Vice President Auon’tai M. Anderson reflects on the new strategic roadmap

As a board member for Denver Public Schools, one of my primary roles is to hold district leadership accountable for developing and implementing a long-term strategy that leads to substantial improvements in educational and life outcomes for children.

Prior strategic plans over the past twenty years have led to remarkable successes in some areas. The district’s four-year graduation rate increased from 39% to 74% from 2006–07 to 2020–21. Enrollment increased 11% between 2012 and 2019, a likely indicator of improved school quality over that time period. However, most of our K-12 students are not demonstrating grade level proficiency in English and math, and the proportion of non-proficient students has only grown since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Achievement and opportunity gaps are persistent and pervasive for students with disabilities and Black, Hispanic, multilingual, and low-income students.

DPS Thrives: A Strategic Roadmap articulates our district’s current and future approach for narrowing these gaps and elevating outcomes for all students. It is based on primarily on the findings of our Superintendent, Dr. Marrero, during his Fall 2021 listening and learning tour where he heard from over 13,000 students, family and community members and staff. In summary, Dr. Marrero learned that while stakeholders appreciate the district’s available non-academic supports, the focus on equity and COVID precautions, there is still much work to do to increase the academic success of students, expand course offerings, and communicate more effectively with families. Operational challenges such as inadequate facilities and staffing shortages are additional strains that make progress more challenging.

In direct response to the needs identified by our school communities, DPS has developed a series of goals and strategies we will prioritize over the next 4 years across the student, adult and system experience, including the following highlights:

Student Experience

• Extended academic opportunities including but not limited to advanced coursework, STEAM (Science, Tech, Engineering, Arts and Math), financial literacy, socioemotional learning, and career and technical education.
• - Increased enrichment and extracurricular opportunities for every student, especially historically marginalized students.
• - Improve grade-level achievement and workforce readiness by 10 percentage points, with greater gains for student groups who are farthest behind.

Adult Experience

- Expand initiatives to recruit, hire, retain and advance team members that reflect the diverse identities of the students we serve.

- Ensure our staff is compensated above market rates, as compared to other Denver metro districts.

- Deepen and enhance communication strategies, with a focus on outreach to families from historically marginalized groups.

- Improve participation of families of marginalized identities in district decision-making processes by at least 10 percentage points

System Experience

- Establish regular routines for auditing equity in systemic practices, such as transportation, enrollment, and resource allocation. Share the results and responsive actions taken with the public.

- Enhance data infrastructure, especially in pursuit of transparency and accountability for equitable practices.

- Incorporate student, family, and community voice and leadership in the improvement of district systems.

As Vice President of the DPS board, I support the district’s strategic plan and will do everything I can to help align resources with the strategies and priorities. Just as the roadmap was developed with community input, we will also need the community’s continued support and investment to overcome obstacles and accelerate progress to our goals. Together, we will ensure all children served by Denver Public Schools thrive and succeed in college, career and life beyond.

Denver School Board Vice President Auon’tai M. Anderson