-2012-growth-scores.
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