January 2024
These three neighbors operate apart more than is good for all concerned. And so, a proposal.
|
Many are familiar with Gillian Tett’s highly praised The Silo
Effect – The Peril of Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers.
Her theme informs this essay. For district leaders new to The Silo Effect,
see one page of excerpts in Addendum A. |
I propose that Aurora Public Schools, the Cherry Creek School District, and Denver Public Schools sit down on a regular basis and explore common challenges and possible solutions. I hear your doubts. Each district is too big and too preoccupied with its own priorities. Each will say: We have no time for chit chat with neighbors. Let rural districts (where real silos exist!) of 200 students work with their equally tiny neighbors in order to pool resources. They need to collaborate. That is not us. We are self-sufficient. No need for distractions. For us, silos work.
How big? They are among the five biggest
districts in Colorado. Together they enroll 180,00 students, 20% of the state’s
K-12 students. If my proposal makes no sense to the three of them, the other
80% of K-12 education might at least ask, as I do: Hey neighbors, why don’t
you talk with each other?
|
I appreciated Stephanie Mason’s final
remarks at the end of her term on the APS Board of Education. I build on her
words, and apply them to all three districts. “We need to get rid of all the silos and
come together because with all of us together we will be empowering ourselves
and our students.” (Dec. 5, 2023) |
Let’s start with demographics. Any surprises for you? Probably not. The contrast in the Free or Reduced Lunch rates is remarkable, given that these are next-door-neighbors. And yet the dissimilarities are not the only story.
Demographics of the 3 districts
https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/pupilcurrent
To be sure, we must acknowledge the discrepancy in academic results. Cherry Creek students stand apart. The Cherry Creek-APS gap may shock anyone seeing this for the first time. Perhaps it hints at the impact of our silos. And at an opportunity. Note that students in DPS no longer score well below the state average. To learn of Denver’s progress could encourage teachers in Aurora, who see too little of it.
Some believe demographics
determine student achievement (not unlike the maxim: “your zip code dictates the
quality of your local school”). I do not. This is where connections between APS
and its higher performing neighbors can help. APS can learn from their success.
It can imagine something better.
CMAS
(% Met or Exceeded Expectations) and SAT scores. In
red, most glaring differences.
|
|
CMAS ELA Grade 3 |
CMAS ELA Grade 8 |
CMAS Math Grade 4 |
CMAS Math Grade 7 |
SAT Reading & Writing (Gr 11) |
SAT Math (Gr. 11) |
SAT* TOTAL score |
|
Aurora
Public Schools |
19.8% |
24.0% |
15.5% |
11.6% |
438 |
422 |
860 |
|
Denver
Public Schools |
40.1% |
40.8% |
29.0% |
25.1% |
484 |
461 |
944 |
|
STATE AVERAGE |
39.9% |
42.4% |
32.7% |
26.3% |
506 |
484 |
990 |
|
Cherry
Creek Sch. District |
46.1% |
50.2% |
36.4% |
34.1% |
537 |
522 |
1059 |
*Addendum B provides Disaggregated Achievement on SAT for
the three districts.
Yes, reader, by now you see my chief hope for "breaking down" the silos. APS
needs help. (Addendum B gives more comparisons. Most alarming fact there:
51% of 3rd graders in APS were identified as SRD.)
Choice out and choice in – students move across the three districts
No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
(John Donne)
Public school choice in Colorado enables families, if not the districts
themselves, to operate without regard to silo-thinking. When moms, dads, and
grandparents find a school they believe will be a better fit for their child, outside
the district, the walls are invisible. (Although they still exist; there is no guarantee one can
choice IN to Cherry Creek.[i])
Data below reflects the movement between the three districts.
However, it would
be short-sighted for Cherry Creek and Denver leaders to say: oh good for us,
see how many new students (with their dollars) we gain, at the expense of Aurora.
No district is an island.
Note the movement between the three districts. A way to suggest, aren’t they ALL OUR STUDENTS?
