Rocky Mountain PBS by Lindsey Ford | Published on February 28, 2022
When COVID-19 arrived to the U.S. in 2020, it changed the American way of life, sending kids home from school, closing stores and restaurants and leading to mandatory social-distancing and mask-wearing.
Two years after the initial shutdown, four Denver-based parents shared with Rocky Mountain PBS some of what they’ve been through, the ways they’ve coped and how they are still feeling the effects of the global pandemic.
Kristin Franke, a single mother to a 4-year-old, shared that when the pandemic first hit, she was laid off from her job. It was tough for her.
“There’s just a lot of unknowns going on, and I think there is a lot of fear still, and nobody knows how we’re going to get caught up; that’s a big one,” Franke said. “The biggest struggle is being at home with my daughter all the time and not having any outside help.”
Franke now works from home. She, like the other moms we spoke with, said her daughter’s virtual learning was particularly challenging. To keep the family balance in her household, she let her daughter know that just because she was learning virtually, that didn’t mean it was time to play. Franke suggested parents set up a schedule at home to keep everyone on track, just like if your child was at school.
Mothers Lorena Popoca, Kadi Kouyate and Ivy Foster have similar set-ups at home for their kids’ learning.
Denver (CBS4) – Denver Public Schools “schoolchoice” open enrollment is underway. The school choice window for open enrollment for the 2022-2023 school year started Friday and continues through 4 p.m. Feb. 15.
“School Choice allows families to really find the best fit for their kiddos that means Yeah, whatever school across the district that best meets their needs. And that’s regardless of whether you live in southwest Denver or you live in a $1 home in Wash Park, you can find a school that really meets your child where they’re at,” said Nicholas Martinez with Transform Education Now.
Applications can be filled out online on the DPS website. The results are expected in late March.
Photo credit: Katie Wood, The Denver Post via Getty Images
Providing fun, engaging activities and welcoming settings for instruction can boost happiness in classrooms — and learning. Written by Kara Arundel, K-12 Dive.
Showing students they can have ownership over their learning can help students stay on task and learn from their mistakes, said Brittany Patton, an interventionist at KIPP Sunshine Peak Elementary School in Denver, Colorado.
Patton uses a “conscious discipline” approach to help her model coping, social, and problem-solving skills for her students, which contributes to an optimal learning environment.
She also has various rituals to help students de-stress, find empathy for others, and move around before lessons.
For example, students wish someone well by holding their hand over their heart and then pushing those thoughts out by taking their hands off their hearts and pushing the air in front of them. Students also sing, zigzag around the classroom, tap their bodies, and take deep breaths in and breathe out like a lion, ghost or whatever noise they want to make.
Patton’s students also have “commitment trackers” and pick a commitment they will focus on for the lesson, such as keeping their body calm or listening to their teacher. They receive a stamp for meeting commitments and, if they don’t, they will discuss how they will aim to meet the commitment at the next lesson.
“I’m really proud of the way my students have grown in accepting their ‘oopses’ and using those moments to reflect and grow,” Patton said in an email.
“I just think that one, being Black and a woman, and then being a minority there are just a lot of things that set you back and also being the age that I am, you’re not taken seriously and you just don’t have access to certain things because I am Black and I am a woman, and you are usually pushed to the side,” said Phoebe Amoako.
Amoako, an 18-year-old Black woman, Itzel Pacheco, a 17-year-old Mexican-American young woman, and Stacey Adimou, a 16-year-old Black young woman, all have a few things in common: They are young women of color with big dreams, and they are all involved in Young Aspiring Americans for Social and Political Activism (YAASPA).
YAASPA is a nonprofit that supports Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and other marginalized middle and high school students. The Denver-based organization exposes kids to career pathways to pursue degrees in social justice, teaches them about civic literacy and provides scholarships and skills to help dismantle racism within the education system. The program’s motto is “Redefine the standards to pull down the barriers,” meaning YAASPA’s goal is to break down institutional racism within communities to connect those in the “ivory tower” to marginalized communities.
On Friday, October 22nd, more than 100 people gathered in the cafetorium of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College (DMLK) to watch the premiere of Power in Our Voices: The Know Justice, Know Peace Story directed by Diego Estrada Bernuy and Emily Han-Young Hurd of Degotelo Studios and supported in part by RootED Denver.
After the film, a panel of DMLK students, educators, and district curriculum staff sat down with moderator, Dr. Brenda Allen, RootED Denver Board Chair and Professor Emerita, to discuss the film’s themes, the students’ journey and next steps in revising the manner in which DPS teaches Black history. The event was live streamed on the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College Facebook and YouTube pages.
The film showcases the remarkable story of four young women finding their voices and becoming empowered to envision and effect change at their school and across the city. The film relates the emotional and inspirational journey that led to Denver Public Schools’ adoption of the Know Justice, Know Peace Resolution.
The film presents a powerful example of what’s possible when student perspectives are lifted up, and when educators are responsive to feedback and have the autonomy to implement changes. DMLK Principal Kimberly Grayson said, “Our vision at MLK is to create great leaders, great communicators and great thinkers. And a part of that is to ensure that we are listening and valuing our students and their voices.”
Student Kaliah Yizar added, “It’s so important that we don’t let the students coming up today not feel important. Especially with things like mental illness affecting teenagers already. Be willing to give students a foundation to value themselves and know that they can do something because the future is really in our hands.” The students created a podcast, Know Justice Know Peace: The Take, to address the inequities in education today. They hope to keep their resolution alive by having conversations with key people in the implementation, sustainability and overall success of their efforts to transform the DPS curriculum.
At the conclusion of the panel, Dr. Walter Milton and Dr. Joel Freeman, the creators of Black History 365, presented college scholarship checks to all students from the original podcast, Dahni Austin, Alana Mitchell, Jenelle Nangah and Kaliah Yizar.
