A+ Report, "Unequal Choices: Model Diverstiy in Denver Public Schools"
So proud to be the lead author on this report on model diversity in DPS. I deeply believe in school quality, and replicating high performing models is an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving outcomes for kids in underserved areas. But I also deeply believe that not every school is right for all kids. We need a plurality of school models that do what they do very well so kids and parents can choose the type of learning experience is right for them.
As the report suggests, some parts of DPS do this well, with many different school models distributed evenly throughout the region. Other parts of the District have much more constrained choices, forcing families to choose schools that might not work for their kids.
There are many implications of this report-- first, as a district that values choice, DPS can incentivize operators to design schools that follow underrepresented models that meet a community need. School operators themselves can use this report to target areas with fewer school models as they conduct their own analysis on where to try to open a new school. Finally, funders interested in promoting more student-focused school models might be interested in where gaps in availability might exist and where to allocate their resources to promote the expansion of these types of schools.