FROM DPS[ii] FROM APS FROM CHERRY CREEK
|
DPS to Aurora – 533 students |
Aurora to DPS – 1,786 students |
Cherry Creek to DPS – 1,264 students |
|
DPS to Cherry Creek – 354 |
Aurora to Cherry Creek – 778 |
Cherry Creek to Aurora – 301 |
|
CHOICING IN - #
students gained # of students who choice
in from the neighboring districts |
Overall number of
students “gained/lost” between the three: |
|
DPS – 3,050 |
DPS PLUS - 2,263 |
|
Cherry Creek- 1,132 |
Cherry Creek MINUS – 433 |
|
Aurora – 834 |
Aurora MINUS 1,730 |
Related to
movement between neighboring districts - student well-being and safety
We saw the
Cherry Creek to Denver connection play out a year ago, in tragic fashion, when
a former Overland High School student, newly enrolled in DPS, shot teachers at
East High.
Two adult faculty members at
Denver East High School were shot Wednesday morning while searching a student who attended the
school….
A source with connections to the
district told FOX31 this safety plan was in effect because Lyle had previously
been expelled from another district.
A spokesperson from the Cherry Creek Schools district told FOX31 that Lyle was “disciplined for violations of board policy and was removed from Overland High School.”[iii]
This incident called attention to the need for good communication
between the three districts.
Aurora then and now – a shift that bodes
well for good conversations
|
“Districts that serve similar student populations, such as Denver
and Harrison have higher rates of students reading, writing, and doing math
at grade level than APS. There is no need to reinvent the wheel. The district
should look to examples within the district as well as examples outside of
the district to find strategies that will lead to success for all kids.”
“Aurora Public Schools – March 2017,” A+ Colorado. |
Aurora seemed
comfortable inside its silo, or so I thought, when led by Superintendent Rico
Munn (2013-2023). By 2015 reform efforts in Denver were gaining national
attention. The positive impact on teaching and learning was hard to miss. A CU
Denver study tracked achievement data and showed an almost steady rise in scores
in Denver Public Schools, from 2009-2016.[iv]
In contrast, A+ Colorado issued reports that gave a grim picture of student
outcomes in APS.[v] One
study urged the district to consider reforms underway on the other side of Quincy
Blvd. (See box)
In 2019 a Chalkbeat
Colorado article highlighted the contrast between Denver and Aurora on
charter school policy. Munn sounded defensive. He told Chalkbeat:
One of the things we have seen from a lot of the people who propose charters and a lot of the organizations and entities around these, is they always come to us and expect us to think and act like Denver. We’re not Denver. Because we do think differently doesn’t mean it’s unfair. If they walk into us expecting us to do it like Denver, they’re going to be disappointed.[vi]
If that mindset
prevailed for years, the district’s new superintendent can mean a shift in the
wind. In hiring Michael Giles as their new superintendent last year, the APS
Board of Education brought in a leader with over 20 years of experience in
Cherry Creek. He is the ideal choice to foster stronger ties between APS and
his former employer. Furthermore, he has no cause to be defensive when anyone
points to the dramatic gap in academic achievement between APS and Cherry Creek.
Still, after 20 years of seeing much stronger
results, I imagine the contrast saddens the new superintendent. It must weigh on him more than
most.
Aurora Public Schools invites
successful charter models to “cross the border”
Beginning
in 2016 APS welcomed two of Denver’s charter school networks into the district.
To his credit, Rico Munn supported the
effort to bring two charter models from DPS into Aurora. Positive examples of —
apologies to Ronald Reagan — “tearing down this wall.”
|
Rocky
Mountain Prep-Fletcher – The Fletcher Community School, located little more
than a stone’s throw across the Denver/Aurora line up on East 25th
Avenue, was struggling, once again on the state’s accountability clock. Rocky
Mountain Prep, like DSST, a charter network with years of success in Denver, began talks
with APS. A 2018 study by A+ Colorado celebrated the collaboration: “Transformative
Transitions: Fletcher & Rocky Mountain Prep.”[viii]
By 2019 Rocky Mountain Prep Fletcher, K-5, was in place.
