As part of the Beacon Network Schools‘ unique enrichments program, students at Grant Beacon Middle School took a trip to Centennial Airport to learn more about aircraft and engineering. Watch the FOX31 KDVR.com story HERE
As part of the Beacon Network Schools‘ unique enrichments program, students at Grant Beacon Middle School took a trip to Centennial Airport to learn more about aircraft and engineering. Watch the FOX31 KDVR.com story HERE
“Over 20 years, and I’m still not done helping kids and helping families.” Ron Allen, Family Therapist and Social Emotional Specialist at Academy 360
Fox31 reporter Joshua Short visited Academy 360 in Montbello to learn more about the charter school’s approach to nurturing the whole child and providing culturally relevant education and wraparound services to students and families.
Watch the full story of how Allen and Academy 360 are supporting students and families.
After Governor Jared Polis awarded RiseUp Community School with the Governor’s Bright Spot Award in late 2022, 9NEWS reporters Byron Reed and Courtney Yuen featured the alternative charter high school as the January “Cool School.” Watch the 9News feature here.
A pilot program at DSST schools aims to close literacy gaps through the efforts of reading interventionists who work closely with students.
Watch the full story on CBS, which originally aired on December 19, 2022
Wyatt Academy in Denver’s Cole neighborhood has partnered with Collaborative Healing Initiative Within Communities (CHIC) to meet the social and emotional needs of the school’s Black girls.
Through the school’s partnership with CHIC, mentors meet with Wyatt’s girls to provide access to mental health services, and various health and wellness activities.
Read the full story on page 14 of the Denver Urban Spectrum.
The Colorado State Board of Education voted unanimously this month to require the Adams 14 school district and University Prep—a charter school network with two Denver campuses—to resume and complete contract negotiations for a new University Prep school in Commerce City.
The Adams 14 board of education—which approved University Prep’s new charter school application last year—rejected the school’s contract in October without public discussion or explanation.
This came after nearly two dozen meetings and almost 50 hours of work facilitated by a third-party to develop a collaborative, fair and thorough contract between University Prep and the district.
During the December state board meeting, the board denied an Adams 14 motion to dismiss the appeal hearing. During the subsequent appeal and in its unanimous vote, the board determined that the district’s action was not in the best interest of students, the school district or the community. The state board ordered Adams 14 to reconsider whether the contract should be approved.
Watch the news story from CBS4, which aired on December 15, 2022
The University of Colorado Denver’s Center for Education Policy Analysis in the School of Public Affairs has released the findings of a new, first-of-its-kind report.
The report, titled “The System-Level Effects of Denver’s Portfolio District Strategy,” has found that 11 years of education reform strategies in Denver Public Schools—which prioritized choice, autonomy and accountability—led to significant and meaningful improvements in academic proficiency and graduation rates for all students.
According to the report, the district’s comprehensive strategy from 2008-2019:
Read a summary of the research findings, watch a discussion about the research, read Colorado Public Radio’s coverage of the report, or listen to the Fordham Institute’s Education Gadfly podcast with the study’s co-author, Parker Baxter.
Watch the full CBS News Colorado story.
Philanthropist Mackenzie Scott is donating $6 million to KIPP Colorado Public Schools, a network of six public charter schools in Denver.
It’s the largest single donation KIPP has ever received, and the largest sum Scott has awarded to a Colorado charter school network. Scott also gifted $4.5 million to Rocky Mountain Prep in October.
Taamiti Bankole, chief external affairs officer for KIPP, called Scott’s gift a “surprise,” and he credited the network’s educators, families and students with making the schools worthy of the large donation.
“We are so humbled by it, we just love the recognition, and it’s all because of our students and staff,” Bankole said.
The money will be used to provide additional mental health support to students; create pathways for KIPP alumni to work in the network; and to invest in data systems focused on classroom instruction, Bankole told CBS4.
Right now, there’s a summer camp taking place in Denver that focuses on the Black experience, educating children on topics you might not see in the textbook.
FOX31 visited the 5280 Freedom School in the Five Points neighborhood on Tuesday afternoon to learn more about its history and hopes of expanding.
The summer camp is named after Denver’s chapter of Black Lives Matter and started in 2018 with 14 kids attending the camp for half-days for one week. Now, in 2022, it’s grown to more than 60 children and has a waitlist to attend. This year’s two-week camp started on Monday, July 11, and runs until July 22.
Program Director Marissa Chandler explains the summer camp as an experience of passion, acceptance and education.
“They love it,” Chandler said. “To bring Black children together, especially in areas where they don’t really have these kinds of spaces, and to provide them with education that they’re not going to get at school. It’s a space to be themselves and to explore their identities and to be free of racism. We make them feel love and seen.”
Aired on July 12, 2022.
by Lindsey Ford, Rocky Mountain PBS, aired on June 7, 2022
“Someone’s life story could be someone else’s survival guide,” said Marie Escalante, of Thornton. Now, she is sharing her story — one where a global pandemic and a cancer battle led to a struggle to keep food on the table for her three children: 10-year-old twins and a 14-year-old daughter.
“Even after chemo treatments I was down for the count,” Escalante explained. She had developed neuropathy — pain and numbness due to nerve damage — in her legs and was often extremely tired.
“My oldest daughter said, ‘Mom, I can cook.’ And I would tell her, you know, ‘I’m still your mom, you know, I’m going to do the best I can to make sure you guys have proper meals prepare and whatever… you’re only 14 and I’m not trying to have you take the weight of the world on your shoulders because I’m sick,'” Escalante recalled.
That’s where Colorado Food Cluster came in. The nonprofit was born out of the pandemic in August 2020 as a way to address the need of kids who were receiving free food at school but then didn’t receive the meals while learning remotely. The organization started putting together boxes of food that included seven dinners, snacks, milk, preparation instructions and QR codes for online learning to families. CFC delivered these boxes to people all over the Denver metro area, Colorado Springs and several other locations.
Now, that service is in “jeopardy.”