Chalkbeat

An existing program for migrant students can’t help schools with the current influx of new students. Here’s why.

2024-02-22T18:59:22+00:00

Some of Colorado’s most diverse school districts, including Aurora and Greeley, are used to waves of immigration bringing in new students in the middle of the year.

Recently, families from Burma have moved into Greeley, and Aurora officials recall hundreds of new students from Afghanistan after U.S. troops pulled out.

But this year, the midyear wave is even bigger, with most students arriving from Venezuela and other South American countries. And it is overwhelming some district systems.

“We’re running at 300% our normal typical average for the school year,” said Brett Johnson, chief financial officer for Aurora Public Schools, referring to the number of midyear enrollments, which are up from the typical 500 to 800 in a year.

Schools need everything from new desks and more classroom space, to more teachers, bilingual staff, and specialized teachers who can administer screening tests to determine students’ levels of English proficiency and help them learn English.

But many of the new students from South America arrived after the Oct. 1 cutoff that determines how much per-student state funding each district will get. And although government officials refer to this new group of immigrants as “migrants,” the students do not qualify for money from the federal Migrant Education Program.

What does the Migrant Education Program do?

The Migrant Education Program began in 1966 and was designed to support the children of farmworker families. To qualify for the program, students must have parents who work in agriculture, or work in the field themselves, usually in temporary or seasonal positions, and must have moved between school districts within the last three years.

Some of the children might belong to families who travel around the country following the seasonal availability of farm work. They aren’t necessarily new to the country, and many already are fluent in English. Immigration status doesn’t matter, just as it doesn’t for the students who arrived this semester. By law, all children can access free public education.

In Colorado, there were about 4,500 agricultural migrant children aged 1 through 21 this year — fewer than the thousands of new students from South America. The $7.5 million federal allocation for the state helps younger children succeed in school and focuses on keeping teens and young adults up to age 22 in school instead of dropping out to work full time.

Advocates from the program travel to farms or worksites to enroll children in the program and convince older students up to age 22 to stay in school. The program works with families, visiting their homes, supporting their mental health, and figuring out what other barriers might exist for the students to learn. The funding also pays for school supplies, tutoring, and summer programming.

“A lot of our families have needs that are pretty basic, if we just try to push education on them they’re not ready a lot of times,” said Tomás Mejia, Colorado’s director for the Migrant Education Program. “If we help them be well enough, help the parents and adults be well enough to help the kids, that can really help a lot more.”

The new South American students also need the same types of support. For both groups of students, educators say there’s a need to build trust and provide help that goes beyond the classroom.

The Greeley school district usually enrolls the largest number of agricultural migrant students in the state, and Greeley also is seeing a wave of non-agricultural migrant students. One school recently enrolled 19 new students in one day. An elementary school is now so full that teachers are starting to operate out of mobile carts, moving from room to room, instead of having a classroom.

School districts are addressing student needs

The Greeley district’s existing welcome center, which has always helped the community’s immigrant population, is playing a big role in helping the district welcome and make families feel like they belong, said Brian Lemos, director of instruction and English language development.

But the district is also relying on community partners to help families learn to use technology, learn English, and to offer help with housing or employment.

“There’s definitely unique needs,” Lemos said. “They’re new to the country. All of them have needs as far as language acquisition.”

“A lot of these students are coming to us with severe trauma,” said Theresa Myers, a spokesperson for the Greeley district. “Some of the families from Venezuela, they’ve been trying to travel for months. Our impact on our mental health services is real.”

Right now, the district has a mental health counselor at every school. But 35 counselor and social worker positions in the district were funded by ESSER dollars that won’t be available after September. Now the district is trying to figure out how to keep the much-needed positions.

Although Colorado gives school districts extra money to assist students who are learning English, most school districts say they have to use money from their general fund to cover the services they provide because that specific money isn’t enough.

And since so many of these students arrived after October 1, the districts didn’t get the money for them this year. (If students are still enrolled next fall, the districts will get money then.) In the meantime, school districts are having to hire new staff including paraprofessionals to help teachers with larger-than-normal class sizes. In Aurora, “We have several instances in which elementary schools came back from Christmas break with almost 100 more kids than before,” Johnson said.

Legislators in Colorado are drafting a $24 million proposal to give districts some funding for these midyear enrollees. It won’t be the total funding that districts usually get per student, but it might help.

State lawmakers haven’t filed the proposal, but there are promising signs it’ll pass once they do. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has said he supports sending extra funding to districts enrolling new students, and the proposal is coming from lawmakers on the powerful Joint Budget Committee, which plays a major role in how the state spends its money.

Johnson said that Aurora isn’t waiting to see that money transferred before hiring needed positions or addressing needs. He hopes the state will reimburse some of the expenses if the money does come.

While leaders say they aren’t cutting budgets or making adjustments, they are starting to think ahead. Maybe that will mean having roaming teams that can go to the schools most impacted on a short term basis to deal with the work of helping students new to the country.

“The hard part is no one knows how long this phenomenon will last,” Johnson said. “We are trying to start putting in some thought in the long-term, if there’s a better system.”

For now, schools are helping new students from South America adapt.

“When a new student enrolls who is new to the country it’s also a matter of the daily school routines — it’s also teaching them the routines of a typical school day,” Johnson said.

That can take up a lot of time for school staff. But not all schools are receiving high numbers of new students. Schools near shelters, apartments or housing where agencies have helped migrants get settled are enrolling more students.

Educators say they aren’t currently thinking about transferring students to different schools to avoid overcrowded classrooms, but Greeley leaders say they have changed enrollment boundaries when schools were getting too full in previous situations. They might consider it if the enrollment boom continues.

School educators say, still, they want kids in school, they understand that children must learn and the faster they can connect them to educators, the better.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Apps are helping teachers communicate with families that don’t speak English

2024-03-13T22:36:31+00:00

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Emma Gonzalez Gutierrez has struggled to communicate with the teachers of her five children for years.

She’s tried to stay engaged. She’s attended meetings, gravitated toward Spanish-speaking staff, and relied on translators, including her kids, over the years.

Now, thanks to an app that McElwain Elementary, her Adams 12 school, started using this year, she’s found opportunities to engage in new ways with her youngest child’s education.

Recently, the kindergarten teacher texted her on the app, ReachWell, which allows the teacher to text in English and parents to receive the messages in their own language. The teacher told Gonzalez Gutierrez that her daughter had won a student of the month-type award and invited her to come to the school to surprise her daughter when the award was presented. The small gesture that meant so much to Gonzalez Gutierrez.

“For me it was very exciting,” Gonzalez Gutierrez said. “It was so valuable that she was able to let me know.”

ReachWell and similar translation apps have become more common, and for some teachers, they’ve become crucial as educators work to communicate with the rising number of families that don’t speak English. The apps often allow the communications between parents and teachers to feel personal. Some teachers say it has helped parents open up about issues their child or family is having, which then helps teachers better engage with students.

In addition to seeing text from teachers in their native language on ReachWell, parents can respond in their native language and teachers see the replies in English.

Kayli Brooks, a teacher at Tollgate Elementary in Aurora, uses the app Talking Points, which also allows her to text parents. It also translates texts between parents and educators but does not require families to download an app.

“Families will share that they’re struggling with transportation, or here’s why maybe they’re acting out, or they might text me and say ‘hey this thing happened at home and I think my child is going to be really sad at school today,’” Brooks said. “It’s a huge deal. Families want to be involved in their child’s education no matter where they’re from, no matter what language they speak.”

Brooks said that since her Aurora school began using the app in 2020, she is much more successful at collecting permission forms, for example.

With migrant families who are new to the country and are “kind of overwhelmed,” she said, texting them through the app has also helped them better understand basic information they need to get their children started in school.

Communication that feels personal, through a text, is often more manageable for families than directing parents to online forms and resources, she said.

Sara Olson, principal of McElwain Elementary, said the ReachWell translation app is “a tool that provides equitable access.”

“It’s almost mind boggling to me that some of these folks have maneuvered schools for years not having access,” Olson said. “As a parent I can’t imagine not having access to the information, to the teachers. Every child and family member has a right to have that access.”

Olson said she did not have trouble having all families at her school download the app.

Zuben Bastani created the app ReachWell after he said he saw that some families at his child’s Denver school weren’t getting all the communications. He said he saw children excluded from field trips after arriving at school, unknowingly unprepared — wearing sneakers on the day of a snowshoeing trip, for example — because their families hadn’t understood the school communications.

“It became real apparent, real fast, which families were aware and showed up and which weren’t,” Bastani said.

The app is in use in many schools and districts in the metro area and across the country in places like Pittsburgh. In addition to schools, the company is also partnering with some emergency service agencies to provide emergency notifications — such as shelter-in-place or evacuation orders during natural disasters — that non-English speaking populations can receive in their home language.

Jean Boylan, a community liaison at McMeen Elementary in Denver, also uses ReachWell at her school, but said she also has used Google’s translation app on her phone to greet parents face to face as they pick up students from school. She said staff are all looking for as many ways as possible to communicate.

In her school, concerns about whether new immigrant families have access to the internet, have led staff to start printing materials too. McMeen is one of a couple dozen Denver schools that have enrolled a significant number of new students from Venezuela and elsewhere this year.

But anytime they can communicate with the ReachWell app, it saves time and energy, Boylan said.

The app helps because there are so many languages spoken by families. She said there’s a map in her office with at least 27 countries highlighted, reflecting where the school’s current families come from.

Bastani said ReachWell has found that because parents have to download the app and self-select from more than 130 languages what their preferred language is, many schools find that they’ve been undercounting how many languages their families speak.

On average, they discover 25% more languages after a few months, ReachWell leaders said.

Boylan is now working with Bastani to build out a resource page that ReachWell offers in the app for families. It may include ways for families to access help such as for food or housing.

For parents like Gonzalez Gutierrez, the personal communications they have with teachers are the most critical.

Gonzalez Gutierrez said earlier this year, she realized her kindergartener had become frustrated with an online program the school used for kids to learn math. It was causing the child stress and fear and Gonzalez Gutierrez said she didn’t know how to talk to the teacher about it — until she realized that she could text her.

Letting the teacher know what the problem was allowed them to work together to solve it.

“It’s worth it,” Gonzalez Gutierrez said. “It’s been such a gift for me.”

This story has been updated to reflect that users do not have to download the ReachWell app to get messages through ReachWell, though the downloading the app is an option.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Inside a Colorado bill to provide extra funding to school districts serving migrant students

2024-03-16T00:37:32+00:00

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All Colorado school districts that have enrolled any migrant students since the Oct. 1 school funding cutoff date would get extra money — between $15,000 and $750,000 per district — under a draft bill approved unanimously on Friday by the powerful Joint Budget Committee.

But districts where the new arrivals have caused a net increase in students — meaning the district has more students now than on Oct. 1 — would get the most extra money. Those districts could get as much as an additional $4,500 for every newly arrived student.

The bill allocates $24 million to be distributed by May 31 to districts that have enrolled what it calls “new arrival students,” or students who moved to the United States less than a year ago, are not proficient in English, and are attending a U.S. school for the first time.

The city of Denver alone has served more than 39,000 new arrivals from Venezuela and other South American countries since it began keeping track more than a year ago, including families with children who have enrolled in public schools.

The details of how the $24 million would be doled out are somewhat complicated. First, there is a tiered system of lump sum payments to school districts based on the number of new arrival students they’ve enrolled since the October count. Districts would get:

$15,000 if they’ve enrolled between one and five new arrival students
$30,000 if they’ve enrolled between six and 10 new arrival students
$75,000 if they’ve enrolled between 11 and 30 new arrival students
$125,000 if they’ve enrolled between 31 and 50 new arrival students
$200,000 if they’ve enrolled between 51 and 100 new arrival students
$400,000 if they’ve enrolled between 101 and 200 new arrival students
$550,000 if they’ve enrolled between 201 and 500 new arrival students
$750,000 if they’ve enrolled 500 or more new arrival students

On top of that, districts with a net increase in enrollment would get $4,500 per student. Here’s where it gets complicated: Districts with a net increase would either get $4,500 for each migrant student they’ve enrolled or $4,500 per student based on the net increase, whichever is lesser.

If the $24 million isn’t enough to cover the costs, the bill says state officials can reduce the $4,500 per student to a lower dollar amount. If calculations show there will be leftover money, state officials could increase the $4,500 to a higher dollar amount.

State Rep. Emily Sirota, a Denver Democrat who sits on the budget committee, said in a text message that she’s happy that the bill could provide relief for districts statewide that are dealing with a “very out of the ordinary influx of new to country students arriving.”

Lawmakers have been working on the bill for over a month, debating various ways to dole out the $24 million. Sirota said the tiered funding proposal acknowledges districts incur fixed costs to educate any and all newly arrived students.

Friday’s vote by the budget committee finalized the language of the bill, but it has yet to be filed for consideration by the full Colorado General Assembly.

“I know my colleagues, our school districts, and our educators are going to be very excited to shepherd this bill across the finish line in the coming weeks,” Sirota said.

The funding is less than what school districts get for each student enrolled on Oct. 1: $10,614 on average. However, budget committee members wanted to earmark the $24 million to provide some relief for districts struggling with the extraordinary influx — money the districts would never get otherwise. (Students who stay enrolled next year will be factored into the school funding formula, and school districts will get money for those students.)

“This sudden influx has strained existing school infrastructure and staffing, led to overcrowded classrooms, stretched resources, and increased complexity to the student learning environment,” the bill says.

The bill also acknowledges that newly arrived students may need extra services, including English language development classes, mental health support, and more. Some may have been out of school for long stretches of time and need help catching up academically.

“New arrival students face unique challenges, including language barriers, cultural adjustments, and various academic backgrounds,” the bill says. “These unique challenges require specialized resources and support services.”

How much funding districts might get under the bill

Denver Public Schools and Aurora Public Schools have enrolled the most migrant students since the October count, according to data obtained through open records requests.

Denver has enrolled an additional 2,340 newcomer students, and Aurora has enrolled an additional 1,366 migrant students. Denver’s numbers were as of March 4, while Aurora’s were as of Feb. 29. The bill uses Feb. 29 as the date to calculate the difference between October count enrollment and how many students districts are serving now.

Accounting for students who left the districts between the October count and those dates, Denver had a net increase of 1,025 students, while Aurora had a net increase of 727 students.

Under the legislation, Denver Public Schools would get a lump sum of $750,000 for the 2,340 newcomers it has enrolled. The district would also get $4.6 million for the 1,025 net increase based on the $4,500 per student formula.

In Aurora’s case, the district would also get $750,000. And the district would get about $3.3 million for its total increase of students since the October count.

Most other districts that have enrolled more than 100 migrant students since the October count had either a much smaller net increase or a net decrease.

For instance, as of Feb. 29, the suburban Cherry Creek School District had enrolled an additional 532 newly arrived students since the October count. But the district has had a net decrease of 41 kindergarten through 12th grade students since Oct. 1.

Greeley-Evans School District 6 had enrolled 488 more migrant students, but only had a net increase of eight K-12 students. Adams 12 Five Star Schools had enrolled 389 additional students, but its school population only grew by 42 students.

And Jeffco Public Schools and Mapleton Public Schools had net decreases, despite enrolling 382 and 140 more new arrivals, respectively.

The student influx creates financial challenges for schools across the state, Brett Johnson, chief financial officer for Aurora Public Schools, said in an interview before the bill text was approved.

“There’s a real and specific impact of these 1,200 kids who have enrolled in our schools in terms of hiring new staff, repurposing classrooms for those schools,” Johnson said. “And those are real costs that are being incurred in real time.”

The challenges remain even in districts that have net decreases in overall enrollment.

A Cherry Creek spokesperson said the district has hired six staff members since January to support the new arrivals. Three of those hires are in newcomer classes and three are cultural liaisons who provide interpretation and other support to families who do not speak English.

Correction: This story has been corrected to update the per pupil figure districts get from the state.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Amid influx of students new to the country, English development teachers in Colorado feel overwhelmed

2024-03-20T23:44:05+00:00

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This school year has been overwhelming for teachers like Joel Mollman.

As an English language development teacher at Hamilton Middle School in Denver, Mollman has had to take on more work to keep up with the growing number of students who need help learning English.

In previous years, for example, his school might have only received three students a month who needed to be screened for English fluency. This year, he screens at least three new students each week — a process that takes one to two hours per student.

“It could quickly take up two of my mornings where I could be in classrooms,” Mollman said.

Across the state, English language development teachers describe similar scenarios.

As many schools have experienced an influx of new students with limited English skills all year, their roles have been changing.

Traditionally, these teachers are tasked with screening new students, teaching English as a second language, administering English fluency tests, and coaching other classroom teachers.

Now they must also support many students who are new to the country in much larger classes than typical.

As of the end of February, seven of Colorado’s districts — Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Greeley, Adams 12, Jeffco, and Mapleton — told Chalkbeat they had enrolled more than 5,600 students new to the country after October count.

Some schools, in particular ones where there haven’t traditionally been large numbers of English learners, have relied on their English language development teachers to be the main support for children new to the country. Some of the teachers describe helping students and their families navigate a new country, and even taking in a child whose family was living in a car, during a bout of chickenpox.

Often, they say, certain parts of their job have fallen to the wayside, and state advocates say that in small districts, even screening students to identify their English needs, a crucial step, gets skipped.

Cynthia Trinidad-Sheahan, president of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education, said districts don’t have the manpower, and often don’t know what to do.

“The expertise is lacking with some of the districts,” Trinidad-Sheahan said. “How do we get training to the teachers that are in these rural districts? And it’s not just on the paraeducators and teachers. The administrators leading these buildings do not have a clear understanding of language acquisition.”

Teachers start by testing for English fluency

When a student who is suspected of not being fluent in English is enrolled in school, the district is required to screen them to identify their language level and needs for services. That screening is supposed to happen within two weeks of enrollment.

In a typical year, that occupies time in the beginning of the school year for English language development teachers. This year, with some schools receiving new students every week, that process has taken up a lot more time.

At Hamilton Middle, where Mollman is also team lead for the school’s multilingual team, he’s taken on the role of screening all students this semester. Official state numbers show 40% of Hamilton’s 700 students have been identified as English learners.

In addition to administering the tests, Mollman has to block off a few hours per week to do the paperwork for the district. That requires entering scores and other information into the computer, and three school staff members to sign off.

Last semester, another English language development teacher on his team was sharing the load, but with so many new students, that teacher had to take on another class, giving up one of her free periods. Mollman now does all the screening.

Each Monday, he starts his week preparing for testing, double-checking the schedules given to new students to make sure they’re in the right classes, tracking down Chromebooks if they haven’t received them, and sometimes making calls as he tries to figure out what proficiency the new students have in their native language.

Kayli Brooks, a teacher at Tollgate Elementary in Aurora, said screening new students didn’t consume her job only because her school was able to get help from Aurora district leaders who stepped in to do that work.

But she recalls how many of the students arrived just before the annual testing window for ACCESS tests, the tests English learners take each year to measure their progress in English fluency. Those students had to take both tests within days or weeks.

“Every office or room was filled with testing,” Brooks said. She said it was heartbreaking to pull students and have them realize they had to take yet another English test they wouldn’t be able to do well on.

It’s hard to find time to help more students

Both Brooks and Mollman said that in their schools, giving students a block of English language instruction — a legally required practice — has not stopped.

But other help for students and staff has.

Brooks, for instance, said she used to pull groups of students such as those new to the country out of class for extra English instruction where she would let them practice speaking. She used to cater those sessions to phrases and vocabulary the students might encounter in other content classrooms such as science or social studies so they might feel more able to participate.

“All of that stopped,” Brooks said. “It came to an absolute screeching halt.”

In recent weeks, as the number of new students has slowed, she started back on a rhythm of reconvening some small groups of students.

“They are so happy,” Brooks said. “They want to learn. I taught them last week some basic advocacy: I need water. I need the bathroom. I need food.”

Still, she isn’t doing as much as she would like. And she hasn’t been able to help other classroom teachers in her school. At Tollgate, she said, about 60% to 75% of students are considered level 1 English learners, which means they don’t have any English fluency.

“We have a little over half of every classroom filled with students who don’t speak English, so half of their students are understanding what they say,” Brooks said. “Our team wants to — and should be — supporting teachers and having professional development around this. It’s just been such an overwhelming time that it’s not something that’s happening.”

Trinidad-Sheahan said districts need to allow English language development teachers to coach other teachers so the responsibilities for teaching students gets shared.

At the schools seeing an influx of emerging bilingual students, she said, instructional coaches should be teachers with experience in teaching English learners.

Mollman said at his Denver school, his team is trying to help other content teachers, but “we’re still trying to figure out the best way to do this.”

In other years, at his school teachers may have paired new students with other students who also speak the same language. But with so many new students, including some who speak Spanish and others who speak Arabic, it’s not always possible.

He’s also trying to get teachers to adapt how they grade students who don’t yet speak English. But it’s all a challenge.

“Some teachers are very good at adapting,” Mollman said. “Some have really struggled with it and we haven’t quite found the solution.”

Teachers feel unprepared for student needs

Even teachers who have experience working with students learning English as a new language say they’ve felt unprepared at times this year.

Dakota Prosch, is an English language teacher at Academia Ana Marie Sandoval in Denver, where she teaches fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students at the dual language Montessori school. In a typical year, her students are already close to fully bilingual. Because of the school model, and being a magnet school, most students by fourth grade have been in the school since kindergarten.

But this year, because of the large numbers of migrant students in Denver, the school has had to accept new students. It means Prosch is now working with students who have just arrived in the country and speak no English.

“We don’t have any materials for students who don’t speak English,” she said.

In February, the district provided some materials used at newcomer centers, but Prosch wishes she had gotten those resources sooner. For at least 30 minutes a day, she pulls aside the new students to work with them on some English development.

“There’s essentially two classes in one,” Prosch said. “I cannot deliver the same instruction.”

Most of her students are usually analyzing text. She tries to have her new students do that too, but many are just trying to learn what a sentence is and “how to put their tongue between their teeth” to learn the sounds different letter combinations make.

Still, Prosch said, “they’re really awesome kids and I’m really glad to have them.” It’s a sentiment echoed by other teachers.

Lawmakers are discussing a plan that would give some school districts additional funding for the students new to the country who have enrolled after October count when school funding is set.

Mollman agrees that more resources would help.

Right now, he said, schools like his are making tough decisions, such as choosing between bringing in a second English language development teacher or another science teacher. At his school, this year, they added a new ELD teacher to relieve a class that had more than 40 students.

“It was a pretty easy decision this year, but that then impacted one of our teams more severely than others,” Mollman said.

But, even without funding, teachers say their roles have to adapt to meet the needs of students.

“The goal is to ensure all of our students are successful regardless if they’re language learners or not,” Mollman said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado will allow some of this year’s new migrant students to skip state tests

2024-03-22T22:39:54+00:00

Some students who are new to the U.S. and enrolled in Colorado schools after the official October count will not have to take any standardized tests this spring.

That’s according to new guidance issued recently by the Colorado Department of Education.

The department changed the guidance as school districts are seeing unprecedented numbers of new students who are new to the country. Teachers have described various challenges they’ve faced trying to educate migrant students, and the students are unlikely to do well on standardized state tests given in English. As of February, the Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Greeley, Adams 12, Jeffco, and Mapleton districts told Chalkbeat they had enrolled more than 5,600 newcomer students after October count.

Denver Public School leaders told their school board this week that in their case, the majority of students new to the country will fall into that category to be exempt from testing.

Colorado students who are identified as new to the country and have no or limited proficiency in English already are exempt from taking standardized English reading and writing tests for at least their first year of school. Before the new guidance, they were expected to take standardized math and science tests with accommodations.

This spring, if students are new to the country, have no or little English fluency, enrolled after October count, and had limited or interrupted schooling before arriving, they can also skip the math and science tests.

Limited or interrupted schooling includes not attending school for six consecutive school calendar months prior to Colorado enrollment or having two or more years of missed schooling compared to similarly aged students in the U.S. Students who had limited school options in their home country because of war, civil unrest, or needing to travel a long distance to an available school could also qualify for that designation.

Students who have not had interrupted schooling will still be expected to take math and science tests with accommodations. Their participation will count toward overall participation rates, but their scores will not be factored into school ratings for state or federal accountability systems.

