If I were West Denver Prep founder Chris Gibbons, about now I’d be wondering whether it’s worth the trouble to put one of my excellent schools in northwest Denver.
That area’s school board member, Arturo Jimenez, makes nice noises about the program, but his actions belie his words. He appears to want nothing to do with West Denver Prep in his district. He wants the Denver school board to reverse its Nov. 30 vote to place a campus inside Lake Middle School. Then he wants to ban any additional campuses from north of 6th Avenue or west of Interstate 25. If that doesn’t send a clear message, nothing will.
So, Chris, take your program, which has produced Denver’s best middle school, and open new campuses on the other side of town.
But wait. There is an unfortunate dynamic at work here, too little discussed. Parents in NW Denver want a strong International Baccalaureate program at Lake. They also want a strong program, similar to Hill Middle School’s, at Skinner Middle School. Worthy goals, to be sure. These parents worry that too many new schools mean too few students, depriving the Lake and Skinner programs of adequate funding. Legitimate concerns.
Has anyone done a detailed analysis of whether these programs would serve the area’s low-income kids well? I’m trying to get my hands on a recent analysis, not publicly released, that found no evidence that IB programs do well by low-income kids. You’ll see it as soon as I get it, if I get it.
West Denver Prep offers a highly structured program, which is not for everyone. It caters to low-income students who are ready for the challenge of structure and rigor that is sorely lacking in other DPS middle schools. Would IB and the Skinner program provide equivalent rigor and structure?
So, what we may be seeing in NW Denver is a well-intentioned group of organized and effective parents and community members, including some low-income parents, driving out a program that would benefit low-income kids, in favor of a couple of programs that may or may not serve low-income kids so well, but certainly will draw middle-class families back into area middle schools.
Is that a good tradeoff?
Popularity: 21% [?]
“Is that a good tradeoff?”
That’s what the whole debate is about. Advocates for IB at Lake believe that IB plus economic diversity equals achievement for all kids. Advocates for Skinner argue that Skinner’s current model, which is highly structured, plus honors, equals achievement for all kids. And that the combination of the two mean choices which a substantial part of the three-quarters of the families that choice out of the neighborhood middle schools will consider seriously.
After months of arguing, debate and personal attack, EdNews finally get the crux of the issue…