We recently gathered together some facts that form a pointillist vision of the education landscape in the Children’s Corridor and the Denver metro area. Not only is the way we educate kids changing, but essential characteristics about the population we are educating have changed as well. In the past several years, the suite of schools in the region has grown to include charter schools, innovation schools, online schools, and others. At the same time, the school-age population has seen a rapid increase in free and reduced lunch (FRL) participation and English-language learner (ELL) enrollment. Here are some of the highlights:… Read the Rest
The number of Colorado children living in communities stricken with poverty has nearly quadrupled over the past decade – rising from 20,000 to 92,000 – according to the KIDS COUNT Data Snapshot released by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Statewide, eight percent of children live in high-poverty communities, which is below the national rate of eleven percent. However, the problem is growing faster in Colorado than in the rest of the country: Colorado’s percent increase in children living in poverty since 2000 was greater than every state except Alaska and Vermont. The Children’s Corridor, which runs from Denver’s Five Points… Read the Rest
Of the 36,755 Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools students living in the Corridor during the 2010-2011 school year, 78.7 percent – 28,940 kids – participate in the free and reduced lunch (FRL) program, which is an indicator of poverty. Lunch is more than food. It’s essential fuel for learning and social growth. Proper nutrition is tied to children’s performance in school. And malnutrition, especially during early childhood, has been linked to discipline problems and lower IQs. Students Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools who qualify for FRL under-perform compared to their peers. In 2011, 43 percent of… Read the Rest
School performance is an unwieldy concept. Even with quantitative measures – test scores, school quality ratings, graduation rates, college enrollment – it can be difficult to understand and describe the state of schools, especially over time. To tackle this problem, Patty Lawless of Metropolitan Organizations for People (MOP) asked Piton to visualize school performance for Denver Public Schools in the Corridor’s Near Northeast neighborhoods. The graphic (available here or below) – made with free Google tools – shows the relationship between School Performance Framework (SPF) ratings and Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) scores over three years. Pressing the play button… Read the Rest