Colorado tests students in third through 11th grades. CMAS English and math tests are given to students in third through eighth grade. Science tests are only given to students in fifth, eighth, and 11th grades. In high school, students take the PSAT in ninth and tenth grades, and the SAT in 11th grade.

Families can always opt students out of tests.

In Colorado, this year’s spring testing window begins April 8, after most districts come back from spring break.

Reporter Ann Schimke contributed to this report.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

More than academics: Aurora’s community schools are an example as interest in the model grows

2024-04-23T23:45:27+00:00

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When Bishnu Rai’s children started school at Aurora’s Crawford Elementary five years ago, she initially felt lost. She wasn’t very social and she struggled to help her children, she says.

But thanks to Crawford’s community school model, she’s been getting more involved, learning English, and now feels confident enough she’s helping come up with a plan for empowering other immigrant parents.

Crawford Elementary is one of six schools in Aurora that are using the community schools model. Five of them are part of the ACTION Zone, a group of schools near Denver’s border that have high levels of poverty and large numbers of language learners. The district grouped the schools years ago as part of a plan to better support the schools with similar needs.

At Crawford, some of the work has gone on for almost 10 years, but evolved as the zone schools committed to a “community schools” model in the past five years. The approach focuses on using community partners to address whole family needs, with the end goal of ensuring that children have fewer social and emotional barriers to learning.

In Colorado, nonprofit organizations and the state education department are increasing their focus on how they support schools that want to use the community schools model. Some of these leaders say they see an untapped potential for improving communities.

At Crawford, 97% of the school’s 540 students qualify for subsidized meals, a measure of poverty, and students come from 40 different countries speaking about 25 different languages.

Through the community schools model, Crawford works with organizations to test students’ eyesight at school, helps parents learn how they can continue lessons at home, and brings families together to share about their various cultures. Rai also has taken advantage of English classes, health classes, and parent leadership classes.

Parents are involved in big school decisions. For instance, parents helped pick this year’s new principal by participating in interviews and hosting a forum where parents could ask questions of the applicants and fill out scorecards.

“If we empower our parents, this helps our kids,” Rai said. “They teach me how to raise my voice, how to speak up.”

At Crawford Elementary, students come from 40 different countries and speak about 25 different languages. The school celebrates its diversity.

Supporting the model takes resources

Colorado Department of Education officials recently visited Crawford and Boston K-8, two of Aurora’s zone schools, as part of the state’s work to better understand how the community schools model is implemented and what resources can be shared with other schools looking to try the same model.

State lawmakers in 2022 added adopting the model to the menu of improvement options for schools on the state’s watchlist for low performance. The state education department had some support for the model spread across various departments but now is creating a team focused just on supporting the community schools model.

“We’re happy to connect schools with resources,” said Dana Scott, director of the office of student supports for the state Department of Education. “We want to be a place where we can really create some good connections for them so schools don’t have to start from scratch.”

The state doesn’t track how many districts are using the model, but nationwide, some experts believe the model has had growing interest, and more so since the start of the pandemic. Even as schools shut down, they served as hubs for various help to families in the community, providing meals, internet, COVID tests, shots, and more.

Katie Wilberding Cross, senior director for youth initiatives and education for Mile High United Way, helps lead a coalition of organizations that want to support community schools. The coalition just started meeting in the fall.

She says the idea behind community schools is that students have needs that can be a barrier to learning, but schools should not be expected to be everything for everybody.

“There are partners that provide these different needs,” Wilberding Cross said. “United Ways are uniquely positioned to convene folks, to bring these various organizations and sectors together.”

She said part of the work is getting more districts to learn about the model. It’s hard to say how much interest is in Colorado.

“What I keep hearing is there’s a lot of percolating interest, but it’s something that hasn’t been fully tapped into,” Wilberding Cross said.

In the metro area, Adams 14 has had national support in trying to start using the model at Central Elementary, one of the district’s lowest-performing schools, which is under a state-ordered improvement plan of its own. The hope is that the model will eventually help improve student achievement.

The Harrison school district of Colorado Springs also uses the model at one of its schools, and Pueblo 60 uses it at two of its schools.

Chicago Mayor visits high school to advocate for more Sustainable Community Schools

Many more schools are likely doing much of the same work community schools focus on, such as starting a food pantry for families, or partnering with community organizations to provide another service for students or families, but they don’t have the community schools label or a plan with the intentionality that the model would provide.

Having a community schools coordinator on staff ensures that the partnerships belong to the schools and not an individual teacher or principal who might leave, that those partnerships are responsive to the needs in the community, and that they are providing something for the families. With those elements in place,the work is more likely to be successful and to continue beyond just a year or two, experts said.

Schools trying to use the community schools approach generally hire a community schools coordinator. At Crawford, Maggie Lautzenheiser-Page, the community schools coordinator, helps plan and run the various programs offered for that school’s needs, which are different than the programs offered at the next school using the model.

Family liaisons at Crawford speak multiple languages and meet with parents regularly.

“Then it’s not burdening or putting more weight on educators,” said Christa Rowland, Western regional deputy director for the Coalition for Community Schools from the Institute for Educational Leadership, a national nonprofit group based in Washington D.C. “Rather it should lift it.”

The community school coordinator is key, leaders agree. The person should have some decision-making authority at the school level to help drive the work, Wilberding Cross said. There should be district buy-in. And the plans need to be designed with the community, evaluating needs and existing assets, experts said.

If schools are following Colorado’s definition of community schools as laid out in Colorado statute, then they have to assess the community’s needs every year.

Hiring that community school coordinator to implement this model does require an investment. Experts say research has shown the investment can pay off with more resources coming to the school, and improved measures of attendance, parent engagement, and eventually, other student outcomes.

Aurora has made some of that investment. The community school coordinators, one at each of the zone schools, are district-funded. The district is working to find permanent funding for some of the other positions, including community health coordinators and family liaisons for special populations that speak different languages.

The model has helped improve family and community engagement and enabled parents such as Rai to feel empowered to help their children’s learning. But, based on state ratings, the schools in the zone haven’t seen much improvement in students’ academic achievement. Aurora Central High School, the district’s longest-struggling school is part of the zone and has continued to have low state ratings.

Leaders celebrate other measures of community school success

Crawford Principal Aubri Dunkin, who is new this year, said most school leaders want their schools to be hubs for the community.

“But this truly is a hub,” Dunkin said, noting that the community school model allows the school to support parents and help them navigate potential barriers so students come to school more regularly and “ready to learn.”

In Aurora, the district's six community schools have two food clinics where families can access free food and other help. A Crawford parent is one of the coordinators who helps set parents up with the help.

At Crawford, 50 parents, including Rai, regularly attend leadership meetings. The zone’s two food clinics, which provide food and connect parents to other resources, host regular events to give out local food. Last school year, they served more than 4,700 individuals in the events. Within the district, leaders say students whose families are engaged are showing better outcomes than those who aren’t.

And across the zone, “definitely more than half of our families are attending and participating in events on a regular basis,” said Elizabeth Lewis, the district’s community schools impact manager.

At Crawford, which recently received a large number of new migrant students, parent leaders want to pass on what they’ve learned to help the new migrant parents be involved for their children, Rai said.

She’s also hoping to raise another issue beyond her school: pedestrian safety. She said families who walk to the school want a new stop sign at one of the busy intersections. Parents years ago successfully lobbied the city to install one outside the school, but now there’s a need for another, she said.

Experts say it’s that kind of drive by parents that really creates sustainability, and a model that is responsive to the evolving needs of the community.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

In need of more bilingual teachers, Denver looks to recruit and support international candidates

2024-05-06T17:06:32+00:00

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When Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero was invited to a panel by the government of the Dominican Republic last year to showcase the school district’s approach to bilingual education, he said dozens of teachers there asked him how they could work for him.

Marrero said he came back to Denver excited that he may have helped recruit 30 new teachers to fill bilingual teaching vacancies. But despite their enthusiasm, only a handful of those teachers are now working in Denver Public Schools, he said.

Marrero asked the district’s human resources team to look into why. Many teachers said they felt making the switch was a big risk and they didn’t have enough support, Marrero said.

So this school year, Denver Public Schools launched the International Educators Institute to provide not only professional, but also personal support to new international teachers. The institute will help teachers from other countries figure out where to live, understand finances and credit, and provide other social or emotional support. It will also train teachers to help them earn more credentials and to understand how Denver’s school system works.

Denver Public Schools has enrolled thousands of new students who have recently immigrated from South America. Although the International Educators Institute wasn’t created because of that influx of students, it makes the work more important, Marrero said. In addition, the district is under a court order guiding how it teaches students who aren’t yet fluent in English. Meeting that order requires a large number of bilingual teachers, but there are always vacancies.

Marrero said the work of the institute is to help fill teacher vacancies without replacing existing efforts to fill those jobs.

Denver Public Schools serves 88,200 students, 75% of whom are students of color. But among the more than 6,000 teachers, just about a third are teachers of color. If the institute is successful, he envisions a system where students have more teachers of color, and teachers can expand their careers and better their lives.

If they have to go back to their home countries, they can better help more children around the world too, he said.

“That’s what hasn’t existed ever,” Marrero said of the institute. “Just like we say we have to educate the whole student, it’s the same approach. The parallel is that we have to support the whole educator.”

To get the institute started, Marrero said DPS used $500,000 from federal COVID relief money. But the district will also invest at least $1 million from its general fund.

“We would waste way more in guest teachers, substitute coverage throughout the year, so the way I see it, that’s an investment,” Marrero said.

International teachers struggle without support

Maria Moncada Rodriguez, an international teacher from Honduras, has been in Colorado for four years, but is working in Denver schools for the first time this school year.

She said she has loved the support from her colleagues and from the institute and wished she had more of it when she initially arrived in the U.S. to work in a different school district.

Moncada Rodriguez and her husband were teachers in Honduras who ran a Montessori school for more than 20 years. But as violence in the country increased, she sought a way out. Then she won a contest that allowed her the opportunity to come teach in Colorado.

She and her husband were both supposed to get jobs, and her two children would be able to come along. But at the last minute, a new principal took over the Colorado school where she was supposed to teach and rescinded her husband’s job offer.

Maria Moncada Rodriguez, a teacher from Honduras now teaching in Denver Public Schools, in her classroom.

While her family still joined her in Colorado, it took her husband more than a year and a half to get a work permit. And during that time, Moncada Rodriguez said the family struggled financially with just her income.

“We cried almost every day,” she recalled. But she said she and her husband still gave thanks that their children were in a safe home.

But now that she’s working in Denver Public Schools, she’s been able to connect to other international teachers from various countries, through the institute, and also through the teachers union.

Recently, she said she and the other international teachers she’s met decided to start a guide for newly arrived teachers. Ideally, she said it would include information on clothing drives, financial literacy classes, help with buying a home, immigration lawyers, and more.

“We need all types of information,” she said.

It’s the same kind of help the district’s institute wants to provide.

Denver’s goal: 120 new international teachers next year

As the district has rolled out the supports and launched the institute this year, it’s also hired 64 new visa sponsored teachers for the current school year. That’s brought the total of international teachers with work visas in DPS to 234. For next school year, the district’s goal is to hire 120 new international teachers.

The district plans to use some of the institute’s $1.5 million budget on visits to other countries to help recruit and connect with teachers, but also to help staff to spend time finding resources and helping new teachers.

Finding affordable housing for teachers is a particularly important issue, but Marrero said he’s not interested in being a landlord or managing property.

“There is a healthy way to engage, but there’s also a lot to be said when you have a little bit of separation,” Marrero said. Teachers, he said, “don’t want to be under the DPS thumb.”

Still, the district is exploring relationships with developers, landlords, and city officials. This year, for example, the district was able to negotiate a lower price on a long-term lease for some teachers from the Dominican Republic.

“That’s going to be us leveraging our existing relationships and leveraging also our position,” Marrero said. “Even if it’s just a building. Saying: ‘Can we have X amount of units that we have first dibs on?’ That’s what I’m looking to explore.”

Moncada Rodriguez continues to look for resources on her own. One issue she hasn’t figured out is how to help her oldest child, who’s graduating this year, pay for college. Since her children are her dependents and she is on a sponsored visa, they can’t get work permits, and they don’t qualify for any of the financial assistance for higher education she’s learned about so far.

“Of course we aren’t asking for everything to come easy or handed to us,” Moncada Rodriguez said. “We love to work and study. But coming here and knowing our kids can’t go to university because of a lack of resources is overwhelming.”

Still, she wants other teachers considering coming to the United States to know that things can get better if they can persist. And she hopes local leaders can learn to be more supportive too.

At her school, Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, she loves that she gets to use her experience as a Montessori teacher working with students from low-income families, and that she’s valued for her Spanish language skills.

She said her fellow teachers have been helpful and supportive, and her connection to the institute means there’s always someone to answer her questions.

Moncada Rodriguez said she’s taken many Denver Public Schools training courses, including one that’s taught her how to do home visits with families of newly arriving migrant students.

“Now the only thing missing is how to get a masters degree,” she said. “I’m working on that next.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado approved $24 million for migrant students. Here’s how much each school district will get.

2024-05-03T21:44:21+00:00

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A surge of one-time money will reach 85 Colorado school districts — almost half of all districts in the state — this month to help offset costs of an unprecedented number of new students arriving midyear, mainly from South America.

Between October and Feb. 29, Colorado school districts received 8,085 newcomer students spread throughout the state, according to data submitted by the districts to the state.

Colorado lawmakers last month approved the use of $24 million in state funding to help school districts experiencing an influx of new migrant students this year. Colorado funds schools based on enrollment counts from October. Every year there are some students who leave or enroll in schools after October, and the district’s funding doesn’t get adjusted.

But this school year, district leaders, especially in large districts such as Denver and Aurora, said the number of new students they were receiving after October was much larger than in typical years.

To be eligible for the money, districts had to submit their request, along with a record of their enrollment counts, to the Colorado Department of Education. The department used a formula approved by state lawmakers to figure out how much each district will receive. Nine districts that applied were not eligible for any of the money.

Search for your district’s allocation, net enrollment change, and total new arrivals in the following table:

Districts got money in two ways. First, there was a tiered system that gave certain set amounts of money to districts based on how many new arrivals they’ve enrolled between October and Feb. 29. Then, districts could also qualify for additional money, on a per student basis — if those new arrivals resulted in net increases in district enrollment.

Of the 85 districts getting money, 39 qualified for per-student dollars: $4,672.03 for each student, which is less than districts got for students enrolled in October.

In other cases, districts received many new arrivals, but because of overall declining enrollment, their total student count by February was still lower than it was in October.

The Adams 12 school district, for example, enrolled 374 new arrivals, but because of overall enrollment declines, their total enrollment is down 58 students compared to October. That meant Adams 12 qualified for $550,000 from the tiered system, but did not receive any per-student amount in addition to that.

Districts will receive their funding allocations this month, though for most, it will serve to reimburse them for money they’ve already spent on hiring extra staff earlier this year.

School district leaders talked about having to add new classrooms in some schools, requiring more teachers and other support staff.

The Westminster school district is planning to offer some summer programming for newly arrived students. In the Harrison school district in Colorado Springs, a “newcomer committee” is developing a “toolkit for teachers to use.”

“Even though they are just one-time funds, every little bit helps us provide our newcomer students with the support, resources, and instruction they need,” Rachel Laufer, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning for the Harrison district, said in an email about the funding.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

State leaders show new trust in Adams 14’s plan for improving its schools

2024-05-09T22:32:33+00:00

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Colorado’s State Board of Education voted Wednesday afternoon to allow Adams 14 to continue its improvement work with a partial outside manager — a sign that the state trusts the progress being made by the long-struggling school district.

Wednesday’s orders are the first time in recent years that the state has not escalated its involvement in Adams 14 but rather signed off on the district’s ongoing plan. Two years ago, the district faced school closures.

Under state law, the State Board must direct improvement in districts such as Adams 14 that have had more than five years of low ratings. The State Board voted 8 to 1 in favor of Adams 14′s continued work, with board member Steve Durham as the only no vote.

One board member, Stephen Varela, said he wished he could vote to take the district off the state’s watchlist for low performance altogether.

Adams 14, a district north of Denver that is 92% percent Latino and serves many low-income families, was one of the first districts in the state to be flagged by the system for multiple years of low performance. Despite many short-lived improvement plans, the district hasn’t been able to improve its ratings in more than 10 years, leading to many firsts as the state tried to escalate its involvement in directing improvement.

On Wednesday, State Board member Lisa Escárcega recalled that she was on the state panel tasked with reviewing Adams 14 and recommending a state intervention 10 years ago. But reflecting back, she said, “We did you no service.”

Over time, the State Board and the department have begun to emphasize working with districts — rather than being in conflict with them — as the best way to achieve good results. The new philosophy emphasizes collaboration over criticism.

“I feel like this has been a book of false starts,” Escárcega said. “If I were to say when did the turnaround work really begin in Adams 14, it was just a few years ago. It wasn’t 10 years ago.”

The new state order will direct the district to continue working with nonprofit partners TNTP, formerly known as The New Teacher Project. The state would have to approve a change in partial managers if the district wanted one.

Adams City High School, the district’s one comprehensive high school, which has also been under state-ordered improvement plans for its own low ratings, now will have a clear separate order to continue its work with outside group ConnectEd on rolling out the school’s career options, called academies, which started for ninth grade students this year.

Officials in the hearing Wednesday discussed how the high school’s latest rating actually would have put it on the path to exit state oversight, but the rating was lowered because not enough students took state tests last spring. The school fell just short of the required 95% participation.

District and high school leaders told the State Board they were disheartened that they had gotten so close but ultimately missed the target. But they said they are optimistic that their improvements will result in better state ratings next fall. They said they’ve worked recently to ensure participation rate is not a problem a second time.

Adams City High School has seen a significant improvement in graduation rates, which by some measures exceed Colorado’s average graduation rates, district leaders said. That is a big factor driving the school’s rating.

Adams 14 Superintendent Karla Loría told the State Board that the district’s work, much of it focused on creating systems for tracking data and how administrators support schools, is working. She added that having the state be more flexible with the district is also key.

“What we have in place is yielding results,” Loría said. “We would like to continue with that structure that we have in place.”

Durham, who voted against the plan for the district and the high school, said he was glad the district was making improvements, but criticized the state’s public education system as a whole for consistently praising and accepting incremental improvements instead of pushing for significant change to double the number of students who can read at grade level.

While Adams 14 data shows progress and growth, the percentage of students who meet or exceed expectations on standardized tests remains low.

The idea of approving the district’s proposed plan to continue working with an outside manager, but not handing over total control to an outside entity, was also in line with recommendations by an external panel that reviewed the district and high school.

The state took public feedback for about a month prior to Wednesday’s hearing, but only received a handful of comments, none from parents or students. The comments submitted were all in support of the district.

Correction: This story was updated to correct the context of State Board member Lisa Escárcega’s quotes.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Líderes estatales demuestran una renovada confianza en el plan de Adams 14 para mejorar sus escuelas

2024-05-16T20:42:58+00:00

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El Consejo Estatal de Educación de Colorado votó la semana pasada para permitir que Adams 14 continúe su labor de mejoras con un gerente externo parcial—una señal de que el estado confía en el progreso que este distrito escolar, por mucho tiempo en aprietos, está alcanzando.

Las nuevas órdenes marcan la primera vez en años recientes que el estado no se involucra aún más en Adams 14, sino que aprueba el plan continuo del distrito. Hace dos años, el distrito enfrentó el cierre de algunas escuelas.

Según las leyes estatales, el Consejo Estatal debe ordenar mejoras en distritos como el de Adams 14 que hayan obtenido calificaciones bajas durante más de cinco años. El Consejo Estatal votó 8 a 1 a favor del trabajo continuo de Adams 14; el integrante del consejo Steve Durham fue el único con un voto en contra.

Un integrante del consejo, Stephen Varela, dijo que deseaba poder votar para sacar totalmente al distrito de la lista de aquellos bajo vigilancia por mal desempeño.

Adams 14, un distrito al norte de Denver que es 92 por ciento latino y atiende a muchas familias con bajos ingresos, fue uno de los primeros distritos en el estado en ser identificados por el sistema debido a múltiples años con mal desempeño. A pesar de muchos planes de mejoras a corto plazo, el distrito no ha logrado mejorar sus calificaciones en más de 10 años, lo cual resultó en muchas primeras veces conforme el estado intentó involucrarse más para imponer mejoras.

La integrante del Consejo Estatal Lisa Escárcega recordó que estuvo en el panel del estado cuya tarea fue examinar a Adams 14 y recomendar una intervención estatal hace 10 años. Pero reflexionando sobre esa época, dijo: “No les hicimos justicia”.

Con el tiempo, el Consejo Estatal y el Departamento de Educación de Colorado han empezado a enfatizar el trabajo con los distritos—en lugar de estar en conflicto con ellos—como la mejor forma de alcanzar buenos resultados. La nueva filosofía enfatiza la colaboración en lugar de la crítica.

“Siento que esto ha sido un libro de inicios falsos”, Escárcega dijo. “Si dijera cuándo empezó realmente el trabajo para cambiar el rumbo en Adams 14, fue solo hace un par de años. No fue hace 10 años”.

La nueva disposición del estado dictará que el distrito siga trabajando con los socios sin fines de lucro de TNTP, antes conocidos como el Nuevo Proyecto de Maestros (en inglés: The New Teacher Project). El estado tiene que aprobar un cambio en gerentes parciales si el distrito quiere uno.

Adams City High School, la única high school integral en el distrito, la cual también ha estado bajo planes de mejoras dictadas por el estado debido a sus bajas calificaciones, ahora tendrá una orden aparte claramente establecida para continuar su labor con el grupo externo de ConnectEd. Esa labora incluye lanzar las opciones de carreras de la escuela, llamadas academias, las cuales empezaron para los estudiantes de noveno grado este año.

Los representantes en la audiencia de la semana pasada mencionaron que la calificación más reciente de la high school realmente la hubiera puesto en una trayectoria para salir de la vigilancia estatal, pero que la calificación se redujo porque menos estudiantes de los necesarios tomaron las pruebas estatales la primavera pasada. La escuela no logró alcanzar el porcentaje necesario de participación del 95 por ciento.

Líderes del distrito y de la high school le dijeron al Consejo Estatal que se sentían decepcionados porque estuvieron muy cerca de alcanzar el porcentaje pero terminaron no lográndolo. Pero dijeron que sienten optimismo de que sus mejoras resultarán en mejores calificaciones estatales el próximo otoño. Dijeron que han trabajado recientemente para asegurar que la tasa de participación no sea un problema una segunda vez.

Adams City High School ha observado avances importantes en las tasas de graduación, las cuales, según algunos estándares, superan las tasas promedio de graduación en Colorado, los líderes del distrito dijeron. Ese es un gran factor que está impulsando la calificación de la escuela.

Karla Loría, superintendenta de Adams 14, le dijo al Consejo Estatal que la labor del distrito, gran parte de la cual se enfoca en crear sistemas para monitorear datos y cómo apoyan los administradores a las escuelas, está funcionando. Agregó que es clave que el estado sea más flexible con el distrito.

“Lo que hemos establecido está produciendo resultados”, Loría dijo. “Nos gustaría continuar con esa estructura que hemos establecido”.

Durham, quien votó en contra del plan para el distrito y la high school, dijo que estaba contento de que el distrito estuviera mejorando, pero criticó el sistema estatal de educación pública en general por elogiar y aceptar continuamente mejoras graduales en lugar de presionar para que se obtengan cambios significativos y se duplique la cantidad de estudiantes que pueden leer a nivel de grado.

Aunque los datos de Adams 14 reflejan progreso y crecimiento, el porcentaje de estudiantes que cumplen con o superan las expectativas en las pruebas estandarizadas sigue siendo bajo.

La idea de aprobar el plan propuesto por el distrito para seguir trabajando con un gerente externo, pero sin transferir el control total a una entidad externa, también concordó con las recomendaciones de un panel externo que examinó el distrito y la high school.

El estado aceptó comentarios del público durante cerca de un mes antes de la audiencia de la semana pasada, pero solo recibió un puñado de comentarios, ninguno de padres o estudiantes. Los comentarios recibidos todos expresaron apoyo al distrito.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado que cubre distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Colorado aprobó $24 millones para estudiantes inmigrantes. Aquí está lo que cada distrito escolar recibirá.

