Op-Ed written by Ariel Taylor Smith of Transform Education Now.
A letter to the next superintendent of Denver Public Schools:
Be brave enough to demand results for kids.
Families across this city demand meaningful, measurable results — our kids’ future is at stake.
“Will our children be prepared for a life of opportunity?” This is the question that has resurfaced over and over again with Denver families during the past year of remote learning. Over the past eighteen months, Transform Education Now has made thousands of calls to families. On those calls, we check to make sure that the family we are speaking with has everything they need to support their child — we connect them to meal programs, ensure they have wi-fi and computer access, and then generally check on how remote learning is going in their house. No surprise: Most often, families reported that their student was receiving significantly fewer opportunities for learning, and they are worried about their child’s future. In fact, in our winter 2020 survey that included 650 parents, half reported that their student was not ready to move on to the next grade level.
Read more of Ariel’s Op Ed in Westword here.