View the facilitator’s guide on the RootED website as a way to deepen your understanding of the film and how to organize conversations about it with others.
October 10, 2021 – Boardhawk
We, the passionate educators at American Indian Academy of Denver, are on a mission to help our children reclaim the genius of our ancestors. We’re in our second year as a charter school in the Denver Public Schools. By building a school of mirrors and windows we want our Indigenous students to be able to see themselves in what they’re learning, and in who they’re learning from.
On Monday October 11th the United States will observe Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Our people have been scientists, builders, artists, and mathematicians since time immemorial. This cultural legacy was given to us by our forebears and we work to bring that cultural legacy to our kids every day of the school year – in a 21st century format – so that they can carry it into their future.
Metropolitan Denver is home to some 40,000 Native Americans representing 200 tribes. Because we live across the Front Range – scattered to the winds – most people don’t know we’re here. As one of the first cities to participate in the federal relocation program in the 1950s and 1960s, Denver drew Native people from around the country who were encouraged to move to urban areas as the government sought to end the protected trust status of all Indian-owned lands.
A member of the Gnoozhekaaning Anishinaabe tribe in Michigan, my mom came to Denver after surviving institutionalization at an Indian boarding school. She, like so many other Native boarding school students, was deeply impacted by this forced experience. The 2014 White House Native Youth Report states that, “the legacy of these misdeeds haunts us. The trauma of shame, fear and anger has passed from one generation to the next…” A legacy that has never been rectified or remedied.
While I’ve spent my career in Indian education, it wasn’t until I visited the Native American Community Academy (NACA) in Albuquerque that I realized what was possible for my community in Denver. With its strong focus on cultural identity and academic preparedness, NACA has successfully closed achievement gaps for Native students and consistently outperforms surrounding schools. The excellent graduation, college entrance and retention rates at NACA have held steady as the school celebrates its 17th year.
Read more from Terri Bissonette, American Indian Academy of Denver Founder and Principal, in Boardhawk.
September 3, 2021 – CBS4
A new school year is underway and students are once again facing a variety of stressors. COVID-19 is amplifying everyday struggles and often leads to trouble beyond school hallways and into the courtroom.
While many Colorado schools take a zero-tolerance approach to disciplining students, two alternative high schools in Denver are doing things differently.
“I walked away that night in cuffs,” Julian a freshman at 5280 Alternative High School said.
He wasn’t running from police, or doing anything destructive, he was caught on the roof of his high school at night.
“I had other charges pending. If that charge were to get on my record, a lot of things could’ve gone bad,” he said.
Elie Zweibel, a juvenile civil rights attorney in Denver, says not every student’s story will end that way.
“My average client is between 14 and 16 years old but I have clients as young as 8,” he said.
In his experience broad and often harsh discipline policies push students out of school.
“I see students being expelled for tagging, spraying graffiti off school grounds; I see students being expelled for pretty routine playground fights; I see students being expelled for mere allegations,” Zweibel said.
It often leads to more serious involvement with law enforcement.
Jen Jackson the principal at The Academy of Urban Learning says that’s how the “school to prison pipeline” gets started.
“Students will go into a detention center and they come out and it’s difficult for them to find a school that will take them or has the capacity to fulfill all the needs they may have rejoin and catch up,” she said.
Her school, AUL is there in those situations as a trauma-informed alternative high school. They offer education and support.
Community members welcome new DPS superintendent with open arms, watchful eyes
Sports. The English language. Mental healthcare. Lunch.
These were among the concerns more than 50 parents of Denver Public Schools students and other education advocates brought to the district’s new superintendent, Alex Marrero, when he met and greeted them at the campus of Kepner Beacon Middle School on Tuesday.
Once Marrero sat down with the parents, DPS faculty and staff, and members of Denver education advocacy groups, TeRay Esquibel, co-founder and director of the DPS alumni organization Ednium, facilitated the conversation.
The first question Esquibel asked the superintendent: “What assumptions have you held that you had to let go in order to get to where you’re at, and how is that going to help you in this job?”
The Bronx-born-and-raised former interim superintendent of the City School District of New Rochelle, N.Y. admitted he at first had doubts about his new environment. He spoke candidly about those doubts and how they’ve been alleviated as he grew more familiar with the Denver community.
“My preconceived notions were, ‘Is this just another gig?’ ‘Is it something to wipe the slate clean?’ ‘Am I going to be seen as the token Latino? A token replacement?’ I had those doubts,” Marrero said. “I can erase that from my mind, because as much as I interact with you all, I realize what you want is stability — someone who’s going to stay the course, not someone who’s going to fly in and fly out.”
Read more from T. Michael Boddie in Boardhawkhere.
Case Study: The 3 Pillars Guiding Learning Recovery — and Student Growth — at Our Denver Schools as We Rush to Catch Kids Up After the Pandemic
The staff and board of University Prep Charter Schools stepped up this spring, recognizing an urgent need to develop an ambitious vision and catch-up plan that would support all children in getting back on track following more than a year of disruptions and struggles. Our objective: To ensure that, despite the significant challenges brought on by the pandemic, all our scholars will remain on track with grade-level performance, while receiving any and all supports they may need (academically, socially, emotionally and beyond).
At U Prep, we are unwavering in our belief that all children, from all backgrounds, can learn at the highest levels. They are brilliant, beautiful people and absolutely capable. Eighty-five percent of our students qualify for free and reduced-price lunches and 94 percent are students of color. In 2017, scholars at our Steele Street campus in Denver had the highest math growth in the state (out of all public elementary schools) and the eighth highest English Language Arts (ELA) growth, after a single year.
Read more of Recardo Brook’s commentary in The74here.
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.