2024-05-09T23:18:10+00:00

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Una oleada de dinero único será proporcionada a 85 distritos escolares de Colorado – casi la mitad de todos los distritos del estado – este mes para ayudar a compensar los gastos de un número sin precedentes de nuevos estudiantes entrando al medio del año, principalmente de Sudamérica.

Entre octubre y el 29 de febrero, los distritos escolares de Colorado han recibido a 8.085 nuevos estudiantes por todo el estado, según los datos presentados por los distritos al estado.

El mes pasado, legisladores de Colorado aprobaron el uso de $24 millones en financiación estatal para ayudar distritos escolares que están experimentando una afluencia de nuevos estudiantes inmigrantes este año. Colorado financia las escuelas según el recuento de inscripciones a partir de octubre. Cada año hay estudiantes que se van o se inscriben en escuelas después de octubre, la financiación del distrito no es ajustada.

Pero este año, líderes de los distritos, especialmente en distritos grandes como Denver y Aurora, dijeron que el número de nuevos estudiantes que estaban recibiendo después de octubre era más grande de lo normal de años anteriores.

Para ser elegibles para la financiación, los distritos tuvieron que presentar su solicitud, junto con un registro de su recuento de inscripciones, al Departamento de Educación de Colorado. El departamento usó una fórmula aprobada por los legisladores del estado para averiguar cuánto dinero recibirá cada distrito. Nueve distritos que solicitaron no fueron elegibles para recibir dinero.

Busca cuánto dinero le toco a tu distrito, cuánto cambio en total el número de inscripciones, y cuantos estudiantes recién llegados recibieron, todo en la siguiente tabla:

Los distritos recibieron dinero en dos maneras. La primera era que había un sistema escalonado que otorgaba determinadas cantidades de dinero a los distritos basándose en el número de recién llegados que habían inscrito entre octubre y el 29 de febrero. Después, los distritos podrían calificar para dinero adicional, por estudiante si esos recién llegados resultaron aumentos netos en la inscripción del distrito.

De los 85 distritos recibiendo dinero, 39 calificaron para recibir dólares por estudiante: $4,672.03 por cada estudiante, que es menos de lo que los distritos obtuvieron por los estudiantes matriculados en octubre.

En otros casos, los distritos recibieron muchos estudiantes nuevos pero debido a la disminución general de la matrícula, su número total de estudiantes para febrero era menos de lo que era en octubre.

El distrito escolar Adams 12, por ejemplo, inscribió a 374 recién llegados, pero debido a la disminución general de la inscripción, su inscripción total disminuyó en 58 estudiantes en comparación con octubre. Eso significa que Adams 12 calificaba para los $500,000 del sistema escalonado pero no recibió ninguna cantidad por estudiante además de eso.

Los distritos recibirán sus asignaciones de fondos este mes aunque para la mayoría servirá para reembolsar el dinero que ya gastaron en la contratación de personal adicional a principios de este año.

Los líderes de distritos escolares hablaron de tener que agregar nuevos salones en algunas escuelas, requiriendo más maestros y otro personal de apoyo.

El distrito escolar de Westminster está planeando ofrecer unos programas de verano para los estudiantes recién llegados. En el distrito escolar de Harrison en Colorado Springs, un “comité de recién llegados” está desarrollando un “conjunto de herramientas para que lo utilicen los maestros”.

“Aunque estos fondos sean de una sola vez, cada cantidad pequeña ayuda proporcionar apoyo, recursos, y instrucciones que necesitan nuestros nuevos estudiantes recién llegados”, dijo Rachel Laufer, superintendente adjunta de enseñanza y aprendizaje del distrito de Harrison, en un correo electrónico sobre la financiación.

La traducción de este articulo se publico primero en La Ciudad, un boletín digital bilingüe de Colorado Community Media. Regístrate para recibirlo en coloradocommunitymedia.com/newsletters.

Denver West High students call for a boundary change to boost enrollment and course offerings

2024-05-08T19:00:21+00:00

After moving from a high school in Jefferson County with about 1,400 students to West High School in Denver with under 600 students, 18-year-old Kyree Romo noticed a lot of differences.

She’s happier at her new school, she said, and being around more teachers and students of color makes her feel seen.

But there are challenges for her and other students at West High, too.

Students at West say their school doesn’t have as many course offerings or clubs as larger schools. For instance, West doesn’t have a robotics class or club. It doesn’t have lots of business classes, language options, or art classes. And next year, West is losing more teachers as its enrollment declines.

To help reverse that trend, the students have a request for Denver Public Schools: Reevaluate the boundaries that determine which students are assigned to West.

“Outdated district boundaries result in less students, less teachers, less classes,” Romo said. “This directly impacts students and equitable access to the opportunities that we deserve.”

However, district officials say a boundary change for West wouldn’t make much difference.

Unlike generations ago, a school’s enrollment isn’t just a matter of which students live in its boundary. For more than a decade, DPS has encouraged, and in some areas mandated, families to choose any school in their neighborhood or the entire district.

Supporters of the school choice system say it allows families to choose schools that best fit their children’s needs. Critics say choice has contributed to school segregation and is not accessible to all families because the district doesn’t always provide transportation for students.

Critics of school choice also believe it has created a cycle where schools that have declining enrollment — whether it’s due to academic issues, gentrification, or demographic changes — have a tougher time attracting students and recovering. Denver schools are funded per student, and fewer students means less money to hire teachers and offer a variety of classes. It’s hard for a school to attract more students when families and students notice that it has few resources.

The West students aren’t giving up. Students say that they know some families in west Denver choose to enroll in other schools, in part because they’re drawn to the wider course variety. But students say the draw of West is the unity of the school and the relationships.

“Here, you have teachers asking you about your life,” Romo said.

Recent recommendations also suggest a look at boundaries

West High is one of Denver’s oldest schools, and has a long history of student activism that goes back to student walkouts protesting racism in the late 1960s. In recent years, students successfully advocated to reunify the school after it was split into two smaller schools in an attempt to boost test scores. The reunified West High opened in 2021.

Even with the consolidation, enrollment is now under 600 students, down from about 800 in the fall of 2018. The vast majority of the students are from low-income families: 94% are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals.

Last month, West High students asked the Denver school board for a new system that regularly evaluates district boundaries to keep up with changing demographics in the city, and as a way to give students at West the opportunity to have more resources. DPS hasn’t done a districtwide reevaluation of school boundaries in decades.

The same recommendation was included in a recent report commissioned by Denver Public Schools called the La Raza Report, and was among many recommendations to improve the education of Latino students in the district. West was one of the few schools called out by name in the 22-page executive summary of the report.

“Consider redrawing boundaries for West High School — develop a benefit/cost analysis strategy,” the report says. It also recommends that the district “assess the impact of transportation options” at West and at Lincoln High School in southwest Denver.

To study the impact declining enrollment has had on their school, the West students compared the course offerings at West with what other Denver high schools offer. For example, East High School, which serves an adjacent zone, has more than 2,000 students, and offers nine business and marketing classes, while West offers zero.

“We believe we deserve the same amount of educational opportunities as any other school,” Romo told the board.

Declining enrollment is an issue facing many schools across the country and in the metro area. Nearby, Jeffco Public Schools closed more than 20 schools in the last couple of years, saying that because schools are funded on a per-student basis, schools couldn’t afford to provide equitable resources and programming with low enrollment.

Denver closed three district-run schools last spring, two in west Denver, and several charter schools have closed on their own due to declining enrollment. But the district has so far avoided closing large numbers of district-run schools.

West students hope DPS doesn’t resort to just closing small schools like West, but rather can find a way to distribute students differently and balance out enrollment.

Denver students say the boundary issue is about equitable opportunities.

When asked if the district is considering the students’ request, a spokesperson for the district said students can already opt to enroll anywhere in the district, no matter where they live.

“The most recent data shows that there are a number of students who live within the existing boundary but use their school choice option to attend other schools. Changing a school’s boundary has little impact on a family’s decision on the school their student attends,” the spokesperson said.

Students are also talking about transportation issues

For students at West, learning to advocate for themselves is just as important as anything else they’re learning in school. The boundary issue is their priority this year, but they are trying to solve other problems too, while learning to be brave enough to speak up.

In Denver, for example, school enrollment and transportation go hand in hand.

For many families who use school choice, the district doesn’t provide transportation at all. It’s up to families to get their children to school. For students who attend their boundary schools, the district provides yellow bus service only at elementary and middle schools. For high schools, including West, the district pays for students to take the public RTD buses.

That can sometimes make for a long commute to school. Students want a boundary evaluation to consider their transportation issues.

Elizabeth Calzada, an 18-year-old senior, said she lives in the Barnum neighborhood within the West High School boundary. When she’s not able to catch a ride to school, she takes the public RTD bus, which is an hour commute to school each way.

Waking up early enough to catch the public bus makes going to school difficult on some days, Calzada said. And RTD sometimes doesn’t feel safe. Incidents on the bus involving people fighting or pulling weapons have made her late to school.

There are problems for students who drive to West, too. Among other things, students have also reached out to the city, asking for more parking space.

The West campus is just across from the city’s Sunken Gardens Park, and students say the limited parking spots directly in front of the school are often occupied by city trucks, construction workers, or parkgoers, leaving many students to park on side streets in the neighborhood, where they frequently get parking tickets.

They’re waiting for a call back from Denver city officials to talk about the issue.

A lack of district transportation also affects students’ educational opportunities. Romo said West tries to connect students to college classes and career prep opportunities, but many of the programs are off campus. That is a challenge for students who don’t drive.

Anahi Garcia, a 17-year-old junior, is one of the students asking the district to change West’s boundary. She’s speaking up because she’s seen the difference student advocacy can make.

When Garcia first came to West as a freshman, and started participating in leadership classes, she and other students helped push the school to mostly eliminate its dress code, which restricted the colors students could wear, and whether girls could wear cropped shirts.

Not having a dress code hasn’t led to problems, Garcia said.

“It was like a good feeling to have to know that you’re capable of doing big things if you actually care about it,” Garcia said.

Garcia said she hopes changing West’s boundary and boosting enrollment would allow the school to offer more concurrent-enrollment courses that let students earn college credit while in high school. Garcia said she’s taken some concurrent-enrollment college courses already, but said West doesn’t offer as many as other, larger high schools.

She’s not sure what she’ll want to do after high school, but having more opportunities to explore different things while in high school might be helpful, she said.

Romo said students at West didn’t want to get into drafting school boundaries themselves. She said students know there’s probably a lot to it, but students hope that adults take up the task for the sake of equity.

Calzada said it has taken a lot of work for students like her to be comfortable speaking to city and district leaders about their concerns. Now, students want those adults to listen.

“We actually discussed this stuff. It came from us,” Romo said. “Listen to us. If you’re a school district and you serve students, listen to your students.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Necesitando más maestros bilingües, Denver busca reclutar y apoyar a candidatos internacionales

2024-05-06T17:05:57+00:00

Read in English.

Cuando a Alex Marrero, superintendente de las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, lo invitaron a un panel organizado por el gobierno de la República Dominicana el año pasado donde hablaron sobre el método de educación bilingüe del distrito escolar, dijo que docenas de maestros de ahí le preguntaron cómo podían trabajar para él.

Marrero dijo que regresó a Denver emocionado de haber ayudado a reclutar a 30 maestros nuevos para cubrir las vacantes de puestos en enseñanza bilingüe. Pero a pesar de su entusiasmo, solo un puñado de esos maestros ahora trabajan en las Escuelas Públicas de Denver (DPS, por sus siglas en inglés), dijo.

Marrero le pidió al equipo de recursos humanos del distrito que investigara el porqué. Muchos maestros dijeron que sentían que hacer el cambio era un gran riesgo y no tenían suficiente apoyo, Marrero dijo.

Por eso, este año escolar, las Escuelas Públicas de Denver lanzaron el Instituto de Educadores Internacionales para proporcionar no solo apoyo profesional sino también apoyo personal a maestros internacionales nuevos. El instituto ayudará a los maestros de otros países a encontrar un lugar donde vivir, entender asuntos financieros y de crédito, y proporcionar otros apoyo sociales o emocionales. También capacitará a los maestros para ayudarlos a obtener más certificados y entender cómo funciona el sistema escolar de Denver.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver han inscrito a miles de estudiantes nuevos que recientemente inmigraron de América del Sur. Aunque el Instituto de Educadores Internacionales no se creó debido a la llegada de más estudiantes, hace que el trabajo sea más importante, Marrero dijo. Además, el distrito está bajo una orden de la corte que guía la forma como les enseña a los estudiantes que todavía no dominan el inglés. Para cumplir con esa orden, es necesario tener una gran cantidad de maestros bilingües, pero siempre hay puestos vacantes.

Marrero dijo que el trabajo del instituto es ayudar a cubrir vacantes de maestros sin reemplazar los esfuerzos actuales para cubrir esos puestos.

Las Escuelas Públicas de Denver atienden a 88,200 estudiantes, el 75 por ciento de los cuales son estudiantes de color. Sin embargo, entre los más de 6,000 maestros, solo cerca de un tercio son maestros de color. Si el instituto tiene éxito, Marrero se imagina un sistema en el que los estudiantes tienen más maestros de color y los maestros pueden ampliar sus carreras y mejorar sus vidas.

Si tienen que regresar a su país de origen, también podrán ayudar mejor a más niños alrededor del mundo, dijo.

“Eso es lo que no ha existido antes”, Marrero dijo del instituto. “Igual que decimos que tenemos que educar al estudiante entero, es el mismo método. Lo paralelo es que tenemos que apoyar al educador entero”.

Para que el instituto empezara a funcionar, Marrero dijo que usó $500,000 de dinero federal de asistencia por COVID. Pero el distrito también invertirá al menos $1 millón más de sus fondos generales.

“Gastaríamos más en maestros invitados, cobertura [con maestros] sustitutos durante el año, así que desde mi punto de vista, es una inversión”, Marrero dijo.

Los maestros internacionales enfrentan desafíos sin apoyo

María Moncada Rodríguez, una maestra internacional de Honduras, ha estado en Colorado por cuatro años, pero está trabajando en escuelas de Denver por primera vez este año escolar.

Dijo que le ha encantado el apoyo de sus colegas y del instituto, y que le hubiera gustado tener más apoyo cuando llegó inicialmente a EE. UU. a trabajar en otro distrito escolar.

Moncada Rodríguez y su esposo eran maestros en Honduras encargados de administrar una escuela Montessori por más de 20 años. Pero conforme la violencia en el país aumentó, Moncada Rodríguez buscó una manera de salir. Luego ganó un concurso que le dio la oportunidad de venir a enseñar en Colorado.

Supuestamente tanto ella como su esposo iban a obtener trabajo, y sus dos hijos iban a poder acompañarlos. Pero a último minuto, un nuevo director se hizo cargo de la escuela en Colorado donde ella iba a enseñar y canceló la oferta de trabajo de su esposo.

Maria Moncada Rodriguez, una maestra de Honduras con su clase en las escuelas públicas de Denver.

Aunque su familia igual se reunió con ella en Colorado, su esposo tardó más de un año y medio en obtener un permiso de trabajo. Y durante ese tiempo, Moncada Rodríguez dijo que la familia enfrentó desafíos financieros con solo un ingreso.

“Lloramos casi cada día”, recuerda. Pero dijo que ella y su esposo igual estaban agradecidos de que sus hijos tuvieran un hogar seguro.

Pero ahora que está trabajando en las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, Moncada Rodríguez ha logrado conectar con otros maestros internacionales de varios países, a través del instituto y también a través del sindicato de maestros.

Recientemente, dijo que ella y otros maestros internacionales que ha conocido decidieron empezar una guía para maestros recién llegados. Idealmente, dijo que incluirá información sobre campañas para recolectar ropa, clases sobre conocimientos financieros, ayuda para comprar una vivienda, abogados especializados en inmigración y más.

“Ocupamos información de todo tipo”, dijo.

Es el mismo tipo de ayuda que el instituto del distrito quiere proporcionar.

La meta de Denver: 120 maestros internacionales nuevos el próximo año

A la vez que el distrito implementa sus apoyos y lanza el instituto este año, también ha contratado a 64 maestros nuevos con visas patrocinadas para el año escolar actual. Eso ha causado que los maestros internacionales con visas de trabajo en DPS sumen un total de 234. Para el próximo año, la meta del distrito es contratar a 120 maestros internacionales nuevos.

El distrito planea usar parte del presupuesto de $1.5 millones del instituto en visitas a otros países y para ayudar a reclutar a y conectar con maestros. También planea ayudar al personal para que invierta tiempo en encontrar recursos y ayudando a los maestros nuevos.

Encontrar vivienda asequible para los maestros es un asunto especialmente importante, pero Marrero dijo que no está interesado en alquilar ni administrar propiedades.

“Hay una manera sana de interactuar, pero también [es beneficioso] tener un poco de separación”, Marrero dijo. Los maestros, dijo, “no quieren estar bajo el dedo gordo de DPS”.

Sin embargo, el distrito está explorando relaciones con compañías constructoras, propietarios y funcionarios de la ciudad. Este año, por ejemplo, el distrito logró negociar un precio más bajo en un contrato de arrendamiento a largo plazo para algunos maestros de la República Dominicana.

“Eso es para que nosotros aprovechemos nuestras relaciones existentes y aprovechemos también nuestra posición”, Marrero dijo. “Aunque solo sea un edificio. Decir: ‘¿Podemos tener una cantidad X de unidades para elegir primero [que otros]?’ Eso es lo que estoy buscando explorar”.

Moncada Rodríguez sigue buscando recursos por sí sola. Un problema que no ha logrado resolver es cómo ayudar a su hija mayor, quien se gradúa este año, a pagar por la universidad. Ya que sus hijos son sus dependientes y Moncada Rodríguez tiene una visa patrocinada, no pueden obtener permisos de trabajo y tampoco reúnen requisitos para ninguno de los tipos de ayuda financiera para pagar por estudios avanzados que ella ha investigado hasta ahora.

“Aclaro que no pedimos la vida fácil ni regalada”, Moncada Rodríguez dijo. “Amamos trabajar y estudiar. Pero venir acá y saber que nuestros hijos no pueden ir a la universidad por falta de recursos, es abrumador”.

Sin embargo, quiere que otros maestros que estén pensando en venir a Estados Unidos sepan que las cosas pueden mejorar si persisten. Y espera que los líderes locales también aprendan a dar más apoyo.

En su escuela, la Academia Ana Marie Sandoval, le encanta usar su experiencia como maestra Montessori trabajando con estudiantes de familias con bajos ingresos, y que la valoren por sus habilidades con el idioma español.

Dijo que sus colegas maestros la han ayudado y apoyado mucho, y que su conexión con el instituto significa que siempre hay alguien para contestar sus preguntas.

Moncada Rodríguez dijo que ha tomado muchos cursos de capacitación con las Escuelas Públicas de Denver, incluyendo uno que le enseñó cómo hacer visitas en los hogares de familias con estudiantes migrantes recién llegados.

“Ahora solo me falta buscar cómo sacar una maestría”, dijo. “En eso estoy”.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado que distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Sheridan picks new superintendent after deadlocking on previous finalists

2024-04-29T23:10:17+00:00

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Sheridan’s school board voted this month to select its next superintendent: Gionni Thompson was approved in a 3-1 vote.

It was the board’s third attempt over the past year at selecting a new leader for the small school district bordering Denver.

The Sheridan school board is supposed to have five members but has had a vacant seat for more than a year now. Throughout the superintendent search process, the four sitting board members have been evenly split.

First, the district was considering appointing the sole internal candidate recommended by the outgoing superintendent. But two board members wanted to open up a national search.

The Sheridan school board voted 3-1 to select Gionni Thompson, seen here in a screenshot from his applicant video, as the next superintendent.

After launching the search and ending up with three finalists earlier this spring, the board was unable to agree to a majority vote on any candidate. So it came up with a new list of finalists.

Out of fewer than 40 survey responses the district received in this round, mostly from district staff, Thompson had the fewest points in favor.

Board President Daniel Stange and Karla Najera, who was the lone vote against Thompson, believe that the Sheridan district needs a Latino leader, perhaps one who speaks Spanish, who can advocate for Spanish-speaking parents who often feel left out. The other two board members have disagreed on the importance of that kind of representation. Thompson is not Latino.

The issue goes back to the selection of the outgoing superintendent, Pat Sandos. There again, the community was split, with many interested in another candidate they thought could be a better advocate for Spanish-speaking families.

Stange said Thompson wasn’t his first pick, but he voted for him to avoid another stalemate.

“I had heard some good recommendations for him,” Stange said. “He seems to be very knowledgeable.”

Thompson, most recently an executive director overseeing 16 schools in the Boulder Valley School District, presented himself as an experienced educator who got into the field of education after seeing the disparities. He got his doctorate of education from the University of Colorado in Denver in 2020.

Thompson described himself as the “the fifth of six kids born in Colorado to an Italian immigrant mother and an African American father.”

“As a child, I witnessed firsthand the barriers my family faced in accessing a formal education. Seeing this, I developed my commitment to ensuring that every individual, regardless of their background, has access to the life-changing power of education and the ability to fulfill their aspirations and dreams,” Thompson wrote in his materials to the board.

In his application, he boasted about improvements he helped lead among schools in the Boulder district as well as in his time as principal of Lester Arnold, an alternative high school in Adams 14.

Thompson said if selected, he would listen to the community before developing a plan.

Sheridan, a tiny district bordering Denver, enrolled just over 1,000 students this year, of which more than 77% are Hispanic and about a third are learning English as a new language. Last year’s enrollment was 1,125. The district also has a high proportion of students experiencing homelessness, this year at about 14%.

The Sheridan district must now negotiate a contract with Thompson and then vote on that.

Stange said the board hopes Thompson can start soon. Sandos’ current contract, which was described as a transition year after his retirement, goes through the end of May.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Más que estudios académicos: el modelo de escuelas comunitarias en Aurora sirve de ejemplo mientras el interés crece en el estado

2024-04-23T23:48:19+00:00

Read in English.

Cuando los hijos de Bishnu Rai empezaron a ir a la Escuela Primaria Crawford en Aurora hace cinco años, Rai al principio se sintió perdida. No era muy sociable y tenía dificultades para ayudar a sus niños, dice.

Pero gracias al modelo de escuelas comunitarias que Crawford usa, ha logrado participar más, aprender inglés, y ahora se siente lo suficientemente segura como para desarrollar un plan que empodere a otros padres inmigrantes.

La Escuela Primaria Crawford es una de seis escuelas en Aurora que usan el modelo de escuelas comunitarias. Cinco de ellas forman parte de la Zona de ACCIÓN, un grupo de escuelas cerca de la frontera con Denver con altos niveles de pobreza y una gran cantidad de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés. El distrito formó un grupo con escuelas hace varios años como parte de un plan para apoyar mejor a las escuelas con necesidades similares.

En Crawford, parte del trabajo ha estado realizándose por casi 10 años, pero evolucionó conforme las escuelas de la zona se comprometieron al modelo de “escuelas comunitarias” en los últimos cinco años. El método se enfoca en usar a socios comunitarios para que aborden las necesidades integrales de las familias, con el objetivo final de asegurar que los niños enfrenten menos obstáculos socioemocionales en su aprendizaje.

En Colorado, organizaciones sin fines de lucro y el departamento de educación del estado están aumentando su enfoque para apoyar a escuelas que quieren usar el modelo de escuelas comunitarias. Algunos de estos líderes dicen que observan un potencial desaprovechado para mejorar las comunidades.

En Crawford, el 97 por ciento de los 540 estudiantes cumplen con los requisitos para recibir alimentos subsidiados, una forma de medir la pobreza. La escuela recibe a estudiantes originarios de 40 países distintos que hablan alrededor de 25 idiomas diferentes.

A través del modelo de escuelas comunitarias, Crawford trabaja con organizaciones para evaluar la vista de los estudiantes en la escuela, ayuda a los padres para que aprendan cómo continuar las lecciones en sus hogares, y reúne a las familias para que compartan sus diversas culturas. Rai también ha tomado clases de inglés, clases sobre salud y cursos de liderazgo para padres.

A los padres los incluyen en importantes decisiones de la escuela. Por ejemplo, los padres ayudaron a elegir a la nueva directora este año al participar en entrevistas y organizar un foro donde los padres les hicieron preguntas a los candidatos y completaron boletas para evaluarlos.

