Some Colorado schools brace for state intervention, while others cheer their progress

Two Colorado school districts and six individual schools failed to show enough improvement to raise their ratings under the state’s accountability system. Unless they successfully appeal their preliminary ratings this fall, they’ll remain on state-mandated improvement plans. Those include the 7,500-student Adams 14 district based in Commerce City, which is likely to face additional state intervention this school year, and Aurora Central High School.

And two new schools also face the potential for state intervention, Central Elementary School in Adams 14 and Minnequa Elementary in the Pueblo 60 district.

One school district and six individual schools that had previously faced state intervention improved enough to get off Colorado’s “accountability clock,” according to preliminary school ratings released Monday.

“Our students are working harder than they ever have, and it’s making a big difference,” said Superintendent Deirdre Pilch of the Greeley-Evans district north of Denver. In that district, two schools on state improvement plans and four others that had been placed on warning did well enough to get out of state scrutiny. “By every measure we use, we are seeing students move in the right direction. I am so proud of people locking arms and coming together to do that work.”

Colorado’s school accountability system rates districts based on achievement on state literacy, math, and science tests, on annual academic growth, and on postsecondary readiness as measured by graduation rates, dropout rates, scores on college entrance exams, and enrollment in college.

Schools go on performance watch or “on the clock” if their rating places them in one of the lowest two tiers – turnaround or priority improvement – and they face state intervention if they don’t move into a higher tier after five years.

The ratings released Monday are considered preliminary. Districts can request that the state reconsider districtwide or school ratings based on, for example, progress in literacy and math in the early grades or measures of high school achievement that don’t show up on state tests.

The deadline to file a request to reconsider is Oct. 15. The ratings will be finalized in December.

The State Board of Education has four options when deciding the future of schools whose performance remains in the two lowest tiers of the five-point scale for years on end. The board can close the school, hand it over to a charter management organization, contract with a third party to help run the school or create an innovation plan that spells out strategies and exemptions from district and state policy to improve student learning.

The options for districts are similar but include drastic and politically challenging steps like pushing for merger with a higher-performing district.

So far, the State Board has taken a collaborative approach and largely approved the plans that schools and districts brought forward. At the same time, state lawmakers, at the request of the Colorado Department of Education, approved changes to require schools to show more sustained improvement to get off performance watch and encourage schools to take action earlier in the process.

Colorado doesn’t have the option of state takeover that’s been exercised in places like New Jersey and Tennessee, with mixed results.

The next few years will serve as an ongoing test of how well this system of carrots and sticks works to help long-struggling districts.

“We are excited to see the progress made in some schools around the state to improve student performance, especially for some of those that have persistently struggled,” said Alyssa Pearson, the Colorado Department of Education’s deputy commissioner for accountability and performance, in an email. “These schools and their districts have had a laser-like focus on the needs of students. They have done this through two to three high-leverage priorities around data-driven instruction, leadership development, and culture to better meet the needs of all students. The specific actions vary, depending on the local context and need.”

Perhaps one of the best examples of the process working is the Greeley-Evans district north of Denver. When Pilch arrived in 2015, 10 schools were on the accountability clock, and three of them ultimately required state-approved improvement plans: Prairie Heights Middle Schools, Franklin Middle School, and Martinez Elementary.

Franklin Middle School got off the clock last year, and with this round of ratings, Prairie Heights and Martinez Elementary were also freed from state supervision. Four additional Greeley-Evans schools came off performance watch this year without outside intervention.

Three Greeley-Evans schools, though, will be on the state’s watch list if their ratings don’t change in appeals.

Pilch said the district poured resources and support into the schools that needed to improve and took advantage of state grants for leadership training and other professional development. The district received extensive reviews of what was and wasn’t working within its schools from state evaluators and took those findings seriously in crafting improvement plans.

“The schools that are on priority improvement and turnaround, they’ve been our priority in terms of support and in terms of ensuring the right resources and the right leaders are in place,” Pilch said. “We’ve been very intentional about maintaining and training quality leaders at these schools. We’ve seen fewer leaders turn over.”

Also showing improvement was the Westminster district, which had one more year to make progress on its plan and is now off the clock. Officials there claimed vindication for the district’s competency-based learning model, in which students are grouped by their understanding of a certain subject and can progress to another level as soon as they show that they’ve mastered that class content.

Results for Aurora schools, where district officials have been using new reforms to intervene in low-performing schools, have been mixed. The district as a whole improved enough to dodge state action last year. This year’s rating stayed at “improvement.”

The school with the most years of bad ratings, Aurora Central High School, failed to improve. The school is already on a state plan for improvement and has a year left to earn a higher rating before it would have to return to face the state again. Previously, state officials essentially blessed a district plan to continue rolling out interventions it was already trying, with extra help from an outside partner. If the school has to return to the state, officials could take more drastic action.

Three schools that had earned the lowest rating of turnaround last year — including Lyn Knoll Elementary — improved. Paris Elementary, which was facing state intervention this year if it didn’t raise it’s Priority Improvement rating, also managed a higher score, to avoid state sanctions.

If final school ratings remain the same, no other Aurora schools this year would be as close to state action. Three schools — Gateway High School, North Middle School and Virginia Court Elementary — would be entering year four, meaning they would have one year to show improvement before being at risk for state intervention.

“Aurora Public Schools continues to see gains and movement in the right direction,” district officials said in an emailed statement. “We have some great momentum that we will continue to build upon. While we recognize that we need to make more improvements at faster rates, we will dig into our data to plan how we will best leverage our strengths and address our challenges.”

District officials said the results from schools in what the district calls its Action Zone – schools that have individual plans for some flexibility from district rules – show the district has the right structure in place to keep improving. However, two schools in that zone, Aurora Central and Boston K-8, did not improve within the state framework and Boston actually earned a lower state rating this year, though it is not on the clock.

The tiny Sheridan district south of Denver, which got off the clock in 2014 after years of effort, was rated in the second-lowest tier, putting the district back on performance watch. Pat Sandos, the new superintendent there, said the news was a hard way to start his tenure, but it also brings a sense of urgency to improving student performance.

“We’re looking at the data really hard and breaking out the content areas,” he said. “We see opportunity for growth with [English-language learners]. It seems like that’s something that’s not just us, but for a lot of at-risk districts.

“Some of the work that we’re already doing is realigning and looking at the curriculum. We’re really focusing hard on that, on establishing a framework that gets teachers focused on what kids need to know at each grade level. And we’re paying a lot of attention to professional development.”

Other schools that got off the clock after facing state intervention include Hope Online Academy Middle School, authorized through the Douglas County school district, Manaugh Elementary School in the Cortez-Montezuma district in southwest Colorado, and Bessemer Elementary School in the Pueblo 60 district.

Two other Pueblo 60 schools still face state supervision: Risley International Academy of Innovation and Heroes Middle School. So does the little Aguilar district in southern Colorado, where the both the district and its joint junior-senior high school have struggled with years of low performance, and Hope Online Learning Academy Elementary School.

The ratings will be finalized by December, and schools that have spent six years or more in turnaround or priority improvement status will face new or ongoing state intervention.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from Colorado Department of Education Deputy Commissioner Alyssa Pearson.