In 2023 test scores at the school exceeded
the district average. Fletcher is also one of the few APS elementary schools given
the state’s top rating of Performance.
A second example – no doubt there could be more (KIPP Colorado, University Prep) – of finding school models for Aurora that have proven successful serving a similar student population. How helpful, too, to have a network “next door” for support. Even if in another district.
% Met or Exceeded
Expectations in 2023 on CMAS Literacy and Math
|
|
APS – district average Literacy |
RMP Fletcher |
APS – district average Math |
RMP
Fletcher |
|
Grade 3 |
19.8% |
31.7% |
18.0% |
21.4% |
|
Grade 4 |
23.3% |
19.0% |
15.5% |
19.8% |
|
Grade 5 |
24.6% |
31.0% |
17.0% |
24.1% |
“And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29)
This observer believes Aurora Public Schools is in trouble. (If the data in Addendum B is not enough to support this conclusion, please see Addendum C.) Can its two neighboring districts do more to lend a hand? Maybe it is naïve to think that stronger connections can be good for all three parties. But common sense tells us that Cherry Creek and Denver do not have all the answers. The three districts teach many of the same students. They hire and train many of the same teachers. And they confront a common challenge: to help thousands of students who perform well below grade level, miss too many days of school, or struggle with mental health issues. All three districts can benefit from deeper ties.
Still, the motive to reach out to Aurora is not going to be self-interest. It will be a moral choice.
The story is told in Luke 10:29–37: A man going from Jerusalem to Jericho is attacked by robbers who strip him and beat him. A priest and a Levite pass by without helping him. But a Samaritan stops and cares for him, taking him to an inn where the Samaritan pays for his care.[ix]
A great parable has many “lessons.” One, at least,
speaks of helping those in trouble—even if not of our faith, our tribe – or
our school district. A question for all of us: who is my neighbor?
Addendum A
The Silo Effect – The Peril of
Expertise and the Promise of Breaking Down Barriers
by Gillian Tett
Excerpts
(Bold mine)
“The paradox of the modern age, I realize, is that we live
in a world that is closely integrated in some ways, but fragmented in others.
Shocks are increasingly contagious. But we continue to behave and think in
tiny silos.” (Introduction, p. X)
|
Key terms artificial boundaries inward-looking isolation rigidity trapped tunnel vision |
Tett shows “the silo effect” in stories about City Hall in
New York, Cleveland Clinic hospital in Ohio, UBS bank in Switzerland, Facebook
in California, Sony in Tokyo, among others. She writes: “Some of these
narratives illustrate how foolishly people can behave when they are masted
by silos. Others, however, show how institutions and individuals can
master their silos…” (XI)
Derivation of "silo effect" – "a state of mind"
“Management consultants imported the phrase to describe a ‘system, process, department, etc. that operates in isolation from others…’ The word ‘silo’ does not just refer to a physical structure or organization. It can also be a state of mind. Silos exist in structures. But they exist in our minds and social groups too. Silos breed tribalism. But they go hand in hand with tunnel vision.” (13)
Inward-looking
groups – (remind you of a big school district in your vicinity?)
Facebook’s induction process was intended to “prevent the project
teams from hardening into rigid inward-looking groups” (176). The
Facebook platform was used as “a way for staff to build deeper connections with
each other, on multiple different levels. Facebook managers believed that this
was another important weapon in the war against silos.” (183)
Trapped
(when operating out of silos) – a key theme
“People were trapped inside their little specialist
departments, social groups, teams, or pockets of knowledge. Or, it might be
said, inside their silos.” (X)
“… we can escape the prison of the classification
systems that we inherit.” (143)
“The bankers sitting inside banks were usually bright and
many could often see the peculiarities of their own rules. But they were trapped
in the system …” (227)
Closing
lines
“… we can either be mastered by
our mental and structural silos or we can try to master them instead. The
choice lies with us. And the first step to mastering our silos is the most
basic one of all: to think how we all unthinkingly classify the world around us
each day.