“Si empoderamos a nuestros padres, esto ayuda a nuestros niños”, Rai dijo. “Ellos me enseñan a elevar mi voz, cómo decir lo que pienso”.

En la Escuela Primaria Crawford, hay estudiantes originarios de 40 países distintos que hablan alrededor de 25 idiomas diferentes. La escuela celebra su diversidad.

Para apoyar el modelo es necesario tener recursos

Funcionarios del Departamento de Educación de Colorado recientemente visitaron Crawford y Boston K-8, dos de las escuelas de la zona en Aurora, como parte del trabajo que el estado está realizando para entender más cómo se implementa el modelo de escuelas comunitarias y qué recursos pueden compartirse con otras escuelas que quieran probar el mismo modelo.

Legisladores estatales en 2022 agregaron la adopción del modelo al menú de opciones de mejoras para las escuelas que figuran en la lista estatal de escuelas en observación debido a su bajo desempeño. El departamento estatal de educación ofrecía apoyo con el modelo a través de varios departamentos, pero ahora está creando un equipo enfocado solo en apoyar el modelo de escuelas comunitarias.

“Nos alegra conectar a las escuelas con recursos”, dijo Dana Scott, directora de la oficina de apoyos para estudiantes en el Departamento de Educación de Colorado. “Queremos ser un lugar donde realmente podamos crear buenas conexiones para ellas para que las escuelas no tengan que empezar de cero”.

El estado no da seguimiento a la cantidad de distritos que están usando el modelo, pero alrededor del país, algunos expertos creen que el modelo ha recibido más interés, y aún más desde el inicio de la pandemia. Hasta mientras las escuelas tuvieron que cerrar, sirvieron como centrales para albergar diversos tipos de ayuda para las familias en la comunidad, proporcionando comida, conexión a internet, pruebas de COVID, vacunas y más.

Katie Wilberding Cross, directora principal de iniciativas juveniles y educación en Mile High United Way, ayuda a liderar una coalición de organizaciones que quieren apoyar a las escuelas comunitarias. La coalición apenas empezó a reunirse en el otoño.

Dice que la idea detrás de las escuelas comunitarias es que los estudiantes tienen necesidades que pueden presentar un obstáculo para su aprendizaje, pero no se debe esperar que las escuelas sean todo para todos.

“Hay socios que [cubren] estas diversas necesidades”, Wilberding Cross dijo. “United Ways ocupan una posición singular para reunir a las personas, para reunir a estas organizaciones y sectores diferentes”.

Dijo que parte de la labor es que más distritos aprendan sobre el modelo. Es difícil saber cuánto interés existe en Colorado.

“Lo que sigo escuchando es que [está generando] mucho interés, pero es algo que todavía no se ha aprovechado totalmente”, Wilberding Cross dijo.

En el área metropolitana, Adams 14 ha recibido respaldo nacional para su intento de usar el modelo en la Escuela Primaria Central, una de las escuelas de más bajo desempeño en el distrito, la cual tiene su propio plan de mejoras que el estado ordenó. La esperanza es que el modelo termine ayudando a mejorar los logros de los estudiantes.

El distrito escolar de Harrison en Colorado Springs también usa el modelo en una de sus escuelas, y Pueblo 60 lo usa en dos de sus escuelas.

Muchas de las escuelas probablemente ya estén realizando gran parte del mismo trabajo en el que las escuelas comunitarias se enfocan, como lanzar una despensa de alimentos para las familias o asociarse con organizaciones comunitarias para proporcionar otro servicio para los estudiantes o familias. Sin embargo, no tienen la etiqueta de escuela comunitaria ni un plan con la intencionalidad que el modelo proporcionaría.

Tener un coordinador de escuelas comunitarias como parte del personal asegura que las colaboraciones les pertenezcan a las escuelas y no a un maestro o director individual que quizás se vaya, que esas colaboraciones respondan a las necesidades en la comunidad, y que les estén proporcionando algo a las familias. Con esos elementos establecidos, el trabajo tiene más probabilidad de ser exitoso y de continuar más allá de uno o dos años, los expertos dijeron.

Las escuelas que están tratando de usar el modelo de escuelas comunitarias generalmente contratan a un coordinador de escuelas comunitarias. En Crawford, Maggie Lautzenheiser-Page, la coordinadora de escuelas comunitarias, ayuda a planear e implementar los diversos programas que se ofrecen para cubrir las necesidades de la escuela, los cuales son diferentes a los programas ofrecidos en la siguiente escuela que usa el modelo.

Quienes trabajan como enlaces comunitarios con las familias de Crawford hablan múltiples idiomas y se reúnen con los padres regularmente.

“Entonces no está agobiando ni poniendo más peso en los educadores”, dijo Christa Rowland, subdirectora en la región oeste de la Coalición de Escuelas Comunitarias del Instituto de Liderazgo Educativo, un grupo nacional sin fines de lucro con sede en Washington D.C. “En lugar de eso, debe sacar [el peso]”.

El puesto de coordinador de escuelas comunitarias es clave, los líderes coinciden. La persona debe tener algo de autoridad para tomar decisiones a nivel escolar e impulsar el trabajo, Wilberding Cross dijo. El distrito debe estar de acuerdo. Y los planes deben diseñarse junto con la comunidad, evaluando las necesidades y activos existentes, los expertos dijeron.

Si una escuela está siguiendo la definición de Colorado de lo que son las escuelas comunitarias según se establece en el estatuto de Colorado, entonces debe evaluar las necesidades de la comunidad cada año.

Contratar a un coordinador de escuelas comunitarias para que implemente este modelo requiere hacer una inversión. Los expertos dicen que estudios de investigación han demostrado que la inversión puede rendir frutos con más recursos que llegan a la escuela, y mejoras en la asistencia estudiantil, en la participación de los padres y, eventualmente, en otros resultados de los estudiantes.

Aurora ha hecho algunas de esas inversiones. El distrito paga por los coordinadores de escuelas comunitarias, uno en cada una de las escuelas de la zona. El distrito también está trabajando para encontrar fondos permanentes para algunos de los otros puestos, como para coordinadores de salud comunitaria y enlaces familiares con grupos demográficos especiales que hablan diferentes idiomas.

El modelo ha ayudado a mejorar la participación de las familias y la comunidad y permitido que padres como Rai se sientan empoderados para ayudar con el aprendizaje de sus hijos. Pero, basado en las calificaciones estatales, las escuelas en la zona no han observado muchas mejoras en relación con los logros académicos de sus estudiantes. Aurora Central High School, la escuela que ha enfrentado desafíos por más tiempo en el distrito, es parte de la zona y ha continuado obteniendo bajas calificaciones estatales.

Líderes celebran otros indicadores del éxito en escuelas comunitarias

La directora de Crawford Aubri Dunkin, quien es nueva este año, dijo que la mayoría de los líderes escolares quieren que sus escuelas sean centrales para la comunidad.

“Pero esto realmente es una central”, Dunkin dijo, señalando que el modelo de escuelas comunitarias permite que la escuela apoye a los padres y los ayude a superar posibles barreras para que los estudiante asistan a la escuela con más regularidad y “listos para aprender”.

En Aurora, las seis escuelas comunitarias del distrito tienen dos clínicas de alimentos donde las familias tienen acceso a comida gratis y otra ayuda. Una madre de Crawford es una de las coordinadoras que ayudan a que los padres se conecten con la ayuda.

En Crawford, 50 padres de familia, incluida Rai, asisten regularmente a reuniones de liderazgo. Las dos clínicas de alimentos de la zona, las cuales proporcionan comida y conectan a padres con otros recursos, organizan eventos con frecuencia para distribuir alimentos locales. El año pasado, atendieron a más de 4,700 personas en los eventos. En el distrito, líderes dicen que los estudiantes cuyas familias participan están demostrando mejores resultados en comparación con aquellos cuyas familias no participan.

Y en toda la zona, “definitivamente más de la mitad de nuestras familias están asistiendo y participando en eventos de forma regular”, dijo Elizabeth Lewis, la gerenta de impacto de escuelas comunitarias en el distrito.

En Crawford, la cual recientemente recibió una gran cantidad de nuevos estudiantes migrantes, padres líderes quieren transmitir lo que han aprendido para ayudar a los nuevos padres migrantes a que participen por sus hijos, Rai dijo.

También espera mencionar otro problema más allá de la escuela: la seguridad peatonal. Dijo que las familias que van caminando a la escuela quieren que se instale una nueva señal de “alto” (también, “pare”) en una de las intersecciones más transitadas. Años atrás, los padres presionaron con éxito a la ciudad para que instalara una señal afuera de la escuela, pero ahora se necesita otro, dijo.

Los expertos dicen que ese tipo de motivación de los padres es lo que realmente crea sostenibilidad, además de un modelo que responda a las necesidades cambiantes de la comunidad.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Colorado lawmakers defeat bill that would have changed charter school operations and made it easier to close them

2024-04-12T04:58:28+00:00

A bill that would have significantly changed how Colorado charter schools operate, making it simpler for local districts to close them, was defeated by state lawmakers Thursday in its first hearing.

After hours of testimony in the House Education Committee, the bill failed on a 3-8 vote.

Several Democratic lawmakers joined Republicans to defeat the bill, although some Democrats said they supported parts of the bill and would welcome a rewrite.

Students, teachers, parents, many charter school leaders, and some advocates testified against the bill for several hours.

A couple of charter leaders said their schools would not be open if it wasn’t for the current second appeals process that meant the State Board of Education had final say in allowing their school to open despite a local district’s opposition.

“Here I am eight years later with a vibrant school,” said Natalia Miller-Forrest, leader of Heritage Heights Academy in Centennial. “Honestly, I think this bill is an attack on charter schools. There’s not a part of this bill that I can get behind.”

Far fewer people spoke in support of the bill.

Rep. Lorena García, one of the bill sponsors, accused opponents of “fear mongering” by telling parents and others that the bill would cause charter schools to close. García said she encountered a mom who was going to testify against the bill because doing so would fulfill her school’s parental engagement requirement. All the mom had been told was that the bill would close her child’s charter school, García said.

When García told her more about the bill, she said the mom told her that the bill was needed and that her own child’s special education plan wasn’t being followed. But García said the mom told her she was afraid to change her testimony, or of being named in Garcia’s recounting of the conversation, because she feared retaliation for her child.

“Yes, there are great charters,” García said. “No, not all are great. The great charters that are in it for our kids will prevail.”

The bill, had it been approved, would have made a number of changes, including prohibiting charter schools from getting any of their waivers automatically. It would have allowed districts with declining enrollment to create moratoriums to prevent new charter schools from opening, and it would have allowed districts to keep a larger share of charters’ per-student funding.

Lawmakers considering different bills affecting charter schools in Colorado

Districts would also have had final say in charter school appeals, preventing the State Board of Education from being able to override local decisions. Supporters who testified in favor of the bill included teachers, parents, former students, teachers union leaders, and a lawyer and a school board member for the Adams 14 school district.

Sponsors of the bill said the proposal was meant to put charter schools on a “level playing field” with traditional district-run schools, and that the goal was accountability and transparency for families.

Rep. Tammy Story, one of the sponsors and a member of the education committee, questioned charter school leaders who testified about why the bill would harm them.

Story suggested that the bill was not meant to be a threat to charter schools that were operating good programs. She said the proposed rules about conflicts of interest and preventing personal financial gain, for example, were aimed at bad actors who probably wouldn’t show up to testify.

Some who testified against the bill said that the problems identified by sponsors weren’t unique to charter schools.

Rep. Ron Weinberg, a Republican who was filling in on the committee and voted against the bill, said that if the true intent was not to harm schools that could be doing good work, the bill should have been written in coordination with the leaders of those schools.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

More stability and time: Independent panel calls for continuing improvements in Adams 14

2024-04-05T23:34:23+00:00

Leer en español.

Adams 14 schools need more time and stability to build on improvements that have begun, according to a panel of outside experts.

The State Review Panel, a group of external educators that visits low-performing schools and reports to the state, noted “early indicators of progress” in the school district, but said improvement efforts have “not yet become systematic or sustained.”

The panel recommended that Adams 14, and its high school, Adams City High School, continue current improvement strategies, working with an outside group. Currently, the district works with the New York-based nonprofit TNTP.

“Disruption of this current strategy would likely be detrimental to a fragile system,” read the latest recommendations from the group, which were shared by the district Friday.

This school year, Adams 14′s 2023 state rating improved from the lowest category, called turnaround, to the second-lowest, called priority improvement. The number of points earned by the school district was still slightly below what it received in 2019 before the pandemic began.

In the previous rating, in 2022, Adams 14 earned the fewest points in the rating system in all Colorado.

Adams 14, a district north of Denver with about 5,400 students, has long had some of the lowest quality ratings in the state, and has faced many firsts with the state’s accountability system. In 2022, the district was ordered to reorganize, which could have meant closing schools or merging with other districts, but the community fought the orders and the state relieved Adams 14 from the order in September.

But since the district is no longer following that order to reorganize, and still hasn’t shown enough improvement to be free of state intervention, the district and high school face a new hearing with the State Board of Education in May.

The State Board hearing will consider the panel’s recommendations as well as feedback from the Department of Education staff, the district’s own proposal, and community input.

The district celebrated the state review panel’s recent recommendations.

“I am astounded at what a difference two years can make,” Superintendent Karla Loría, said in a news release. “In 2022, the SRP created this narrative of a failing school district, failing leadership, and it made the most heinous recommendations to shut down our school district. Their past report resulted in litigation that reached the Colorado Supreme Court. We defeated every recommendation made by the SRP at that time. Now, two years later, the amount of work and the real progress made is finally being recognized.”

In 2022, the last time the state convened a State Review Panel to provide recommendations about Adams 14, the panel suggested closing Adams City High School and reorganizing the school district, citing ineffective management of the district.

At the time the panel visited in spring of 2022, the district had just spent months fighting to cut ties with the formal external manager, MGT Consulting. And although Loría had already been in the district for about a year, she argued she had not had the authority to lead.

The State Review Panel at that time found that the district did not have a clear plan for moving forward and they doubted that there was enough leadership for the district to improve.

Since then, the district has created a new strategic plan and overhauled the district’s administrative team, and the school board has received new training to focus on policy governance.

Although some in the district have questioned the new administration, the State Review Panel this year found that school leaders and other educators they talked to in the district were all clear about the district’s priorities.

While the district was able to avoid reorganization, they have for the most part continued working with the external partner, TNTP, which was another requirement of the State Board’s order in 2022.

This year, the panel found that work beneficial and recommended that it continues.

“Multiple indications point to this partnership being the likely driving factor for the indicators of progress the district is beginning to experience,” the panel’s report stated.

The panel stated that it did not recommend closing schools this time because the district has closed schools itself. This year, the district closed one elementary school, and it has drafted plans to continue consolidating schools in the coming years to respond to declining enrollment.

The panel also stated that it wouldn’t recommend reorganizing the district in part because that had already been attempted, and the state found it was not in the best interest of the community.

One other option the panel could have recommended would be to turn schools into community schools, a strategy that the district is attempting at one elementary school, Central Elementary. But the State Review Panel reported that the effect of that strategy is still unclear. It also noted that the model requires a lot of resources and given the district’s “diminishing financial resources” it didn’t make sense to attempt the model districtwide.

The financial problems of the district, while not a significant component that the state usually reviews, came up more than once in the state review panel report this time.

This past fall, Adams 14 considered ending its relationship with TNTP altogether, citing a need to cut its budget and reconsider the scope of the partner’s work.

The report notes that the district leaders said they should have the flexibility and authority to review whom they partner with, on what, and to what extent. While the panel acknowledged the challenges, especially around budget problems, it recommended that any needed changes still should go through the state.

“Frequent change and movement away from the strategies and practices that are showing promising results would be disruptive to the potential success of the work and the integrity of the state order,” the report states.

Read the panel’s district report here:

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Más estabilidad y tiempo: panel independiente pide continuar mejoras en Adams 14

2024-04-12T21:21:14+00:00

Read in English.

Las escuelas de Adams 14 necesitan más tiempo y estabilidad para construir sobre las mejoras que han comenzado, según un panel de expertos externos.

El Panel de Revisión Estatal, un grupo de educadores externos que visitan escuelas de bajo rendimiento y reportan al estado, notó “indicadores tempranos de progreso” en el distrito escolar, pero dijo que los esfuerzos de mejora aún “no se han vuelto sistemáticos o sostenidos”.

El panel recomendó que Adams 14, y su escuela secundaria, Adams City High School, continúen con las estrategias actuales de mejora, trabajando con un grupo externo. Actualmente, el distrito trabaja con la organización sin fines de lucro con sede en Nueva York, TNTP.

“La interrupción de esta estrategia actual probablemente sería perjudicial para un sistema frágil”, se lee en las últimas recomendaciones del grupo, que fueron compartidas por el distrito el viernes.

Este año escolar, la calificación estatal de Adams 14 en 2023 mejoró de la categoría más baja, llamada “reorganización”, a la segunda más baja, llamada “mejora prioritaria”. La cantidad de puntos obtenidos por el distrito escolar aún fue ligeramente inferior a la que recibió en 2019 antes de que comenzara la pandemia.

En la calificación anterior, en 2022, Adams 14 obtuvo la menor cantidad de puntos en el sistema de calificación de todo Colorado.

Adams 14, un distrito al norte de Denver con aproximadamente 5,400 estudiantes, ha tenido durante mucho tiempo algunas de las calificaciones de calidad más bajas en el estado, y ha enfrentado numerosos presedentes con el sistema de rendición de cuentas del estado. En 2022, se ordenó al distrito reorganizarse, lo que podría haber significado el cierre de escuelas o la fusión con otros distritos, pero la comunidad luchó contra las órdenes y el estado liberó a Adams 14 de la orden en septiembre.

Pero dado que el distrito ya no está siguiendo esa orden de reorganización y aún no ha mostrado suficiente mejora para estar libre de intervención estatal, el distrito y la escuela secundaria enfrentan una nueva audiencia con la Junta de Educación Estatal en mayo.

La audiencia de la Junta Estatal considerará las recomendaciones del panel, así como los comentarios del personal del Departamento de Educación, la propuesta del propio distrito y la opinión de la comunidad.

El distrito celebró las recientes recomendaciones del panel de revisión estatal.

“Me sorprende lo que puede cambiar en dos años”, dijo la superintendente Karla Loría en un comunicado de prensa. “En 2022, el SRP creó esta narrativa de un distrito escolar fallido, un liderazgo fallido, y hizo las recomendaciones más atroces para cerrar nuestro distrito escolar. Su informe anterior resultó en litigios que llegaron a la Corte Suprema de Colorado. Derrotamos todas las recomendaciones hechas por el SRP en ese momento. Ahora, dos años después, finalmente se reconoce la cantidad de trabajo y el progreso real realizado”.

En 2022, la última vez que el estado convocó a un Panel de Revisión Estatal para proporcionar recomendaciones sobre Adams 14, el panel sugirió cerrar Adams City High School y reorganizar el distrito escolar, citando una gestión ineficaz del distrito.

Al mismo tiempo el panel visitó en la primavera de 2022, el distrito acababa de pasar meses luchando para cortar lazos con el administrador externo formal, MGT Consulting. Y aunque Loría ya había estado en el distrito durante aproximadamente un año, argumentó que no tenía la autoridad para liderar.

En ese momento, el Panel de Revisión Estatal encontró que el distrito no tenía un plan claro para avanzar y dudaban de que hubiera suficiente liderazgo para que el distrito mejorara.

Desde entonces, el distrito ha creado un nuevo plan estratégico y ha renovado el equipo administrativo del distrito, y la junta escolar ha recibido nueva capacitación para centrarse en la gobernanza de políticas.

Aunque algunos en el distrito han cuestionado la nueva administración, el Panel de Revisión Estatal de este año encontró que los líderes escolares y otros educadores con los que hablaron en el distrito tenían claras las prioridades del distrito.

Si bien el distrito pudo evitar la reorganización, en su mayor parte han continuado trabajando con el socio externo, TNTP, que fue otro requisito de la orden de la Junta Estatal en 2022.

Este año, el panel encontró que ese trabajo fue beneficioso y recomendó que continúe.

“Varias indicaciones apuntan a que esta asociación es el factor impulsor probable de los indicadores de progreso que el distrito está comenzando a experimentar”, indica el informe del panel.

El panel declaró que no recomendaría cerrar escuelas esta vez porque el distrito ha cerrado escuelas por sí mismo. Este año, el distrito cerró una escuela primaria, y ha redactado planes para continuar consolidando escuelas en los próximos años para responder a la disminución de la inscripción.

El panel también declaró que no recomendaría reorganizar el distrito en parte porque eso ya se había intentado, y el estado encontró que no estaba en el mejor interés de la comunidad.

Una opción más que el panel podría haber recomendado sería convertir las escuelas en escuelas comunitarias, una estrategia que el distrito está intentando en una escuela primaria, Central Elementary. Pero el Panel de Revisión Estatal informó que el efecto de esa estrategia aún no está claro. También señaló que el modelo requiere muchos recursos y, dado los “recursos financieros decrecientes” del distrito, no tenía sentido intentar el modelo en todo el distrito.

Los problemas financieros del distrito, aunque no son un componente significativo que el estado suele revisar, surgieron más de una vez en el informe del panel de revisión estatal esta vez.

El otoño pasado, Adams 14 consideró poner fin a su relación con TNTP por completo, citando la necesidad de recortar su presupuesto y reconsiderar el alcance del trabajo del socio.

El informe señala que los líderes del distrito dijeron que deberían tener la flexibilidad y autoridad para revisar con quién se asocian, en qué y en qué medida. Si bien el panel reconoció los desafíos, especialmente en torno a los problemas presupuestarios, recomendó que cualquier cambio necesario aún debía pasar por el estado.

“Los cambios frecuentes y el alejamiento de las estrategias y prácticas que muestran resultados prometedores serían perjudiciales para el éxito potencial del trabajo y la integridad de la orden estatal”, indica el informe.

Traducido por Rossana Longo Better

La traducción de este articulo se publico primero en La Ciudad, un boletín digital bilingüe de Colorado Community Media. Regístrate para recibirlo en coloradocommunitymedia.com/newsletters.

Yesenia Robles es reportera de Chalkbeat Colorado cubriendo distritos escolares de K-12 y educación multilingüe. Contacte a Yesenia en yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Lawmakers considering different bills affecting charter schools in Colorado

2024-03-28T20:40:56+00:00

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Colorado lawmakers are once again considering changes to charter schools this legislative session, but unlike in past years, there’s now one big bill calling for a comprehensive list of changes that critics say will weaken charter schools.

Under the bill, charter schools, which are publicly funded but independently run, could have to pay more to use buildings owned by school districts. School districts would be allowed to keep more of the per-student funding for charters, and they would have more control over decisions to close the schools.

Lawmakers backing the bill say it’s needed to hold charter schools accountable. But charter school supporters have called the bill “harmful.”

A separate bill seeks to pave the way for more charter schools to get local funding for construction projects.

The issues addressed in the new comprehensive bill aren’t new concerns for critics of charter schools, but this may be the first time they’re all addressed in a single bill. It may be a sign of growing division on the merits of charter schools.

Democrats control both chambers of the legislature, and both bills have Democratic sponsors. But Democrats themselves don’t always agree on charter schools. In recent years, legislators have expanded funding for state-authorized charter schools and voted down bills that would have made it easier for school districts to reject charter schools.

Democratic Gov. Jared Polis founded two charter schools and is a supporter of the independently run schools. He opposes the comprehensive bill, saying it would undermine school choice.

Rep. Barbara McLachlan, a Democrat from Durango, said she does perceive a widening division among lawmakers regarding charter schools, and said that while she hasn’t made up her mind about the proposed restrictions on charters, she knows she would rather see more charters and districts working together.

“Instead of writing bills, one that is all pro-charter and one that is all anti-charter, you know, we waste a lot of time doing that,” McLachlan said. “I think eventually we’re going to have to come together.”

McLachlan sponsored the other bill, to help charters get construction funds. That’s the only one that has made its way through one of the legislative chambers. The comprehensive bill on accountability still awaits its first hearing, and is already seeing considerable pushback from pro-charter school groups.

A third bill that would have required districts to report more data about how charter schools are performing compared with district-run schools was killed earlier this month.

Here’s more information about the two bills that could still pass:

One bill focuses on strengthening charter school accountability

House Bill 1363, sponsored by Democrats Rep. Lorena Garcia, Rep. Tammy Story, and Sen. Lisa Cutter would change many rules for charter schools. Among them:

Charter schools would no longer be entitled to use buildings or space owned by school districts with limits on rent, and districts wouldn’t have to share lists of available space with charters. Denver Public Schools has long shared vacant buildings with charter schools and has even housed charter schools in the same buildings as district-run schools.
School districts could retain more of the per-pupil state funding allotted to charter schools based on their enrollment, beyond the current 5% cap. Currently, the amount retained up to that cap covers administrative and overhead costs, but under the bill, districts could also keep money to cover the costs of special education services provided to the charter. This change would eat into charter schools’ budgets and could make it harder for them to operate.
Charter school applications would have to include minimum enrollment thresholds, and schools would face closure if they don’t meet them. School districts are not currently allowed to close a charter school solely because of low enrollment.
New reporting rules would require a charter school website — and a district’s enrollment website — to include information about the laws and policies waived by the charter school, such as licensure laws for teachers.
Financial conflicts of interest would be strictly prohibited for charter school board members and the for-profit management companies that are sometimes hired to operate schools.
A change in how local school board decisions are appealed would eliminate a second appeal to the State Board of Education. At times the State Board has forced school districts to open or renew charter schools they’ve initially rejected. Most recently, the state also took away Adams 14′s ability to be the only authorizer for charter schools in the district, which paved the way for two charter schools that the district rejected, to open under authorization from the state Charter School Institute.
Community members would be allowed to appeal their district’s approval of a charter school.

Proponents of the bill say it’s needed to give local communities more control and to give charter schools requirements that are similar to what district-run schools have. The organizations that have signed on to support the bill include teachers unions.

Amie Baca-Oehlert, president of the Colorado Education Association, said she doesn’t consider the bill anti-charter, but rather, “pro-transparency and pro-accountability.”

“We’re supporting making sure that when parents are making decisions, they have the full picture, that they know where funding is coming from, what waivers of state law are being waived. That they understand what’s happening in their schools,” she said.

She said the union also supports allowing local school boards to make more decisions about charter schools in their communities.

Charter school advocates, meanwhile, are calling the bill harmful. Education reform groups and conservative groups such as Americans for Prosperity are against the bill, but so are other groups including the Douglas County school district, the Colorado Catholic Conference, El Paso County, and the Westminster Chamber of Commerce.

The Colorado League of Charter Schools condemned the bill, saying it “disrupts well-functioning systems and creates division between charter and traditional schools rather than improving public education.”

Dan Schaller, president of the league, said that the bill is frustrating because it brings up “some of the same fights of the past that don’t focus on kids.”

He said that if the bill was about accountability, it should focus on school outcomes. He also argues that some of the pieces of the bill are redundant and already addressed in law. Charter school boards, for example, are subject to the same conflict of interest laws that other school boards are, he said. And as far as being subject to closing because of declining enrollment, he said charter schools are already having to do that.

“Charters by their very nature have that self-regulating function built in,” Schaller said.

Gov. Polis’ office said in a statement: “Public charter schools are a popular option in Colorado, serving around 15% of our school-age children. This bill would weaken, rather than strengthen, school choice in Colorado and the Governor strongly opposes it.”

The other bill lets districts share tax money with more charters

In Colorado, charter schools can be authorized two ways: by a local school district or by the state Charter School Institute. House Bill 1154 would allow charter schools that are currently authorized by the Charter School Institute to ask to share in some of the proceeds of local voter-approved tax increases when they need funding for construction or building renovation projects.

Years ago, Colorado passed a law requiring that school districts share proceeds from their millage levy requests with their charter schools. But most districts took that to mean the charter schools they’ve approved, and not Charter School Institute Schools, even if those schools are physically located within their district.

The Charter School Institute currently authorizes 43 charter schools in the state, serving about 20,000 of Colorado’s approximately 880,000 students.

In some cases, lawmakers said during a hearing on the bill, charter schools approved by the state agency have not been allowed to share in that money. And even in cases where they ask to be included from the start, they have been turned down by school district administrators who often say that’s not allowed in the existing law.

The bill was modeled after a collaboration that took place in Durango.

McLachlan, the bill sponsor, said that in that community, the school district deliberately planned and included the state-approved charter schools in its tax request, and used that as a selling point for voters.

Voters in that community could be confident that all children in the community would benefit from the tax revenue, regardless of which school the children attended, McLachlan said.

The bill would not require districts to include charter schools authorized by the Charter School Institute, but aims to make it clear that districts can, if they choose to.

The bill was amended to lay out requirements on how these arrangements would take place, taking into account concerns from some lawmakers.

Those requirements include asking charter schools to show detailed plans ahead of time, and to explain why other funding sources aren’t enough for the capital projects. Then, school districts must enter into agreements with the charter schools that clarify how the bond proceeds would be shared and that specify that districts can take over the buildings to recover money owed if a charter school closes before the bonds are paid off.

The bill passed the House and has been introduced in the Senate.

Correction: This story was updated to reflect that Colorado law requires districts to share mill levy funding with district-approved charter schools, but not bond money.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Con la llegada de estudiantes nuevos al país, los maestros de inglés en Colorado se sienten abrumados

2024-03-25T18:47:36+00:00

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Este año escolar ha sido abrumador para los maestros como Joel Mollman.

Mollman, un maestro enfocado en desarrollar el idioma inglés en la Escuela Media Hamilton en Denver, ha tenido que hacerse cargo de más responsabilidades con la creciente cantidad de estudiantes que necesitan aprender inglés.

En años anteriores, por ejemplo, su escuela quizás recibía tres estudiantes al mes que necesitaban ser evaluados para verificar su nivel de inglés. Este año, Mollman evalúa a por lo menos tres estudiantes nuevos cada semana—un proceso que tarda de una a dos horas por estudiante.

“Rápidamente puede llenar dos de mis mañanas en lugar de que esté en salones de clases”, Mollman dijo.

Alrededor del estado, los maestros en programas para desarrollar el idioma inglés describen situaciones similares.

Ya que muchas escuelas han recibo una gran cantidad de estudiantes con habilidades limitadas para comunicarse en inglés este año, el papel de estos maestros ha estado cambiando.

Tradicionalmente, estos maestros tienen la responsabilidad de evaluar a estudiantes nuevos, enseñar inglés como segundo idioma, dar exámenes de dominio del inglés, y asesorar a otros maestros en los salones de clases.

Ahora también deben apoyar a muchos estudiantes que son nuevos en el país en salones mucho más numerosos de lo normal.

A finales de febrero, siete de los distritos escolares en Colorado—Denver, Aurora, Cherry Creek, Greeley, Adams 12, Jeffco y Mapleton—le dijeron a Chalkbeat que más de 5,600 estudiantes recién llegados al país se habían inscrito en sus distritos, justo después del conteo de octubre.

Algunas escuelas, en particular aquellas donde tradicionalmente no han tenido muchos estudiantes de inglés, han dependido de los maestros en sus programas de desarrollo del idioma inglés para que sean el apoyo principal de los niños recién llegados al país. Algunos de los maestros dicen que están ayudando a los estudiantes y sus familias a guiarse en un país nuevo, y hasta han aceptado a un niño cuya familia estaba viviendo en un automóvil durante un episodio de varicela.

Con frecuencia, dicen, han tenido que descuidar ciertas partes de su trabajo, y promotores estatales dicen que en distritos pequeños, hasta evaluar a estudiantes para identificar sus necesidades con el idioma inglés—un paso crucial—se omite.

Cynthia Trinidad-Sheahan, presidenta de la Asociación para la Educación Bilingüe en Colorado, dijo que los distritos no tienen la fuerza laboral, y con frecuencia no saben qué hacer.

“Algunos distritos no cuentan con la experiencia necesaria”, Trinidad-Sheahan dijo. “¿Cómo hacemos llegar la capacitación a maestros que están en estos distritos rurales? Y no es solo para los asistentes de educadores y maestros. Los administradores que lideran en estos edificios no tienen un entendimiento claro de la adquisición del idioma”.

Los maestros empiezan evaluando aptitudes del idioma inglés

Cuando se sospecha que un estudiante inscrito en la escuela no habla inglés con fluidez, el distrito debe evaluarlo para identificar su nivel de fluidez y necesidades para recibir servicios. Esta evaluación debe suceder en las dos primeras semanas después de que se inscribe.

Durante un año típico, ese proceso toma el tiempo de los maestros dedicados al desarrollo del idioma inglés al principio del año escolar. Este año, con algunas escuelas recibiendo estudiantes nuevos cada semana, ese proceso ha tomado mucho más tiempo.

En la escuela Hamilton, donde Mollman también es líder del equipo multilingüe, él se ha ocupado de evaluar a todos los estudiantes este semestre. Las cifras oficiales del estado muestran que el 40 por ciento de los 700 estudiantes en Hamilton han sido identificados como estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Además de realizar las evaluaciones, Mollman tiene que apartar un par de horas por semana para preparar la documentación para el distrito. Esto requiere ingresar las calificaciones y otra información en la computadora, y tres integrantes del personal deben dar su aprobación.

El semestre pasado, otro maestro de desarrollo del idioma inglés en su equipo estaba compartiendo las responsabilidades, pero con tantos estudiantes nuevos, ese maestro tuvo que encargarse de otro salón de clases, y ya no tiene uno de sus períodos libres. Mollman se encarga de realizar todas las evaluaciones.

Cada lunes, empieza su semana preparando las pruebas, verificando los horarios que se dan a los estudiantes nuevos para asegurar que estén en sus clases correctas, consiguiendo Chromebooks si todavía no los han recibido y, a veces, haciendo llamadas mientras trata de averiguar qué tanto dominan su lengua materna los estudiantes nuevos.

Kayli Brooks, una maestra en la Escuela Primaria Tollgate en Aurora, dijo que evaluar a los estudiantes nuevos no consumía su trabajo solo porque su escuela logró obtener ayuda de los líderes del distrito, quienes asumieron las responsabilidades de ese trabajo.

Sin embargo, recuerda la cantidad de estudiantes que llegaron justo antes del período de pruebas anuales para las pruebas ACCESS—las pruebas que los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés toman cada año para evaluar su progreso en el idioma. Esos estudiantes tuvieron que tomar esas pruebas con días o semanas de diferencia.

“Cada oficina o salón estaba lleno con [estudiantes] tomando pruebas”, Brooks dijo. Mencionó que fue doloroso sacar a estudiantes de sus salones y que se dieran cuenta de que tendrían que tomar otro examen en inglés en el cual no les iría bien.

Es difícil encontrar tiempo para ayudar más

Tanto Brooks como Mollman dijeron que en sus escuelas darles a los estudiantes un período de enseñanza en inglés—un práctica que la ley requiere—no ha dejado de suceder.

Pero dar ayuda a estudiantes y al personal sí se ha pausado.

Brooks, por ejemplo, dijo que solía sacar a grupos de estudiantes, como aquellos recién llegados al país, para darles enseñanza adicional en inglés, donde practicaban hablar el idioma. Solía usar esas sesiones para enseñar frases y vocabulario que quizás los estudiantes escuchaban en otras materias, como ciencias o estudios sociales, para que sintieran que podían participar más.

“Todo eso paró”, Brooks dijo. “Se detuvo abruptamente”.

En semanas recientes, conforme la cantidad de estudiantes nuevos ha ido aminorando, Brooks empezó a reunir nuevamente a algunos grupos pequeños de estudiantes.

“Están tan contentos”, Brooks dijo. “Quieren aprender. Les enseñé la semana pasada sobre [cómo abogar por sí mismos] de forma básica: Necesito agua. Necesito ir al baño. Necesito comida”.

Sin embargo, no está haciendo tanto como le gustaría. Y no ha podido ayudar a otros maestros en su escuela. En Tollgate, dijo, alrededor del 60 al 75 por ciento de los estudiantes se consideran estudiantes de nivel 1 que están aprendiendo inglés. Esto significa que no dominan el inglés para nada.

“Tenemos un poco más de la mitad de cada salón de clases lleno con estudiantes que no hablan inglés, así que la mitad de sus estudiantes están entendiendo lo que [los maestros] dicen”, Brook dijo. “Nuestro equipo quiere—y debería—apoyar a los maestros y ofrecer desarrollo profesional sobre esto. Solo ha sido una época tan abrumadora que no es algo que esté sucediendo”.

Trinidad-Sheahan dijo que los distritos necesitan permitir que los maestros dedicados a desarrollar el idioma inglés asesoren a otros maestros, para que así las responsabilidades de enseñarles a los estudiantes se compartan.

En las escuelas con un gran número de estudiantes bilingües emergentes, dijo, los asesores de enseñanza deben ser aquellos maestros con experiencia ensenándoles a estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Mollman dijo que en su escuela de Denver, su equipo está tratando de ayudar a los maestros que enseñan otras materias, pero “seguimos tratando de decidir cuál es la mejor forma de hacer esto”.

En otros años en su escuela, los maestros quizás formaban parejas con estudiantes nuevos y otros estudiantes que también hablaran el mismo idioma. Pero con tantos estudiantes nuevos, incluidos algunos que hablan español y otros que hablan árabe, a veces no es posible.

También está tratando de que los maestros modifiquen cómo califican a los estudiantes que todavía no hablan inglés. Pero sigue siendo un desafío.

“Algunos maestros son muy buenos para adaptarse”, Mollman dijo. “Algunos han tenido bastantes desafíos con eso, y todavía no hemos encontrado la solución perfecta”.

Los maestros tampoco se sienten preparados

Hasta los maestros que tienen experiencia trabajando con estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés como un idioma nuevo dicen que este año a veces no se sintieron preparados.

Dakota Prosch es una maestra que enseña inglés en Academia Ana Marie Sandoval en Denver, donde enseña a estudiantes de cuarto, quinto y sexto grado en una escuela Montessori de lenguaje dual. Durante un año típico, sus estudiantes ya casi son bilingües totalmente. Debido al modelo de aprendizaje de la escuela, y por ser una escuela especializada, la mayoría de los estudiantes de cuarto grado han estado en la escuela desde kindergarten.

Pero este año, por la gran cantidad de estudiantes migrantes en Denver, la escuela ha tenido que aceptar estudiantes nuevos. Eso significa que Prosch ahora trabaja con estudiantes que acaban de llegar al país y no hablan nada de inglés.

“No tenemos ningún material para estudiantes que no hablan inglés”, dijo.

En febrero, el distrito proporcionó algunos materiales que se usan en centros para estudiantes recién llegados, pero Prosch quisiera haber recibido antes esos recursos. Por lo menos 30 minutos al día, separa a los estudiantes nuevos para trabajar con ellos en habilidades para desarrollar el inglés.

“Esencialmente hay dos salones de clases en uno”, Prosch dijo. “No puedo ofrecer la misma enseñanza”.

La mayoría de sus estudiantes usualmente están analizando texto. Prosch intenta que sus estudiantes nuevos hagan lo mismo, pero muchos solo están tratando de aprender lo que es una oración y “cómo poner su lengua entre sus dientes” para aprender los sonidos que hacen las diferentes combinaciones de letras.

Sin embargo, Prosch dijo, “son niños realmente maravillosos y estoy muy contenta de tenerlos”. Es un sentimiento que también comparten otros maestros.

Legisladores están hablando sobre un plan que les daría fondos adicionales a algunos distritos escolares para estudiantes nuevos en el país que se hayan inscrito después del conteo de octubre cuando los fondos escolares se determinan.

Mollman está de acuerdo con que más recursos ayudarían.

En este momento, dijo, las escuelas como la suya están tomando decisiones difíciles, como elegir entre traer a un segundo maestro al programa de desarrollo del idioma inglés (ELD, por sus siglas en inglés) o a otro maestro de ciencias. En su escuela, este año, agregaron a un nuevo maestro de ELD para ayudar en un salón que tenía más de 40 estudiantes.

“Fue una decisión bastante fácil este año, pero eso impactó a uno de nuestros equipos más seriamente que a otros”, Mollman dijo.

Pero hasta sin fondos, los maestros dicen que sus roles deben adaptarse para cubrir las necesidades de los estudiantes.

“El objetivo es asegurar que todos nuestros estudiantes logren el éxito sin importar si están aprendiendo el idioma o no”, Mollman dijo.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado que cubre los distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

New report lays out roadmap for improving how Hispanic students in Denver are educated

2024-03-19T19:43:31+00:00

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Unequal resources across schools, a lack of Latino teachers and leaders, and a “perpetual undervaluing” of Latino culture are among the barriers facing Hispanic students, families, and staff in Denver Public Schools, a new report found.

Called the La Raza Report and released publicly Tuesday, the report was commissioned by the district to identify barriers and opportunities in the community, and to understand their impact.

The Denver school district, the largest in the state, has more than 45,000 students who identify as Hispanic or Latino — 51.8% of all students. The population had been increasing but started declining at the start of the pandemic. The report also highlights that gentrification has shifted the population within the city and contributed to resegregation.

Denver Superintendent Alex Marrero said at a press conference Tuesday that nothing in the report was surprising. Data on student outcomes over the years has been heavily reported. He said the report gives the district a roadmap to help students feel like their voices are heard.

“It was painful to hear or read, I should say, the lived experience of some of our Latino students who, even amongst their Latino groups, really expressed a lack of sense of belonging,” Marrero said. “That was painful, that was painful, because it’s something that is a reality.”

The Denver-area company that wrote the report, the Multicultural Leadership Center, LLC, spent months conducting focus groups, research, surveys, and other analysis.

Research on the district spanned a 15-year period, from 2008 to 2022. The research group put together 51 focus groups with over 600 participants to capture student, family, and teacher perspectives. It also conducted a survey with over 3,000 participants.

The work does not include perspective on the recent influx of migrant students into the school system because the research predated it.

In one of the more pointed sections, the report authors identified “the brown ceiling” as a barrier the district should better understand.

“Included in the brown ceiling is the finding that employees feel that the district, rather than capitalizing on its human capital to ensure equity and excellence for Latino students, frequently requires that Latinos ‘act white,’ ignore their Latino cultures and suppress the cultural assets they bring to the district,” the report states.

The report also identified cultural resilience and the persistence of various community groups as a strength that has led to positive changes in the district. Some of those changes, like curriculum and programs for culturally and linguistically responsive teaching and more opportunities for students to become bilingual, will help new Spanish speaking migrant students arriving recently, the report said. Previous generations had to fight for such opportunities, it notes.

The report concludes with 35 recommendations for the school district and the city. The recommendations range from systemic, including asking the city to help plan for a continued influx of immigrant families and students, to specifics that call for reviewing transportation options for West and Lincoln high schools.

The recommendations also note the district must find a better way to ensure that resources to schools in the district are being equitably distributed.

“We really hope that this is a chance for DPS and the City and County of Denver to be able to say we now know where we’re going,” said Steve DelCastillo, the Multicultural Leadership Center’s principal investigator. “We’re at a crossroads, we’re going to make the right decisions, and years from now people are going to look back and say that was a differentiating point for DPS and most importantly, for the Latino community.”

Marrero said he expects to take up the recommendations that relate to the district.

First steps will be to hire someone within the next week or two to lead the district’s newly launched Latinx success team, he said. The position will help the district dig deeper into the recommendations.

Among the recommendations:

For the district: To coordinate with local foundations, non-profit organizations, and higher education institutions to establish student tutoring programs funded by Denver employers.
For the district: To work with the city and the Regional Transportation District, or RTD, to develop a transportation system for students and families who need it, “even in those areas where providing such a service may not be cost-effective but is socially just.”
For students: To develop a strategy for increasing recruitment and participation in the Seal of Biliteracy program, which allows students to learn and demonstrate proficiency in English and another language. The seal is awarded at graduation and is meant to show colleges and employers that the student has demonstrated proficiency in two languages. Given that many DPS students already speak more than one language, the report says this program should be promoted more.
For parents: To develop a districtwide bilingual parent leadership institute focused on understanding the DPS educational system and the roles parents can play in the children’s education, including working with teachers and administrators. The institute must also include a multicultural component, including parents of color who “can use this venue to work on the issues related to cultural conflicts within groups and among the various cultural groups.”
For teachers: To expand the pool of Spanish-speaking teachers from various subject matter areas and to increase opportunities for concurrent enrollment, which allows students to simultaneously earn high school and college credit.
For school leaders: To establish a Latino Leadership Pipeline and a Latino Leadership Mentorship Program. Another recommendation is to consider redrawing the boundaries for West High School and to periodically review all boundaries to account for gentrification and other population shifts.
For the central office: Cultural sensitivity and cultural competence training for all central office employees. “Staff have reported overt and covert racist remarks,” the report states.

Read the report below:

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the last name of Steve DelCastillo.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

With more Colorado students eating free meals at school, state may cut back the program

2024-03-06T00:22:37+00:00

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In the first year that Colorado is paying districts to give students free meals at school, more kids are eating than expected.

That has left the program $56.1 million short this year. And lawmakers are working on how to close the funding gap.

Colorado voters in 2022 supported creating limits on tax deductions for the state’s highest earners as a way to fund free school meals for all students. Advocates at the time said that there were families in Colorado who, due to the state’s high cost of living, were struggling financially even though they didn’t qualify for subsidized meals under federal poverty guidelines.

In calculating the cost of the program, analysts expected that about 25% more children would eat a school meal, including students who would have qualified for free meals already and those who wouldn’t.

Instead, schools this year have seen a more than 35% increase in breakfast participation, and a more than 31% increase for lunch compared with last year.

The higher-than-expected participation — and program cost — is due largely to students who previously had to pay for a school meal. In most cases, the federal government doesn’t reimburse the districts for any part of those children’s meals, leaving the state to cover those costs alone.

In the Cherry Creek School District, district leaders said they are serving about 32,262 meals a day on average, up from 23,317 a day last year — a 38% increase.

The state legislature’s Joint Budget Committee this week agreed to fill the $56.1 million gap this year. About $31.5 million can be covered with additional revenue that has come in from the new tax provision, but the rest will likely need to come from the state’s general fund.

The committee is also providing $100,000 this year, and $150,000 next year, for the Colorado Department of Education to hire a consultant to help come up with solutions that might keep the program on budget next school year. That effort could involve figuring out how to maximize how much money districts get from the federal government.

But lawmakers said the state will consider all options. That includes cutting the program, changing the eligibility rules for free meals, or finding new ways to pay for it, such as pulling money from the education budget.

Committee lawmakers said that changing the eligibility rules would be a last resort.

“There are a lot of families that technically don’t qualify for free or reduced lunch, but man is it a huge help to them making rent,” said Sen. Jeff Bridges, a Democrat from Greenwood Village. “I would be really uncomfortable with anything that puts a means test back into this program.”

Bridges also said a goal of the program was to remove the stigma of eating free school meals by making them available to everyone, not just to students from low-income families.

Advocacy groups are also working on possible solutions. Anya Rose, director of public policy for Hunger Free Colorado, said the group is considering how to make the program more sustainable, including the possibility of a new ballot measure.

Without any changes to the meal program, state analysts predict Colorado will come up short by $27.8 million next year.

In addition to the universal free school meals, voters approved three grant programs that were supposed to be rolled out in the coming school years. The grants were meant to help districts with things like buying Colorado-grown food for meals, providing stipends for kitchen employees, and paying for training or equipment.

For now, those grant programs will be on hold.

Lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee debated this week over whether they had a responsibility to keep the voter-approved program going, regardless of the additional cost to the state.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, a Brighton Republican, said that cost calculations have changed and the state has to deal with that.

“All of these warnings were given to us before, and we ignored them,” she said.

Before the plan was put to voters, lawmakers defeated a plan to offer free school meals to all, in part because of concerns about the cost.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Aplicaciones ayudan a que los maestros se comuniquen con familias que no hablan inglés

2024-03-13T22:35:42+00:00

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Por años, Emma Gonzalez Gutierrez ha tenido dificultades para comunicarse con los maestros de sus cinco hijos.

Ha intentado mantenerse involucrada. Ha asistido a reuniones, gravitado hacia el personal que habla español, y dependido de traductores, incluidos sus hijos, a lo largo de los años.

Ahora, gracias a una aplicación que su escuela en Adams 12, la escuela Primaria McElwain, empezó a usar este año, ha encontrado oportunidades para participar de nuevas maneras en la educación de su hija más pequeña.