“And then to try
to imagine an alternative.” (254)
Addendum B
APS, DPS, and Cherry Creek - Compare and Contrast
Like all 178 districts, these big
three share many concerns, including the reading skills of their youngest students;
the persistent achievement gaps; attendance and chronic absentees. Shared
interests, even if dissimilar results. Perhaps topics for discussion –and a
chance to learn of strategies that are working.
In
red, most glaring differences
K-3 -
READING – READ ACT DATA - % of students identified as Significantly Reading Deficient
More than
half of the third graders in Aurora Public were identified as Significantly
Reading Deficient in 2020-21 (52.7%) and again in 2021-22 (51.1%). In both
years this was more than twice the state average.
|
OVERALL |
GAP w/ APS |
2nd
grade |
GAP w/ APS |
3rd
grade |
GAP
w/ APS |
|
|
Aurora
Public Schools |
44% |
|
46.7% |
|
51.1% |
|
|
Denver
Public Schools |
24% |
-20 |
24.3% |
-22.4 |
22.5% |
-28.6 |
|
STATE
AVERAGE |
21.3% |
-22.7 |
22.8% |
-23.9 |
22.3% |
-28.8 |
|
Cherry
Creek School District |
18% |
-26 |
16.3% |
-30.4 |
13.8% |
-37.8 |
READ Act Data Dashboard- https://www.cde.state.co.us/code/readactdashboard
Grades
4 – LITERACY (Reading and Writing) – 2022-23 - % of students not close to Meeting
Expectations
Results for
Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) group students
into five categories
|
% Did Not Yet Meet
Expectations |
% Partially Met
Expectations |
% Approaching
Expectations |
% Met Expectations |
% Exceeded Expectations |
|
% Did Not Yet Meet Expectations |
% Partially Met Expectations |
In lowest two categories, not close to Meeting
Expectations |
|
|
APS |
31.9% - 847
students |
22.3% - 591
students |
54.2% - 1,438 students |
|
DPS |
19.4% |
17.3% |
33.7% |
|
STATE |
14.5% |
16.5% |
31% |
|
Cherry
Creek |
10.4% |
14.6% |
25% |
https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/cmas-dataandresults-2023
HIGH
SCHOOL – Grade 11 – 2022-23 – SAT (Evidence-Based
Reading & Writing, and Math)
Graduation Guidelines: Minimum Score -
970 (470 R & W. 500 Math)
|
|
White |
Black |
Hispanic |
2 or More Races |
Asian |
Total Average Score
|
|
APS |
986 |
852 |
834 |
924 |
899 |
860 |
|
DPS |
1,122 |
873 |
869 |
1,055 |
1,011 |
944 |
|
STATE |
1,053 |
889 |
885 |
1,029 |
1,101 |
990 |
|
Cherry Creek |
1,109 |
944 |
950 |
1,072 |
1,173 |
1,059 |
https://www.cde.state.co.us/assessment/sat-psat-data
% of Students
Chronically Absent – Numbers hit new highs past two years. Over 40% in APS
& DPS.
Among
the three districts, nearly 70,000 students chronically absent in 2022-23.
|
|
2019-20 |
2020-21 |
2021-22 |
2022-23 |
# of students chronically absent in 2022-23 |
|
APS |
24.8% |
34.0% |
43.5% |
43.3% |
17,229 |
|
DPS |
29.0% |
29.8% |
43.2% |
41.1% |
35,835 |
|
STATE
AVERAGE |
22.6% |
26% |
35.5% |
31.1% |
|
|
Cherry
Creek |
18.4% |
17.7% |
30.5% |
28.7% |
15,329 |
|
|
|
|
68,393 |
||
https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/truancystatistics
Addendum C
Why APS deserves special attention
in 2024
A broader perspective: to see how Aurora Public Schools compares with its two closest neighbors, but also where it stands among all 178 districts across the state.
2023 Final District Performance Framework Ratings (December 2023)
1.
APS is the only school district
among the state’s largest 20 (over 10,000 students) given the low rating
of Accredited with Priority Improvement Plan. (Percentage Points
Earned by APS – 42.8.)
2.
The other 19 large
districts are either rated as Accredited on Performance Plan or
on Improvement Plan.
3. For 2022-23 there were 15 Colorado school districts Accredited on Priority Improvement Plan, but only 9 due to their performance. Colorado’s accountability formula reads: Accredited with Priority Improvement Plan: 34.0% - 43.9%*
Of these 9, the 8 districts rated
on Priority Improvement Plan, other than Aurora, enrolled roughly 15,000
students.
|
School
Districts Accredited on Priority Improvement Plan – 2023 (Percentage
Points Earned)* |
Enrollment 2022-23 |
|
Adams 14– (36.9) |
5,692 |
|
Fort Morgan (41.6) |
3,423 |
|
Moffat County (43.1 |
2,121 |
|
Sheridan (38.4) |
1,125 |
|
Las Animas (35.7) |
822 |
|
Burlington (42.2) |
762 |
|
Center R26 (42.3) |
607 |
|
Centennial R1 (39.9) |
193 |
|
|
14,745 |
4.
Aurora Public Schools (with
roughly 39,000 students) enrolls most of the students in districts Accredited
on Priority Improvement Plan. To be exact, APS enrolls more than
twice the number of students attending the other eight districts on a Priority
Improvement Plan (15,000).
Therefore, to improve outcomes for the largest number of Colorado students enrolled in “underperforming” school districts, improvement in APS must be a priority.
* For six districts rated Accredited with Priority Improvement Plan, their Percentage Points Earned was high enough to justify a higher rating, based on the state’s formula: “Accredited with Improvement Plan: 44.0% - 55.9%.” However, CDE gave the lower rating to theses six districts with the note: Decreased due to Participation.
Endnotes
[i] Unfinished - awaiting information from Cherry Creek School District.
[ii] Pupil Membership, Colorado Department of Education, 2022-23 Non-Resident Students District of Parent's Residence by District of Attendance (XLSX) and 2022-23 Non-Resident Students District of Attendance by Parent's District, State, or Country of Reside. https://www.cde.state.co.us/cdereval/pupilcurrent
[iii] “Denver East High shooting suspect expelled from Overland HS,” by Sean O'Donnell, Fox 31/KDVR, March 22, 2023. https://kdvr.com/news/local/what-we-know-about-the-denver-east-high-school-shooting-suspect/
[iv] “The System-Level Effects of
Denver’s Portfolio District Strategy: Technical Report,” by Parker Baxter, Anna
Nicotera, Erik Fuller, Jakob Panzer, Todd Ely, Paul Teske. https://publicaffairs.ucdenver.edu/docs/librariesprovider36/research-projects-documents/center-for-education-policy-analysis/denver-report---technical-emarboed.pdf?sfvrsn=6a9745bb_6
[v] “If Not Now: Transforming Aurora Public Schools from Failing
to Great,” “Aurora Public
Schools – March 2017,” by A+ Colorado, https://apluscolorado.org/reports/start-with-the-facts-aps-2017/.
[vi] https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2019/07/01/elected-as-charter-skeptics-aurora-school-board-members-face-a-more-complicated-reality/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=cb_bureau_colorado
[vii] Aurora Science and Tech High School. https://www.dsstpublicschools.org/aurora-science-and-tech-high
[viii]
“Transformative Transitions: Fletcher & Rocky
Mountain Prep,” Jan. 26,2018, by Landon Mascareñaz, A Plus Colorado. https://apluscolorado.org/blog/transformative-transitions-fletcher-rocky-mountain-prep/
From conclusion: “District leaders across Colorado should take note of this process, the lessons learned and the next steps. Too many boards and Superintendents have suggested that transitions like these, between district and charters, are doomed to fail because of a myriad of reasons, including the fact that ‘we don’t have the resources of Denver Public Schools.’ The trusting transition at Fletcher has proved them wrong. Indeed, the example shows that not only is a positive transition possible, but it can also have broad affirming impacts on the community. Advocates for education improvement can only hope more districts take note.”