Recientemente, la maestra de kindergarten le mandó un mensaje de texto usando esa aplicación, ReachWell, que permite que los maestros escriban en inglés y que los padres reciban mensajes en su propio idioma. La maestra le dijo a Gonzalez Gutierrez que su hija había ganado un premio parecido a “estudiante del mes” y la invitó a ir a la escuela para sorprender a su hija cuando le dieran el premio. Fue un pequeño gesto que significó mucho para Gonzalez Gutierrez.

“Para mí fue muy emocionante”, Gonzalez Gutierrez dijo. “Fue muy valioso para mí que pudo hacerme saber”.

ReachWell y aplicaciones similares de traducción se han convertido en algo más común y, para algunos maestros, se han convertido en una herramienta esencial para comunicarse con una creciente cantidad de familias que no hablan inglés. Las aplicaciones con frecuencia permiten que los mensajes entre padres y maestros sean personales. Algunos maestros dicen que han ayudado a que los padres se abran sobre problemas que su hijo o familia está teniendo, lo cual ayuda a que los maestros interactúen mejor con los estudiantes.

Además de ver los mensajes de texto de los maestros en su lengua materna en ReachWell, los padres pueden responder en su propio idioma y los maestros ven las respuestas en inglés.

Kayli Brooks, una maestra en la escuela Primaria Tollgate en Aurora, usa la aplicación Talking Points, la cual también le permite enviar mensajes de texto a los padres. También traduce los mensajes entre padres y educadores, pero no requiere que las familias descarguen una aplicación.

“Las familias comparten que están teniendo dificultades con el transporte, o esta es la razón por la que [el estudiante] está comportándose mal, o quizás me texteen y digan: ‘Oye, esto pasó en la casa y creo que mi hijo va a estar muy triste en la escuela hoy’”, Brooks dijo. “Es algo enorme. Las familias quieren estar involucradas en la educación de su hijo sin importar de dónde sean, sin importar qué idioma hablen”.

Brooks dijo que desde que su escuela en Aurora empezó a usar la aplicación en 2020, ha tenido mucho más éxito recolectando formularios de permisos, por ejemplo.

Con familias inmigrantes recién llegadas al país y que están “bastante abrumadas”, dijo, enviarles mensajes de texto por la aplicación también las ayuda a entender mejor la información básica que necesitan para que sus hijos empiecen la escuela.

La comunicación personal, a través de un mensaje de texto, con frecuencia es más fácil de manejar para las familias que pedirles a los padres que se dirijan a formularios o recursos en línea, Brooks dijo.

Sara Olson, directora de la escuela Primaria McElwain, dijo que la aplicación ReachWell es “una herramienta que proporciona acceso equitativo”.

“Casi no logro entender cómo estas personas se han guiado por las escuelas durante años sin tener acceso”, Olson dijo. “Como [madre], no puedo imaginarme no tener acceso a la información, a los maestros. Cada niño e integrante de la familia tiene derecho a tener acceso”.

Olson dijo que no tuvo problemas para que las familias en su escuela descargaran la aplicación.

Zuben Bastani dijo que creó la aplicación ReachWell después de que vio a familias en la escuela de Denver de su hijo que no estaban recibiendo todos los mensajes. Dijo que vio a niños excluidos de excursiones cuando llegaban a la escuela sin estar preparados, sin saberlo—como usando tenis cuando había una excursión para caminar por la nieve, por ejemplo—porque sus familias no habían entendido los mensajes de la escuela.

“Fue obvio, muy rápido, qué familias estaban informadas y se aparecían y qué familias no”, Bastani dijo.

La aplicación se está usando en muchas escuelas y distritos en el área metropolitana de Denver y alrededor del país en lugares como Pittsburgh. Además de con escuelas, la compañía también se está asociando con algunas agencias de servicios de emergencia para proporcionar alertas de emergencia—como órdenes de quedarse en casa o evacuaciones durante desastres naturales—que las poblaciones que no hablan inglés pueden recibir en su lengua materna.

Jean Boylan, una facilitadora comunitaria en la escuela Primaria McMeen en Denver, también usa ReachWell en su escuela, pero dijo que además ha usado la aplicación de traducciones de Google en su teléfono para saludar a los padres en persona cuando pasan a buscar a sus estudiantes. Dijo que el personal escolar busca tantas maneras como puede para comunicarse.

En su escuela, inquietudes sobre si las nuevas familias inmigrantes tienen acceso a internet, han resultado en que el personal empiece a imprimir materiales también. McMeen es una de un par de docenas de escuelas en Denver que han inscrito a una cantidad significativa de estudiantes nuevos de Venezuela y otros lugares este año.

Pero cada vez que pueden comunicarse con la aplicación de ReachWell, ahorran tiempo y energía, Boylan dijo. La aplicación ayuda porque las familias hablan muchos idiomas diferentes. Boylan dijo que hay un mapa en su oficina con por lo menos 27 países resaltados que reflejan de dónde vienen las familias actuales de la escuela.

Bastani dijo que ReachWell encontró que, debido a que los padres descargan la aplicación y seleccionan ellos mismos su idioma preferido de una lista de más de 130 idiomas, muchas escuelas descubren que no han estado contando todos los idiomas que sus familias hablan.

En promedio, descubren 25 por ciento más idiomas después de un par de meses, los líderes de ReachWell dijeron.

Boylan ahora está trabajando con Bastani para aumentar el contenido en una página con recursos que ReachWell ofrece en la aplicación para las familias. La página incluye información sobre el acceso a recursos como comida o vivienda para las familias.

Para padres como Gonzalez Gutierrez, la comunicación personal que tienen con los maestros es esencial.

Gonzalez Gutierrez dijo a principios de este año que notó que su estudiante de kindergarten estaba frustrada con un programa en línea que la escuela usaba para que los niños aprendieran matemáticas. Estaba causándole estrés y temor a la niña, y Gonzalez Gutierrez dijo que no sabía cómo hablar con la maestra sobre eso—hasta que se dio cuenta de que podía mandarle un mensaje de texto.

Compartir con la maestra cuál era el problema permitió que trabajaran juntas para resolverlo.

“Vale la pena”, Gonzalez Gutierrez dijo. “Es un regalo para mí”.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Denver’s Lincoln High School gets more time to improve, as State Board praises efforts

2024-03-14T01:07:09+00:00

When Colorado officials ordered Denver’s Lincoln High School to work on a turnaround plan to improve the achievement of its students, no one knew schools would be interrupted by the pandemic just a month later.

But the school pushed forward with its improvement plan, despite the switch to remote learning and a more recent influx of new students. And although the school’s test scores and state rating remained low this year, State Board of Education members praised Lincoln’s progress Wednesday and agreed to give its leaders more time to boost its rating.

So far, school leaders have completed a leadership program with the University of Virginia, created a new ninth grade academy, and rolled out new career-focused pathways for students. A program called PTECH allows students to stay in high school for a fifth or sixth year to earn an associate’s degree in business. Lincoln’s first participants are graduating this spring.

Those changes were made possible partly by Lincoln’s status as an “innovation school,” a model allowed for state-ordered improvement plans that gives the school autonomy from some district and state rules and provisions of the teachers union contract.

Lincoln was one of just two Denver schools with state-ordered improvement plans. The other, Manual High School, received an improved rating this year. If it sustains that rating for one more year, it can be freed from its state orders.

Lincoln, on the other hand, has not improved and had to have its plan reviewed this year. The state board unanimously approved a district plan on Wednesday that will keep Lincoln as an innovation school while the state monitors its progress.

If the school doesn’t manage to earn a higher state rating by 2026, then it will have to return to the state for another hearing.

When a school receives several years of low ratings, the state is obligated to order an improvement plan, which can include requiring external management, turning the school into a charter or even closing it. Recently, State Board members have stayed away from those drastic options. One alternative has been to grant innovation status.

With Lincoln, State Board members said they were encouraged that school and district leaders’ assessment of the school and its ability to improve mirrored the feedback from the community, the Colorado Department of Education staff, and an external state review panel.

“I’m constantly reminded of, we leave a school alone, great things happen,” said State Board member Angelika Schroeder. “What you’re offering is something really special.”

Under the district’s plan, Lincoln will continue to expand its offerings for workforce development while students are in high school.

The school will also focus more in the coming years on attendance. Currently, the average attendance rate at Lincoln is 83%, up from 81% last year.

Principal Antonio Esquibel said attendance rates are low among new immigrant students who are facing other challenges that make it difficult to attend school, such as housing instability.

School leaders also talked about the challenges they’ve faced most recently in supporting a rise in students who are new to the country. Lincoln High School houses one of Denver’s newcomer centers, which help students who are new to the country adjust to life in an American high school.

Esquibel said the school enrolled another six new students Wednesday.

He said the school has added staff, and is now doing an orientation every Monday for new students and their families. The orientation introduces them to Lincoln and the U.S. school system, and to living in southwest Denver.

As part of the improvement plan, the school will also expand its efforts to help all teachers accommodate their lessons for English learners through sheltered instruction, where teachers can adjust lessons to incorporate help for English learners throughout the day.

About half of Lincoln’s roughly 1,000 students are identified as English learners, but about 75% identify Spanish as their first language. With so many arriving students who are new to the country, those percentages are rising.

“Every teacher has to be a teacher of English learners at Lincoln,” Esquibel said.

The school also uses a model it calls TNLI that offers students Spanish instruction and then slowly moves toward more English instruction, allowing students to remain bilingual, Esquibel said.

“We know if given the right supports and resources, our students flourish,” he said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jefferson Academy will open in Coal Creek after parents raised nearly half a million dollars

2024-03-13T02:54:03+00:00

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Parents in a far corner of Jefferson County celebrated Tuesday night after helping to raise nearly half a million dollars to secure the opening of a charter school in their community.

The board of the charter school, Jefferson Academy, voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with opening a new kindergarten through 8th grade school in Coal Creek Canyon.

“I’m voting for the motion because of the hard work that has been done and got us across that line,” said Anil Mathai, a Jefferson Academy board member. “But if we do not focus on year two, year three, this board and the system will have major stress on it. We own this. I want to make sure we aggressively move to make sure year two is financially solid with or without their support.”

The Jeffco school district had decided earlier this year to close the district-operated school after the end of the school year in May, citing unsustainably low enrollment. Since the next nearest schools for families are for many a 20-minute drive away, the district sought a charter school to take over running a school in the community.

Jefferson Academy was approved by the school district in January. But initial enrollment of 60 students and seven homeschoolers was lower than the charter school anticipated.

Schools are funded per student, and the board said the low enrollment numbers meant the school was half a million dollars short of being able to open. But before the board pulled out of plans to open in the fall of 2024, members allowed parents about three weeks to try to help raise the money.

Parents helped the charter school foundation apply for and secure several grants, ran a successful GoFundMe page for individual donations, received funding from several businesses, and put on a silent auction that raised more than $3,000.

All together, the efforts raised $10,000 more than what was needed.

Enrollment is still at 60 students, although there are now 10 homeschooled students who will be connected to the school. Parent leaders believe that once there is no longer uncertainty about the school’s opening, and the first year is successful, more families will enroll.

Although the charter board had previously discussed the idea of opening the school with fewer grades, board members have abandoned that idea for now, with the exception of cutting preschool. The school still intends to have a preschool, but has not yet secured licensing to offer that on the first day of school. It will be available when the school gets licensed, leaders said.

Parents who led the fundraising efforts also presented their ideas for other ways to make the charter school sustainable. Finding babysitters in the canyon is a challenge, they said, and so hosting a night out for parents where they could leave their children in a safe place could be another successful fundraising event, they said.

And to boost enrollment, parents suggested adding before or after school care. At least one parent in the community enrolls her children in Boulder schools close to her workplace, because the canyon school doesn’t have any after school care or activities.

Besides the fundraising, the last bit of help to open the charter came from the Jeffco school district, which agreed to allow Jefferson Academy to operate in the district-owned building for free the first year and with an adjusted cost in the second year.

The only condition was that Jefferson Academy had to decide Tuesday night to open the school and not leave families wondering any longer.

Lisa Relou, chief of staff for the Jeffco school district, told the charter board that the district is committed to helping, but that the goal is for the charter to be sustainable on its own in the long run.

Charter school board members said they also were concerned about long-term sustainability, and said they knew that opening this school in the canyon was a risk, but one that made sense.

Having so much parental involvement in fundraising means that the community “seems to be right up our alley,” one board member said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Teacher pay: Adams 12 may give raises for mentoring rather than graduate degrees

2024-02-29T01:22:05+00:00

Teachers in at least two Adams 12 schools could earn higher pay in a pilot program – through district-provided training and taking on new school responsibilities – instead of by completing graduate credits, the more traditional route.

Removing pay incentives for college credits is rare, but not unheard of. About 90% of districts pay teachers more for earning graduate degrees, according to one survey of large districts.

“You don’t have to go out and spend $10,000 on a graduate degree,” said Dave Lockley, president of the teachers union in Adams 12. “We believe in continuing development. We don’t know that graduate credits are the best way.”

The pilot, designed by a team of teachers, union leaders, and district leaders, would likely take place at Thornton Elementary School and Thornton Middle School, two schools that have struggled. One goal of the pilot would be to incentivize more teachers to work in and stay at the low-performing schools with high percentages of high-risk students. The pilot also incentivizes teachers to collaborate to see if it helps with raising student achievement.

The team that designed the salary pilot had considered it for years. They moved forward with plans this year after the district committed $4.5 million to try it out. If approved, it is expected to start this fall and last three to four years, but the final agreement could change those details.

As teachers have been informed, there has been some pushback.

Lockley and district leaders said teachers’ main concerns are about what new responsibilities the higher pay requires, whether that money could do more good for more schools in another way, and whether the changes devalue graduate degrees some teachers already earned.

Union and district leaders are discussing the feedback to possibly adjust the plan or decide whether to move forward with it. If they agree in negotiations to the pilot in the next couple of weeks, the school board and the full union membership will have to vote to approve it.

Myla Shepherd, chief human resources officer for Adams 12, said the team that designed the pilot recommended Thornton Elementary and Middle schools for the pilot after the district ranked all schools using five criteria the subcommittee chose, including a three-year teacher turnover average, mobility of students, and how many students qualify for subsidized lunches.

Thornton Elementary has a three-year teacher turnover rate of 38.8%. At Thornton Middle School, that rate is 33.2%. Both schools have more than 40% of their students identified as English learners, and more than 83% qualify for subsidized meals.

But, Shepherd said, the district is open to running the pilot with more schools if possible.

None of the teachers at the pilot schools would see a decrease in their salary. Most will see a raise.

The district estimates the program will cost about $500,000 to $600,000 per school, at the start, Shepherd said, because of those salary increases, and because raises might be more accessible tied to professional development instead of college credit.

“Over time that would decrease as people earn more and turn over less,” Shepherd said the district estimates.

Ultimately, part of the goal is for schools to build a staff that’s a mix of new teachers, intermediate career teachers, and some veterans collaborating and helping each other.

“That’s when a school is at its best,” Lockley said.

Salary raises will also be flattened, so that teachers can reach the maximum earlier in their careers, even though the maximum would be a lower salary than the current schedule.

But Lockley said that under Adams 12′s current salary plan, only one teacher in the district is currently at the maximum, and for most teachers, it’s unattainable. Allowing more teachers to reach a maximum salary earlier can increase their lifetime earnings, even if that maximum is smaller, he said.

Typically, Lockley said, it is white men who are more likely to climb the salary ladder in traditional schedules, because they’re more likely to have money and time to earn higher degrees.

“It just always seemed baffling to me that we force teachers to go into debt in order to see a decent pay raise,” Lockley said. “Some of our teachers can’t afford the time or the money to go get a master’s degree. My hope would be that the things we learned from this pilot, we could use to help fix these long-term inequities.”

Researchers say studies have shown that many master’s degrees earned by teachers don’t lead to better student outcomes. However, there are cases where they do, such as a math teacher in a middle or high school, who earns a master’s degree in math, or special education teachers with specialized degrees for their field.

Linda Darling-Hammond, president of the Learning Policy Institute and a Stanford University professor, said that there are downfalls with district-provided training, too. They must be well-designed and closely tied to the work teachers do.

“And you can end up with the same inequities if they have to find their own time,” she said.

But the idea of incentivizing a system where veteran teachers would mentor and work with newer teachers can be promising, she said.

“There’s a lot to be said positively about the idea of having veteran teachers mentor younger educators,” Darling-Hammond said. “That does increase retention and effectiveness for the beginner teachers if you do it right.”

Heather Peske, president of the National Council on Teacher Quality, said that districts typically aren’t using money strategically when they pay more for graduate degrees that usually aren’t tied to better student outcomes.

“We need to pay teachers more for working where they’re most needed,” Peske said.

One measure that wasn’t considered by the group to choose the pilot schools, was a school’s state performance rating. Still, one of the two schools recommended, Thornton Middle School, is one of six in the district with a low rating that landed on the state’s watchlist for persistently low student test scores and other achievement deficits.

Ideally, Lockley said, he’d like to see a school improve performance in ways that show in better state ratings.

The subcommittee is still considering how to measure success, depending on the pilot’s length. Some version of student success, and teacher retention will be a part of it, Shepherd said.

“We’re trying something different to really honor and recognize the work of educators,” Shepherd said. “It will allow for attracting and retaining people in those challenging environments. And improved student achievement.”

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Jeffco parents are trying to keep a school in their community. They need half a million dollars.

2024-02-26T23:40:59+00:00

Writing grant requests, requesting donations from local businesses, and even starting a GoFundMe page.

That’s how some Jeffco parents are scrambling to raise more than half a million dollars to help open a charter school in a remote mountain canyon after Jeffco Public Schools announced it would close the K-8 school in Coal Creek Canyon.

The Jeffco school board voted this fall to close Coal Creek Canyon K-8 citing low enrollment and an unsustainable cost. But Jefferson Academy, the charter network that was supposed to take over the building, is now facing the same issues and may not be able to open a school there after all.

Unlike when the district closed about 20 other schools in the past couple of years and reassigned students to nearby schools, district leaders acknowledged that closing Coal Creek Canyon K-8, located near the border with the Boulder district, would be different because of the school’s remote location. So the district opened a process offering the building to a charter that might be better prepared to run such a small school.

Jefferson Academy, an existing charter school network in Jeffco, was approved to open a prekindergarten through eighth grade school in the Coal Creek Canyon building.

But now that the school may not open after all, parents are unsure of the options their children will have this fall.

Parent Ashley Allen said that the next closest district school, Three Creeks K-8, is about a 19-minute drive away in good weather.

Allen’s son has diabetes and she often has been called to come to school because her son’s blood sugar drops or his insulin pump is failing.

In those worst-case scenarios, the drive “can make for a very nervous parent,” she said.

Tim Matlick, executive director of Jefferson Academy, said the charter school had been counting on having at least 87 students, and an additional 20 for its homeschool program. When submitting the charter application, Jefferson Academy had received 95 interest forms for potential students.

So far, the school has just 60 enrollments, and seven homeschool students signed up.

Parents from the canyon went to the charter school’s board meeting last week and asked for more time to raise the money themselves.

The charter school board gave them just until its next meeting, March 12, to help raise the $550,000. Without the funds, the charter board will decide whether to scrap the plans to open.

The charter leaders are also trying to raise money. Matlick said they now have preliminary approval for a startup grant from the state department of education for about $107,000. They’re also looking at a possible grant of about $75,000 from the Denver-based Daniels Fund.

When the charter was approved by the Jeffco school board, one condition was that the Jefferson Academy network set aside $250,000 to help support the new charter in the canyon.

Matlick said there is discussion about whether that money should be used to close the $550,000 funding gap or if it should be held in reserves for other potential problems once the charter opens.

Matlick said the district has been generous. The agreement to lease the building would only cost the charter $196,000 per year, to cover district-provided maintenance including custodial staff, snow removal, and trash pickups.

All the furniture and technology in the building would be donated to the charter.

But, he said, the community’s help is going to be critical.

“We’ve got a big group working to make this happen,” said Allen, whose son is a second grader at Coal Creek Canyon K-8. She started the GoFundMe page, and set it up so that money will be refunded to donors if the school doesn’t open.

As of Monday afternoon, the GoFundMe page had just over $5,000. “Our 4 children all went to this school. It is a vital part of the Coal Creek community. Please keep this school available to the community for their children,” one donor wrote.

If grants and donations can help in the first year or two, Allen said, parents and charter leaders believe that young children in the canyon community will help enrollment grow in future years to make the school sustainable.

Allen said parents are working on proposals to ask the local Coal Creek Canyon businesses including a coffee shop, the local garage, and some restaurants to pitch in. They also plan to ask bigger businesses like Denver Water, which has trucks passing through the canyon regularly.

Still, she is worried. Three Creeks is such a large school that it would be a big change for her son. If there is no school in the canyon, Allen said, she and her husband are considering moving.

“I will say the stress feels like it’s been nonstop for two years,” Allen said.

In a letter Jefferson Academy sent to families, charter leaders said that if they do not open the school, Jeffco district leaders will meet with families the day after the charter’s board meeting to speak “about their plans for next year and what one-year programming options could be possible.”

Before getting a charter school approved to open, the district had contingency plans to keep the elementary portion of the school open for one additional year. Middle school students would have either gone to Three Creeks, or chosen remote learning facilitated within the Coal Creek building.

Jeffco district leaders declined to speak about alternative plans. Lisa Relou, chief of staff for the district, said “we are doing everything we can to support” the charter in opening.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

‘Growing our readers’: How the Sheridan district has revived its once-closed high school library

2024-02-16T20:05:03+00:00

For years, the Sheridan district’s high school library was just empty space — a few shelves, no books, no staff.

Now, the library is thriving. Students hang out there during lunch or other free periods. They read, play games, and can even take a literature class.

The space has transformed from bare to buzzing.

“We just had old tables and chairs,” said Jenn Alevy, the digital teacher librarian. “Throughout the five years, our space has changed so much.”

Among the changes: new furniture, including a puzzle table hand-built by a student in the school’s former woodshop class.

While some schools are having to cut librarians or letting libraries languish as school budgets are strained and others are grappling with book bans, the Sheridan library continues to grow because of voter-approved funds passed in 2018.

Trenity Briscoe, 16, works on her book project during a class in the library at Sheridan High School.

Pat Sandos, the outgoing superintendent, had just been hired in 2018 when he decided to put the promise of school librarians into the proposed mill levy tax request. Before the tax measure, the district used about $40,000 from reserves to get the space ready.

“I just couldn’t believe we didn’t have a library at the high school,” Sandos said. “It’s the hub of the school. So much goes on there.”

When Sandos talked to people in the community, many didn’t know the 300-student high school had been left without a library after the county library pulled out of the school into its own building.

Having the county library in the district was complicated, leaders said, because it was difficult to control who was in the school building just for the public library. And, Sandos said, having the library nearby was not the same as having an in-house teacher librarian who could collaborate with teachers and build relationships with students.

That’s what Alevy has done.

“There’s so much opportunity, it’s critical,” Sandos said.

Leticia Salazar, a senior at Sheridan High School, said Alevy has helped her through many rough times, including a recent death in her family. Last semester, she was a library assistant. Now, she just hangs out at the library because she finds it a safe and peaceful place.

“She’s awesome,” Salazar said, of Alevy. “And she got me into reading.”

When Alevy was hired in 2019 after voters approved the tax request, she started reviving the library by ordering books and working on a three-year plan to create more integration between technology and learning.

Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, schools went to remote learning, the library shut down – and Alevy’s plan to incorporate more digital learning became a plan she had to integrate right away.

She was the go-to for teachers on any technology questions, and helped many navigate remote learning software.

Now that schools have gone back to in-person learning, she still tries to collaborate with teachers, recommending books for various lessons they plan and suggesting ways to incorporate reading or digital learning when appropriate.

Students hang out at the Sheridan High School library during lunch or other free periods, including to play games.

Maegan Daigler, the district’s executive director of assessment & technology, said the mill levy funds pay for the salaries of librarians at the district schools and funds each year are also used to help grow the library’s collection.

The goal is to grow the book collection about 10% each year as funds allow, she said.

“It’s a priority,” Daigler said.

During the time the library was closed due to remote learning, Alevy ordered digital books for students to check out, but has since found that students prefer physical copies of books to read.

The library now has more than 4,500 books, including a few hundred Spanish books, many Stephen King novels, the popular Colleen Hoover titles, and lots of manga.

For many of the Spanish books, Alevy likes to get the English and Spanish versions so students can read them side-by-side if they like. She also gets some audiobooks that can be a helpful addition when students are trying to learn English.

From left to right Students Aidan Cordova, 17, Rock Himebaugh, 17, and Isaac Rosales, 16, play the card game UNO in the library during their lunch break at Sheridan High School.

The students in newcomer classes check out lots of books, she said. About a third of the school’s 300 students are English learners.

“Students will challenge themselves when they’re picking up a book,” Alevy said. “If it gets them to read, I will buy them.”

This year Alevy started offering a new elective class, Introduction to Literature, where students read, write about what they read, and then will promote the books they read in the library.

“We’re growing our readers,” Alevy said. “It’s slowly working.”

Each of the 10 students in the class picked a theme and planned out which books they would read this semester to fit that theme.

One of the school’s most avid readers, Kaitlyn Miller, a 15-year-old sophomore, has already read six books for the class this semester. She’s focusing her project on two themes: mystical creatures, and how people feel when they lose someone they love.

As Miller described her project, she noted: “I probably need to get some more books.”

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the last names of Leticia Salazar and Rock Himebaugh, and to reflect that the Sheridan library has more than 4,500 books in its collection now.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

A ‘sick-out’ over teacher pay leads Adams City High School to switch to remote learning

2024-02-14T17:38:02+00:00

This story has been updated with additional comments from Adams 14 officials.

Adams 14 will move students at Adams City High School to remote learning Wednesday after learning many teachers were planning a sick-out, the district announced Tuesday

The action was not organized or sanctioned by the teacher’s union in the district, but by a group of teachers in the high school who are frustrated by a lack of prospects for teacher raises.

A letter circulated by staff that is signed by “Adams 14 District CTA Membership” — implying it is from members of the teacher’s union but not union leadership — states the concern is about how pay is affecting teacher retention.

“Our intention is not to disrupt education, but to voice our concerns regarding teacher retention, fair compensation, benefits, time management, and the overall need for a positive change by leadership,” the letter states. “The constant turnover in staff has hindered our mission to elevate our district from its current status. We acknowledge the financial challenges faced by the district, but we cannot overlook the disproportionate impact on teachers and staff compared to the recent raises and contract improvements that have been enjoyed by district leadership.”

In the current school year, a starting teacher’s salary is $50,500.

Many teachers believe that Superintendent Karla Loría and other district leaders have had recent raises, but there are no public documents demonstrating a school board vote for a raise for the superintendent or other district leaders.

On Wednesday morning, Joe Salazar, an attorney for the district, said he did not know how many Adams City High teachers had called in sick. Asked if teachers would be disciplined, Salazar wrote in an email, “Why would they be disciplined? They have the right to call in sick.”

As for Loría’s salary, Salazar said only that her “base salary” is $250,000. That has been her base salary since 2022, when the board gave her a raise to acknowledge that the district was no longer under third-party management.

Loría’s contract with the district states that she is to receive annual raises that amount to year-over-year change in the local consumer price index. It’s unclear if that has happened.

The Adams 14 school district has had low state ratings based largely on student test scores for more than 10 years, but was released from state orders to reorganize after leaders for the district and neighboring districts said it was not in anyone’s interest to reorganize.

The district has had declining enrollment like many metro area school districts. Some leaders still blame the years the district was ordered to be under management by private company MGT Consulting as the reason for continued budget problems.

Jason Malmberg, the president of the teachers union in Adams 14, said he believes the frustrations stem from the state intervention in the district.

“It’s related to the stress the state has put us under,” he said.

Malmberg said the frustrations facing teachers at Adams City High School are reflective of problems teachers face in high-poverty districts across the nation as it becomes more difficult to stretch budgets to serve children’s needs, and as gaps widen between districts that can raise local funds and districts that can’t.

School districts in Adams County have not had much success when it comes to asking local voters to raise taxes for schools. Adams 14 leaders have long hoped that the community would vote to approve a bond or mill levy request if the district showed improvement.

After MGT, Loría wanted to work with another third-party management firm, TNTP, that also cost the district millions. The contract with TNTP originally called for Adams 14 to pay $5 million over three years. The district last year tried to cut ties with the group early, citing budget concerns and other reasons. The state offered to give the district more money to help cover the contract, but the district eventually signed a new, reduced contract that cost only $395,587 for the second year of work.

Citing budget problems, the district also closed an elementary school and has said it is considering more closures in the future.

Some teachers, however, are concerned about whether the district leadership team has grown too large, including with many of Loría’s former colleagues, and wonder if new contracts have also taken up much of the budget.

In a letter obtained by Chalkbeat that is signed by the superintendent and addressed to a leader of the union at the high school, Loría stated that “the district will take action on all absences related to the planned sick-out.”

Loría also stated in the letter that she agrees that teachers need better pay and that the board is exploring a local tax request to increase revenue to be able to pay teachers more. But she accused the teacher leader of being abusive and violating policies.

“Your conduct and comments with me and certain cabinet members were unprofessional and disrespectful to the point of being abusive,” Loría wrote. “Your conduct was aggressive and defamatory (several times you claimed that the district was lying about the budget and “hiding” money), and you directed personal attacks against me while mansplaining matters of which you are wholly unfamiliar, while pointing your finger at me several times.”

In a reply also obtained by Chalkbeat, the teacher leader responded to Loría’s letter rejecting the accusations. The teacher leader, who did not respond to an interview request, said Loría’s letter had a “perceived retaliatory tone,” and that he plans to seek legal counsel.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Long-time charter educator to become new leader of DSST schools

2024-02-10T00:26:37+00:00

Nella García Urban, a Texas charter school educator, was named Friday as the next CEO of DSST Public Schools.

She said Friday she is driven to lead and was excited when she got to visit DSST schools and learn about the network’s mission.

“I’m very much called to the space,” García Urban said. “Every experience I’ve had thus far has left a real mark on me.”

Nella García Urban was named the next leader of DSST Public Schools.

DSST’s current CEO, Bill Kurtz, who had been with the network for 20 years starting as a founding principal of the Denver School of Science and Technology, announced in the fall that he would be stepping down at the end of this school year.

In a news release, the organization said it had been searching for a new leader that showed “alignment with the DSST mission and core values and had a proven track record of leading high-performing schools.”

García Urban was most recently a chief external officer for YES Prep Public Schools in Houston.

Kurtz will help García Urban as she starts in March. He said in a statement that he is “excited about the future of the organization and the leadership and perspective García Urban will bring.

“She is an incredibly talented leader, and I believe will lead DSST to a very bright future serving students and families in Denver and Aurora.”

DSST serves over 7,000 students at 16 schools across eight campuses in Denver and Aurora. The schools have a science focus and aim to get all students into four-year colleges.

While enrollment in Denver schools, including many charters, and other nearby districts, has been dropping, the DSST network has continued to have steady enrollment.

Part of the work García Urban has been responsible for in her past roles with YES Prep, has been growing enrollment. She said that work was about primarily working with families to understand their options and the dreams they have for their kids.

“One family at a time,” she said was her common reminder to her team.

For now, she says she’s eager to learn and get to know the schools, students, and families.”That is bringing me so much joy, thinking about meeting the community,” she said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Cómo inscribir a tus hijos en las escuelas de Colorado: una guía básica para los padres

2024-02-02T20:42:16+00:00

Read in English.

A medida que los inmigrantes siguen llegando a Colorado, muchas escuelas están viendo un número récord de estudiantes inscritos a mitad del año escolar.

Los coordinadores de inscripción están tratando de comunicarse con las familias a fin de ofrecerles ayuda para inscribir a los estudiantes, pero según aumenta el número de migrantes y albergues, su habilidad para conectarse rápidamente con todos está siendo cada vez más lenta.

Mientras tanto, tú o alguien que conoces quizás tenga preguntas sobre el proceso para inscribir a un niño en una escuela pública de Colorado. Esto es lo que necesitas saber.

¿Por dónde empiezo para inscribir a mi hijo en la escuela?

Lo primero que hay que saber es que las escuelas públicas tienen la obligación de inscribir y educar a los estudiantes, no importa su estatus migratorio, ingresos ni situación de vivienda. Las escuelas públicas son gratuitas en Colorado para los niños de 5 a 18 años y, en algunos casos hasta los 21 años.

El primer paso es identificar en distrito escolar estás y y cuáles son las escuelas más cercanas a ti. Si sabes en qué distrito te encuentras, a menudo puedes ir al sitio web de ese distrito escolar para encontrar las escuelas más cercanas y ver sus programas de estudio.

Si no sabes cómo empezar el proceso, una opción es ir en persona a la escuela más cercana. Muchas escuelas tienen personal bilingüe en sus oficinas, y si no lo tienen, puedes pedir un intérprete. Puedes preguntar el nombre del distrito en el que te encuentras y decirles que necesitas ayuda para inscribir a tus hijos.

“El idioma nunca debe ser un punto de intimidación”, dijo Frida Rodríguez, defensora de estudiantes y familias en Adams 12, un distrito al norte de Denver que cubre gran parte de Thornton.

Muchos distritos escolares, incluidos Denver y Aurora, pedirán que los padres creen una cuenta en línea y llenen formularios a través de su sitio web. Los sitios web están disponibles en español, y los distritos pueden ayudarte a llenar los formularios si lo necesitas. Después de enviar los formularios, podría tomar varios días para recibir respuesta sobre qué hacer a continuación.

¿Cuándo debo inscribir a mi hijo(a)?

Los educadores sugieren que inscribas a tus hijos en la escuela lo antes posible.

Si el semestre está a punto de terminar, existe la posibilidad de que tu hijo(a) tenga que esperar para empezar hasta el siguiente semestre, pero no se le negará la inscripción y es posible que, mientras tanto, te puedas conectar con otros recursos a través de las escuelas.

Para inscripción en el Kinder, los niños deberán haber cumplido 5 años para cierta fecha. Los diferentes distritos tienen fechas distintas, pero usualmente es cerca del 1 de octubre del año escolar en que se están inscribiendo. Algunos niños esperan hasta los 6 años para empezar el Kinder.

Colorado también empezó un programa de preescolar gratuito para niños de cuatro años, pero la inscripción requiere un proceso diferente. Algunas escuelas públicas ofrecen educación preescolar, pero no todas.

¿Qué documentos tengo que presentar?

Hay requisitos para inscribir en las escuelas, pero los líderes de inscripción de los distritos dicen que es importante que los padres sepan que ellos colaborarán con los padres si éstos creen que no tienen todos los documentos necesarios.

“Estamos comprometidos a encontrar maneras paa que funcione”, declaró Laurie Premer, directora de servicios de inscripción en Denver.

Las escuelas pueden pedir un certificado de nacimiento u otro documento oficial, como un pasaporte, que muestre la fecha de nacimiento del niño. Es posible que te pidan un documento que muestre la dirección donde estás viviendo. Si te estás quedando con amistades o familiares, puede servir una carta del dueño de la casa en la que diga que tú y tus hijos viven con ellos.

La ley de Colorado también establece algunos requisitos de vacunación para que los niños puedan inscribirse en la escuela, por lo que es posible que te pidan evidencia de esas vacunas. Si no tienes evidencia, o decidiste que no quieres vacunar a tu hijo(a), es posible que tengas que llenar formularios de exclusión voluntaria o volver a vacunar a tu hijo(a). Las escuelas a menudo tienen clínicas y pueden indicarte dónde conseguir las vacunas que te falten gratis o a bajo costo.

Si estás viviendo en un refugio en el momento de la inscripción, los distritos tienen políticas diferentes y podrán inscribir a tus hijos con menos documentos requeridos.

¿Cuánto toma inscribir a un niño en una escuela pública?

Típicamente la inscripción toma un par de días. Pero en distritos como Denver, donde el número de estudiantes nuevos aumenta cada semana, los líderes de inscripción dicen que las familias deben estar preparadas para esperar más tiempo. Actualmente el distrito puede tardar una semana en decirte que ya puedes completar la inscripción y registrar a tus hijos.

Sary Portillo, gerente de participación de familias multilingües en las escuelas de Denver, es una de las especialistas que visitan los refugios de inmigrantes para ayudar a las familias a inscribir a sus hijos en las escuelas. Ella va una vez a la semana, pero ahora que hay más refugios, su equipo solamente puede visitar cada refugio una vez cada dos semanas.

Después de que llenes los formularios de inscripción, los administradores del distrito te dirán si hay espacio en la escuela que pediste o trabajarán contigo para ubicar a tus hijos en una escuela que tenga espacio. Si tu hijo(a) necesita apoyo en español, ellos tratarán de inscribirle en un escuela que cumpla esa necesidad.

¿Qué significa ‘school choice’?

Gracias a una ley de Colorado, tienes la libertad de elegir una escuela fuera de tu comunidad o distrito, y esto se conoce como school choice. Las escuelas usualmente les darán prioridad a los niños que viven cerca, pero si tienen espacio, aceptarán a familias de otros lugares que quieran asistir a esa escuela.

Aunque esto permite que las familias encuentren la escuela que mejor se adapte a sus hijos, debes tener en cuenta que si eliges la escuela de tu preferencia, tus hijos podrían no ser elegibles para viajar en el autobús escolar y por lo tanto tendrás que llevarlos a la escuela o hacer arreglos para su transporte. Algunas reglas de transporte son diferentes para los estudiantes que viven en refugios.

En algunas partes de Denver, todas las familias pueden elegir la escuela de su preferencia porque ninguna escuela tiene límites geográficos. Eso significa que los estudiantes no son asignados automáticamente a una escuela según su dirección residencial. En el extremo noreste de Denver, por ejemplo, todas las familias tienen que seleccionar una de las muchas escuelas del área.

¿Las escuelas públicas ayudarán a mi hijo a aprender inglés?

Hay requisitos federales sobre cómo las escuelas tienen que apoyar a los estudiantes y a las familias que no hablan inglés. Aunque no todas las escuelas están preparadas para hacerlo bien, el gobierno federal requiere que las escuelas ayuden a los estudiantes a aprender inglés y que los estudiantes puedan tener acceso a la enseñanza. Esto se manifiesta de diferentes maneras. En Denver, algunas escuelas están creadas específicamente para ofrecer este tipo de apoyo y tienen personal que enseña tanto en español como en inglés.

Siempre puedes preguntar cómo la escuela que prefieres apoyará a tu hijo.

¿Qué es un centro para recién llegados?

Muchos distritos tienen escuelas designadas como centros para recién llegados. Denver y algunos otros distritos han añadido centros nuevos para acoger al creciente número de estudiantes inmigrantes y refugiados. Estas escuelas ofrecen más apoyo a los recién llegados, es decir, a los estudiantes que llevan en el país menos de uno o dos años. En Denver, algunos estudiantes admitidos en los centros para recién llegados también habían dejado de ir a la escuela y tienen un nivel limitado de alfabetización en su idioma materno.

Las escuelas para recién llegados pueden tener más personal bilingüe, más apoyo acelerado para los estudiantes de secundaria que necesitan ponerse al día para cumplir con los requisitos de graduación de Colorado, y tienen trabajadores sociales que entienden otras necesidades que las familias recién llegadas pueden estar enfrentando. Los estudiantes también pueden sentirse más a gusto asistiendo a clase con otros estudiantes que también son nuevos en el país.

Puedes preguntar en tu distrito si tienes la opción de inscribir a tus hijos en una escuela para recién llegados.

Puedes usar este documento para imprimir esta guía. Primero haz click en el cuadro abajo. Luego, haz click donde diga “Original Document (PDF)” a mano derecha para abrir el documento. De allí aparecerá, también a la mano derecha, el símbolo para imprimir.

Yesenia Robles es una reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado, cubriendo distritos escolares de kindergarten a 12º grado y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia por correo electrónico a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Traducido por Milly Suazo-Martinez

Public school enrollment in Colorado: Here’s what you need to know

2024-02-02T20:42:30+00:00

Leer en español.

As migrants continue to arrive in Colorado, many schools are seeing a record number of students enrolling in the middle of the year.

School enrollment liaisons are trying to reach families to offer help enrolling students, but as the number of migrants and shelters grow, their ability to connect quickly with everyone is slowing down.

In the meantime, you or someone you know might have questions about the process of enrolling a child in a Colorado public school. Here’s what you need to know.

Where do I start to enroll my child in school?

The first thing to know is that public schools have an obligation to enroll and educate students regardless of their immigration status, income, or housing situation. Public schools are free in Colorado for children ages 5 through 18 and in some cases, through age 21.

The first step is to identify which school district you are in and which schools are nearest to you. If you know what district you’re in, you can often use that school district’s website to find the schools closest to you and to learn about their programs.

If you aren’t sure where to start, walking into your nearest school is an option. Many schools have bilingual staff in their offices, and if they don’t, you can ask for an interpreter. You can ask for the name of the district you’re in, and tell them you need help enrolling.

“Language should never be an intimidation point,” said Frida Rodriguez, a student and family advocate in Adams 12, a district north of Denver largely covering Thornton.

Many school districts, including Denver and Aurora, will ask parents to make an account online and fill out forms through their website. The websites are available in Spanish, and the districts can provide assistance if you need help walking through how to fill the forms out. After you submit the forms, it may take a few days to hear back on next steps.

When should I enroll my child?

Educators suggest you enroll your children in school as soon as possible.

If the semester is about to end, there’s a possibility your child will need to wait to start attending until the following semester, but you won’t be turned away from enrolling, and you may be able to connect to other resources through the schools in the meantime.

To enroll in kindergarten, children must be at least 5 years old by a certain date. Different districts have different dates, but it’s usually near Oct. 1 of the school year in which they’re enrolling. Some children wait to start kindergarten until age 6.

Colorado has also started free preschool for four-year-olds, but enrolling in preschool requires a different process. Some public schools offer preschool, but not all do.

What documents will I need to submit?

There are requirements for enrolling in schools, but district enrollment leaders say it’s important for parents to know that they will work with you if you don’t think you have all of the necessary paperwork.

“We are committed to finding ways to make it work,” said Laurie Premer, director of enrollment services in Denver.

Schools may ask for a birth certificate or other official document like a passport that shows a child’s date of birth. They may ask you for a document that shows your address and where you are living. If you are staying with friends or family, a letter from the homeowner stating that you and your children are living with them can work.

Colorado law also has some vaccine requirements for children to enroll in school, so you may be asked to provide proof of those vaccines. If you don’t have proof, or have decided you do not want to vaccinate your child, you may need to fill out opt-out forms or get your child re-vaccinated. Schools often have clinics and can point you to where to get any missing vaccines for free or at low cost.

If you are living in a shelter at the time you enroll, districts have different policies and will be able to enroll your children with fewer required documents.

How long will it take to enroll in public school?

Typically, enrollment can take just a couple of days. But in districts like Denver where the number of new students each week is growing, enrollment leaders say families should be prepared to wait longer. Currently, it may take a week to hear back from the district before you’ll be able to complete enrollment and registration.

Sary Portillo, manager of multilingual family engagement in Denver schools, is one of the specialists who visit migrant shelters to help families enroll children in schools. She goes out once a week, but now that there are more shelters, her team is only able to visit each shelter every two weeks.

Once you’ve filled out the enrollment forms, district administrators will let you know if there is space at the school you requested or will work with you to place your children at a school with space. If your child needs Spanish language support, they will try to enroll your child in a school that meets that need.

What is school choice?

Because of a Colorado law, you can choose schools outside of your neighborhood or district. Schools will usually give priority to the kids who live nearby, but if they have space, they will accept families from elsewhere who want to attend that school.

While this allows families to find a school with the programming that is the best fit for their children, you should know that using school choice could make your children ineligible to ride the school bus, so you would need to take them to school or arrange transportation. Some rules for transportation are different for students living in shelters.

In some parts of Denver, school choice is always part of the process, because no school has a neighborhood boundary. That means students are not automatically assigned to schools based on their address. In the far northeast, for example, all families must choose one of the many area schools.

Will public schools help my child learn English?

There are federal requirements for how schools must support students and families who don’t speak English. While not all schools are prepared to do this well, the federal government requires that schools help students learn English and that students will be able to access their learning. There are different variations of what this might look like. In Denver, some schools are set up specifically to provide this type of support and have staff that teach in both Spanish and English.

You can always ask how the school you want to enroll in will support your child.

What is a newcomer center?

Many districts have schools that are designated as newcomer centers. Denver and some other districts have added new centers to accommodate the growing number of immigrant and refugee students. These schools provide more support to newcomers — students who have been in the country less than a year or two. In Denver, some students admitted to newcomer centers have also had interrupted schooling and have limited literacy skills in their primary language.

The newcomer center schools may have more staff that are bilingual, more accelerated support for high school students who need to get caught up to meet Colorado graduation requirements, and have social workers who understand other needs newcomer families might be facing. Students may also feel more comfortable attending school with other students who are also new to the country.

You can ask your district if enrolling in a newcomer center is an option for your children.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Will Colorado lawmakers save a team that helps Spanish-speaking child care providers get licensed?

2024-01-25T22:13:26+00:00

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Leer en español.

Nehife Sanchez raised five kids as a stay-at-home mom and always helped her relatives and friends when they needed child care. Her youngest is 15, and the only child she takes care of regularly now is her granddaughter.

So when she was watching Univision with her husband one night in 2022 and saw an ad for a course to get certified in child care, she decided she was ready to take her love of caring for kids to the next level.

“Really, I always wanted to have something like this,” Sanchez said.

After taking the course, she was motivated to apply for a child care license. But Sanchez almost quit several times, not having realized all that it would require — background checks, visits to her local government office, inspections and changes to her home, buying the right materials, and taking more courses. She credits having Spanish-language help from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood with helping her persevere when, for example, she was shunted between county offices amid confusion about which one was responsible for her.

Lawmakers could soon provide more support to people like Sanchez. A bill introduced in the Colorado legislature this session is looking to keep and expand the department’s bilingual support team. The legislation’s sponsor, Democratic state Rep. Junie Joseph, said she hopes it is one small piece of a solution to the larger problem of the shortage of child care.

“We have a large population that could provide that service,” Joseph said. “But we have to make all of our community members feel supported.”

Joseph, who is bilingual herself, is sponsoring House Bill 1009 to make funding for the support permanent. If the bill is passed, the state would give the department an additional $235,000 per fiscal year to pay for the bilingual licensing unit.

Joseph says that the bill is important to her for many reasons, including as a way to increase the number of safe, quality, child care spots available across the state.

“We know this has been an underserved community,” said Carin Rosa, director of the licensing division for the department.

Sanchez said the Spanish-speaking team at the state department always answered her calls, responded to her emails, and helped her find solutions. She calls them her guardian angels.

Helping providers get licensed and avoid scams

In 2022, the early childhood department was able to hire a team of three bilingual staff members who help people through the licensing process to become licensed child care providers. The department used COVID relief money to do it. But that funding won’t be available after September.

Right now, the department says it is actively processing 25 applications for Spanish speakers, and is supporting another 69 who are already licensed but say they prefer their support in Spanish. They expect that number to grow as more people learn about their ability to access licensing.

Part of the reason for the expected increase is that in 2021, Colorado made it legal for people who can’t prove legal residency to pay for and earn certain work licenses including in childcare or education. Word has been slow to spread, and advocates say even local government employees are sometimes unaware of that new access.

Carla Colin, a program manager for the Latino Chamber of Commerce in Boulder, is supporting the bill because she believes it makes sense to help businesses.

“We don’t think language should be a barrier for a business,” Colin said. Supporting people in the language they understand “puts those in home businesses in a better position instead of working in the shadows.”

Joseph and Colin also see the bill’s purpose, and the early childhood department’s outreach to Spanish speakers, as an important part of discouraging scammers and those who overcharge and underdeliver.

Groups have popped up that claim to help Spanish speakers and those without legal status navigate the application process for professional or business licenses. But they often charge thousands of dollars, and sometimes may not actually deliver what they promise.

Colin said people sometimes call her to find out if they’re being lied to. But people often hesitate to report who the bad actors are.

Colin said she hears reports of people paying these groups more than $5,000 for a child care license.

“It’s an outrageous amount of money and especially for someone who might not be working yet,” she said.

Getting accurate information to people and support from the proper authorities is necessary, she said. She wishes the government would work more closely with teams like hers that work directly with the community.

At the early childhood department, much of the bilingual team’s first year after they were hired in 2022 was trying to get the word out. Rosa said the team has connected with some groups that work with the Latino community, translated documents, and created Spanish trainings. But the team is limited and hasn’t always been able to meet the requests for more training in the community.

Building trust and creating awareness takes time, state officials said.

If the bill is passed, one goal for the funding is to have the state’s website translated so people can find more information easily, and to do some other technology upgrades that would allow the team to carry their own caseload instead of just assisting other team members when they’re working with Spanish speakers.

Technology changes would also allow reports to be automatically generated in Spanish for Spanish-speaking providers, such as after an on-site inspection.

Rosa said the department knows Spanish speakers who apply for licenses often have had to use a child or friend who spoke English to interpret for them at on-site inspections or other meetings.

“That never felt right to us,” Rosa said.

“We really want children to have caregivers that reflect their communities, their families,” Rosa added.

Nehife Sanchez got Spanish-language help from the Colorado Department of Early Childhood in her quest to become a licensed child care provider.

And if things go well, the department leaders would like to eventually add support for languages other than Spanish. For now, they’re starting by collecting data on what the preferred language is for each applicant and existing provider.

Because she primarily speaks Spanish, Sanchez was first relying on her husband, who is bilingual, to make calls for her when he was home from work, before they learned about the bilingual licensing team.

After an eight-month process that Sanchez said she was only able to complete with the bilingual team’s hand-holding — and her own persistence — , Sanchez became a licensed home care provider in August.

She’s now in the process of getting the word out and trying to recruit families. She’s hoping to have more than 10 children in her care in the next year, which might eventually allow her husband to quit his day job so they can work together at home. He’s taken the same courses as her, and they plan to keep learning together about how to help children learn.

It’s the dream, she said.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

¿Sabías que puedes obtener ayuda en español para solicitar tu licencia de cuidados infantiles? El estado busca ampliar el apoyo.

2024-02-01T19:30:53+00:00

Read in English.

Nehife Sanchez crio cinco hijos como mamá dedicada al hogar y siempre ayudó a sus parientes y amigos cuando necesitaban cuidados infantiles. Ahora que su hijo menor tiene 15 años, la única niña que cuida con regularidad es su nieta.

Así que cuando estaba viendo Univision con su esposo una noche en 2022 y apareció un anuncio para un curso de certificación en cuidados infantiles, Sanchez decidió que estaba lista para llevar su cariño por los niños al siguiente nivel.

“Siempre en realidad quería tener algo así”, Sanchez dijo.

Después de tomar el curso, se sintió motivada a solicitar una licencia de cuidados infantiles. Pero Sanchez casi renunció varias veces porque no se había dado cuenta de todo lo que tendría que hacer: verificaciones de antecedentes, visitas a la oficina del gobierno local, inspecciones y cambios en su hogar, comprar los materiales correctos y tomar más cursos. Atribuye su habilidad de perseverar a tener ayuda en español del Departamento de Colorado para la Primera Infancia. Un ejemplo de esto fue cuando oficinas del condado la rechazaron debido a confusiones sobre quién tenía la responsabilidad de su caso.

Los legisladores pronto podrían dar más apoyo a personas como Sanchez. Una propuesta legislativa presentada ante la legislatura de Colorado esta sesión busca mantener y ampliar el equipo de apoyo bilingüe en el departamento. Junie Joseph, una representante estatal demócrata y patrocinadora de la propuesta legislativa, dijo que espera que sea un pequeña parte de la solución de un problema mayor por la falta de cuidados infantiles.

“Contamos con una amplia población que podría proveer de ese servicio”, Joseph dijo. “Pero tenemos que hacer que todos los integrantes de nuestra comunidad se sientan apoyados”.

Joseph, quien es bilingüe, está patrocinando la Propuesta legislativa 1009 en la Cámara de Representantes para que los fondos de apoyo sean permanentes. Si la propuesta se aprueba, el estado le daría al departamento $235,000 adicionales por año fiscal para pagar por la unidad bilingüe de licencias.

Joseph dice que la propuesta legislativa es importante para ella por muchas razones, incluyendo como una forma de aumentar la cantidad de espacios para cuidados infantiles seguros y de calidad disponibles alrededor del estado.

“Sabemos que esta comunidad no ha recibido suficientes servicios”, dijo Carin Rosa, directora de la división de licencias en el departamento.

Sanchez dijo que el equipo hispanohablante en el departamento del estado contestó sus llamadas, respondió sus mensajes electrónicos y la ayudó a encontrar soluciones. Dice que los integrantes del equipo son sus ángeles de la guarda.

Ayudando a los proveedores para que obtengan su licencia y eviten las estafas

En 2022, el departamento de la primera infancia logró contratar a un equipo de tres empleados bilingües que ayudan a las personas con el proceso para obtener su licencia como proveedores de cuidados infantiles. El departamento usó fondos de asistencia por COVID para hacerlo. Pero los fondos no estarán disponibles después de septiembre.

En este momento, el departamento dice que está procesando activamente 25 solicitudes de personas hispanohablantes, y que está apoyando a 69 más que ya cuentan con su licencia pero que prefieren recibir apoyo en español. Esperan que esa cantidad aumente conforme las personas se vayan enterando de su habilidad de obtener una licencia.

Parte de la razón por la cual se espera que esta cantidad aumente es porque en 2021 Colorado legalizó que las personas que no podían comprobar su residencia legal pagaran y obtuvieran ciertas licencias laborales, incluyendo para cuidados infantiles o enseñanza. La voz se ha corrido lentamente, y los defensores comunitarios dicen que hasta empleados de gobiernos locales a veces no saben que existe esta nueva oportunidad.

Carla Colin, una gerenta de programas para la Cámara de Comercio Latino en Boulder, está apoyando la propuestas legislativa porque cree que tiene sentido ayudar a los negocios.

“No creemos que el idioma deba presentar un obstáculo para un negocio”, Colin dijo. Apoyar a la gente en el idioma que entienden “pone a aquellos en negocios en sus hogares en una mejor situación en lugar de trabajar a escondidas”.

Joseph y Colin también consideran el objetivo de la propuestas legislativa, y los esfuerzos de alcance del departamento de la primaria infancia entre personas hispanohablantes, como una parte importante de desanimar a estafadores y quienes les cobran de más y ayudan menos.

Han surgido grupos que afirman ayudar a las personas hispanohablantes y aquellas sin un estatus legal para guiarlas por el proceso de solicitar una licencia profesional o comercial. Pero con frecuencia cobran miles de dólares y a veces no dan los resultados que prometen.

Colin dijo que personas a veces la llaman para averiguar si les han mentido. Pero con frecuencia dudan de reportar a los estafadores.

Colin dijo que escucha de reportes de personas que pagaron más de $5,000 a estos grupos para obtener una licencia de cuidados infantiles.

“Es una cantidad excesiva de dinero y especialmente para alguien que quizás todavía no esté trabajando”, dijo.

Que las personas reciban información correcta y apoyo de las autoridades apropiadas es necesario, dijo. Le gustaría que el gobierno trabajara más de cerca con equipos como los de ella que trabajan directamente con la comunidad.

Nehife Sanchez recibió ayuda en español del Departamento de Primera Infancia de Colorado.

En el departamento de la primera infancia, gran parte del primer año después de contratar al equipo bilingüe en 2022 se invirtió en informar a la comunidad. Rosa dijo que el equipo ha conectado con algunos grupos que trabajan con la comunidad latina, traducido documentos y creado talleres de capacitación en español. Pero el equipo tiene limitaciones y no siempre ha podido responder a las solicitudes de ofrecer más capacitación en la comunidad.

Aumentar la confianza e informar a la comunidad lleva tiempo, los representantes del estado dijeron. Si la propuesta legislativa se aprueba, un objetivo de los fondos es que el sitio web del estado se traduzca para que la gente pueda encontrar información más fácilmente, y realizar algunas actualizaciones de la tecnología para que el equipo bilingüe se encargue de sus propios casos en lugar de solo ayudar a colegas que están trabajando con personas que hablan español.

Cambios en la tecnología también permitirían que se produzcan automáticamente informes en español para los proveedores, como por ejemplo después de una inspección de las instalaciones.

Rosa dijo que el departamento sabe que las personas hispanohablantes que solicitan una licencia con frecuencia tienen que usar a un hijo o amigo que habla inglés para que interprete durante inspecciones u otras reuniones.

“Nunca sentimos que eso fuera correcto”, Rosa dijo.

“Realmente queremos que los niños tengan proveedores de cuidados [infantiles] que sean un reflejo de su comunidad, sus familias”, Rosa agregó.

Y si las cosas van bien, líderes en el departamento quisieran agregar apoyo en idiomas más allá del español. Por ahora, están empezando a recolectar datos sobre el idioma preferido de cada solicitante y proveedor actual.

Porque habla español principalmente, Sanchez solía depender de su esposo, quien es bilingüe, para hacer llamadas cuando él no estaba trabajando, antes de enterarse de que existía un equipo bilingüe para procesar la licencia.

Después de un proceso de ocho meses que Sanchez dijo solo pudo completar con la ayuda directa del equipo bilingüe—y su propia persistencia—Sanchez se convirtió en una proveedora autorizada de cuidados infantiles en su hogar en agosto.

Ahora está en proceso de correr la voz y tratar de reclutar a familias. Espera tener a más de 10 niños bajo su cuidado el próximo año, lo cual quizás permita que su esposo deje su trabajo durante el día para trabajar juntos en el hogar. Él ya tomó los mismo cursos que ella, y planean seguir aprendiendo juntos sobre cómo ayudar a los niños a aprender.

Es el sueño, Sanchez dijo.

Traducido por Alejandra X. Castañeda

Fewer students are enrolled in Colorado schools again this year

2024-01-17T17:00:00+00:00

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The number of students in Colorado schools continues to drop and is now lower than it was after the large decrease in enrollment at the start of the pandemic.

In October 2023, 881,464 students were enrolled in public schools, down 1,800, or 0.2%, from October 2022, according to official enrollment counts released by the Colorado Department of Education Wednesday.

Before the pandemic, enrollment numbers in Colorado had been increasing every year since the 1980s. But in fall of 2020, after months of mostly remote learning, enrollment sank by about 30,000 students from the previous year. In fall of 2021, enrollment went up slightly, but has been falling again since.

State Demographer Elizabeth Garner told the State Board of Education last week that the decline in enrollment is due partly to decreasing birth rates, but also to a slowdown in migration and mobility.

“We are forecasting that total school-age population to decline basically through 2028-2029, then start to increase, but not get back to levels that we saw in 2019 until about 2035,” Garner said.

She said the trend is statewide.

“Forty-three of the 64 counties had an absolute decline in the under-18 population over the last decade,” Garner said. “It doesn’t matter where you were — Eastern Plains, San Luis Valley, West Slope, Denver metro.”

In a statement, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova noted concern about the drop in enrollment among the youngest students.

“We know that pre-kindergarten and kindergarten are where students build critical foundations for life-long academic success including language development, early literacy, and social skills,” she said.

Still, she said, “we are encouraged by the state’s commitment to early learning through the Colorado Universal Preschool Program.”

The universal preschool program provides free preschool to all Colorado 4-year-olds and some 3-year-olds. This year, about 50,000 students are enrolled in various types of public and private preschools across the state. Public school districts’ pre-K programs have 32,060 students, slightly fewer than a year earlier.

First grade and kindergarten saw some of the largest decreases in enrollment this year. First grade enrollment declined by 3.91%, or 2,478 students, compared with the first grader group of 2022. Kindergarten had 1,068 fewer students, a 1.79% drop. Eighth grade and ninth grade also had large enrollment declines.

Only five grade levels saw an increase in students compared with last year. The largest increase was among second graders, up by 5%, or more than 3,000 students.

Other segments that grew included those who are home-schooled, and those who are enrolled in online programs.

Enrollment in charter schools decreased by 1.8% to 135,223.

The number of students identified as experiencing homelessness statewide went up by 1,570 compared with last year.

Last school year only one district in Colorado, Adams 12, had more than 1,000 students identified as needing services related to homelessness. This year, there were four such districts — Aurora, Adams 12, Jeffco, and Poudre.

By percentage, the tiny district of Sheridan continues to have the highest proportion of its students experiencing homelessness in the metro area, but the number has dropped over the years. This school year, 149 Sheridan students, or 14.1%, are experiencing homelessness, down from 205, or 18.2%, last year.

Broken down by race, white students had the largest decreases in enrollment, while Hispanic or Latino students had the largest increases. Schools counted 312,687 Hispanic or Latino students in October 2023, up from 308,739 the year before.

By percentage, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander students had the largest enrollment jump: 9.18% more than last year. These students make up a tiny proportion of all Colorado students.

Among the state’s largest districts, just a handful recorded more students than last year. They include Aurora Public Schools, which had a slight increase, and Denver Public Schools, which gained 371 students. Denver has attributed the increase to an influx of migrant students, many from Venezuela.

Among the metro-area districts, School District 27J in Brighton had the largest growth in enrollment. It gained more students than Denver, Aurora, or any of the large districts. Meanwhile, Sheridan, Westminster, and Adams 14 had the largest decreases in the metro area.

The state’s data reflect official student counts in October, and those are the counts typically used to determine funding levels.

But the state’s release acknowledged that several districts have seen a large number of students who are new to the country arriving throughout the school year.

“CDE is committed to working with districts and school teams to ensure they are supported in serving these multilingual learners,” the department’s statement notes.

Look up enrollment changes at your district in the table below:

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Charter school to replace tiny Jeffco K-8 slated for closure in remote Coal Creek Canyon

2024-01-11T00:59:07+00:00

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The Jeffco school board on Wednesday approved a new charter school to open in Coal Creek Canyon and replace a district-run school that will close at the end of this school year.

Jefferson Academy, a charter network that has long operated in the district, is proposing to replicate its model with a pre-K-8 school in the same building as the soon-to-be-closed Coal Creek Canyon K-8. The new school, Jefferson Academy Coal Creek Canyon, will open for the 2024-25 school year, and will be designed as significantly smaller than its existing schools.

The board voted unanimously and with little discussion to approve Superintendent Tracy Dorland’s recommendation. The decision means that families in Coal Creek Canyon, a small community near the Boulder school district boundary, will continue to have a nearby public school for their young children.

In October, the Jeffco school board voted to close Coal Creek Canyon K-8 as part of the second phase of the district’s plan to close small schools. With fewer than 100 students the district said the school was not sustainable. But given that the school is in a remote part of the district, officials proposed opening a charter in the building so families wouldn’t have to travel far to a new school.

The district also noted that it may be more feasible for a charter school to operate in that location with relatively few students.

Initially, the district received three letters of intent from charter schools interested in the Coal Creek Canyon K-8 facilities, but it ultimately received only one application from Jefferson Academy.

Staff presenting Dorland’s recommendation to the board Wednesday said the district had been impressed that the charter network had submitted 95 intent-to-enroll forms for its proposed school. That would mark an enrollment increase from the district-run school’s current student count.

The superintendent did include two conditions for the charter to open.

First, the district is asking the charter network to set aside $250,000 for use at the Coal Creek Canyon site, in case enrollment projections or the proposed finance plan don’t pan out.

The district is also asking Jefferson Academy to present a detailed plan by April 5 on how it would provide targeted support to students who are struggling academically.

In addition to the district’s typical review teams for the charter application, the district also had a committee of community members from Coal Creek Canyon review the application and present their thoughts.

In a memo, the committee cited several strengths of the proposed school, such as the options that will be available for before- and after-school care, unique course offerings, and the opportunity to have one local Coal Creek parent serve as a member of the charter network’s school board.

Among its concerns, the group cited a lack of transportation; it asked the school to at least help coordinate carpooling. The committee also asked for increased marketing to help families better understand the school’s proposed Core Knowledge curriculum model.

At the opportunity for public comment in December, only one parent spoke to the school board about the charter application, saying she was impressed with the proposed school plan, which had made her “enthusiastic” about her son’s learning again.

Dorland told the school board she would keep them updated on enrollment projections for the charter school and how it progresses.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Aurora teachers’ starting pay could be at least $59,000 next school year

2024-01-10T22:33:12+00:00

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After a rocky year of negotiations, the Aurora school district reached an agreement with the teachers union to increase salaries for the current school year, and to guarantee next year’s starting pay will be no less than $59,000.

The new agreement, which may establish one of the highest starting salaries among districts in the metro area, was ratified by the teachers union at the beginning of this month. The district’s school board is expected to approve it at a meeting Tuesday night.

Prior to this agreement, the district’s starting salary stood at $46,894.

Aurora’s union and district had failed to reach an agreement on pay raises for the current school year last spring, went into arbitration over the summer, and eventually had to use a third-party fact finder to settle their disputes. The fact finder’s report, signed Nov. 28, found more evidence to side with the district’s position that it could not afford to pay for salaries in the way the union had proposed.

The dispute was about who got raises, and how much those raises would be. The district wanted to allocate the largest pay bump to starting teachers as a way to help recruit new staff and to be more competitive with other districts.

But union leaders argued it would be unfair to pit new teachers against veteran educators, and to not reward veteran educators who had been in the district during some difficult years. The union had proposed an equal raise for all teachers, regardless of how long they had been employed.

The agreement more closely resembles the district’s proposal than the union’s. It allocates a larger raise to first year teachers, and smaller increases for teachers with more years of experience. But the difference between pay bumps has narrowed.

In addition to the raises that will become immediate and retroactive to the beginning of the current school year, the union and district also signed a memorandum of understanding that lays out a plan for next year’s salaries.

The pair will create a “joint salary schedule committee” to restructure the way teachers earn higher pay with more years of experience or education. As part of that plan, the agreement states that the starting salary for first year teachers will be “no less than $59,000” in 2024-25. Also, all teachers will get an increase of at least $3,000 from their 2023-2024 salary to their 2024-2025 salary.

Typically, districts and teachers unions negotiate salaries for the coming school year each spring, so most districts don’t yet know what their exact starting salaries will be this next fall.

But when comparing the minimum $59,000 starting salary that Aurora will start with to current starting salaries in other metro-area districts, Aurora’s would be among the highest.

With the pay hike that will kick in immediately if the plan is approved by the school board Tuesday, the starting salary for this current year will go up by $4,500 to more than $51,000.

Denver’s current starting salary is $54,141, and Cherry Creek’s is $58,710. Adams 12 also raised starting pay to $58,000 this year. Currently, one of the highest starting salaries is in Westminster, where new teachers start at $60,935.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

For Colorado’s class of 2023, the graduation rate was up and the dropout rate was down

2024-01-09T18:00:00+00:00

Colorado’s graduation rate ticked slightly up for the class of 2023, continuing a long-running trend of rising graduation rates except for a brief dip during the pandemic.

The dropout rate for the class of 2023 was slightly down, which was more good news. But the 2023 dropout rate, which counts how many seventh through 12th grade students disenroll from schools, was still higher than the historic lows the state saw just a few years earlier.

The Colorado Department of Education released graduation and dropout rates for the 2022-23 school year on Tuesday. Statewide, 83.1% of the class of 2023 graduated on time last spring, meaning within four years of starting high school. That was up from 82.3% in 2022.

In a statement, Colorado Education Commissioner Susana Córdova called the 0.8% graduation rate increase “modest.” She credited the hard work of educators, families, and students and nodded to the educational difficulties of the pandemic.

“Given the challenges that our students and educators have faced over the last four years, I am glad that in Colorado we continue to see an improved graduation rate and a decreasing dropout rate,” Córdova said. “It shows students know the value of staying in school and receiving a quality education.”

The statewide dropout rate dipped to 2.1% in 2022-23, down from 2.2% in 2012-22. That’s higher than the 1.8% dropout rate in 2019-20 or the 2% rate in 2018-19, before the pandemic.

Black, Hispanic, and white students all posted higher graduation rates in 2023 than in 2022. But wide gaps by race remain: In 2023, about 90% of white students in Colorado, 80% of Black students, and 77% of Hispanic students graduated in four years.

The class of 2023 were freshman in their second semester of high school when the pandemic began in 2020 and schools were closed. Experts have said that the worst impact on graduation rates may be years ahead, as students who were in elementary school during the pandemic, or switching from elementary into middle school, or middle school into high school, make their way through high school. That’s unless schools are successful in helping students get back on track.

This coming spring, the graduating class will be made up mostly of students who missed out on a typical start to their high school years due to remote learning.

Among the 10 largest Colorado school districts with the highest percentages of students of color, just three districts — Mapleton, Aurora, and Adams 14 — saw a decrease in graduation rates compared to the previous year. Both Aurora Public Schools and Adams 14, in Commerce City, are on a state watchlist for persistently low student achievement.

The largest increases among these 10 districts were in East Otero, Pueblo 60, Weld Re-8 in Fort Lupton, and Denver. East Otero had the highest increase of 6.6 percentage points, rocketing from an 85% graduation rate in 2022 to a rate of 91.6% in 2023.

Rick Lovato, the superintendent for East Otero in southeast Colorado, said he attributes the jump in graduation rates to the district’s alternative education school, which is in its third year.

The school has worked with around 30 students that may not have graduated otherwise, and that “has made a big difference,” he said. East Otero offered some online programs before opening its own campus with in-person courses and workforce readiness programs that help students connect their learning to the workforce.

Denver Public Schools’ graduation rate rose from 76.5% in 2022 to 79% in 2023, the highest rate for the state’s largest district in at least a decade. Its dropout rate remained the same at 3.8%, which meant that about 1,680 students left Denver schools in 2022-23.

Although the graduation rates for white students and Hispanic students in Denver both rose, the gap between the rates widened to more than 13 percentage points in 2023, worsening a problem that has plagued the district and the state for many years. More than half of the students in DPS are Latino, and about a quarter are white.

In Boulder, where gaps by race have also historically been among the largest in the state, the graduation rate for Hispanic students decreased to 81% in 2023 from 81.8% in 2022. By comparison, 94.3% of Boulder’s white students graduated in 2023, which is more than 13 percentage points in difference, a larger gap than in the previous year.

The graduation rate for Latino students at Adams 14′s main high school, which has often been higher than the state rate for Latino students, decreased significantly in 2023 compared to the previous year. Adams City High’s graduation rate for Hispanic students was 84.8%, down from 86.8% in 2022.

Look up your school or district’s four-year graduation rates below:

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Yesenia Robles is a reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado covering K-12 school districts and multilingual education. Contact Yesenia at yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Menos aprendizaje y dirección tardía: En medio de una pandemia, distritos se esfuerzan para educar a estudiantes aprendiendo inglés

2020-05-22T23:06:28+00:00

Hace unos meses, estudiantes hispanohablantes en el distrito escolar de Adams 14 en las afueras de Denver pasaban 53 minutes cada día en una clase de inglés.

Esas clases pararon cuando las escuelas se cerraron y empezaron a dar clases virtuales. Estudiantes de secundaria que están aprendiendo inglés en Adams 14, un distrito cuyos estudiantes son mayormente hispanos y de bajos recursos, en su lugar recibieron tareas de idioma dos veces a la semana.

En las escuelas primarias, niños recibieron 30 minutos diarios de instrucción virtual en literatura y matemáticas. Aunque maestros deben incorporar lecciones lingüísticas, estudiantes perdieron 55 minutos de instrucción en inglés que reciben cada día antes de la pandemia.

La transicion rapida al aprendizaje remoto causada por la crisis de COVID-19 ha dejado a los 5 millones de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés en los EEUU en una situación precaria. Muchos han perdido enseñanza lingüística a medida que distritos buscan un nuevo equilibrio y intentan conectarse con alumnos en sus casas.

Escuelas y distritos no han recibido mucho apoyo para ayudar a sus estudiantes aprendiendo el idioma inglés. Esta semana — dos meses después de que muchas escuelas empezaron clases virtuales — el departamento federal de educación clarificó por primera vez que maestros deben seguir ayudando a sus alumnos no nativohablantes con el idioma “al máximo nivel posible.”

Antes de que se publicó esa clarificación, algunos distritos crearon planes que tomaron en cuenta las necesidades particulares de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés. Pero algunos no.

Los riesgos son altos porque los estudiantes de inglés se arriesgan a perder el aprendizaje por dos frentes. Sin ayuda para el desarrollo del lenguaje, el progreso de los estudiantes hacia el dominio del idioma inglés es más lento, y su capacidad para entender las materias que se les enseñan en inglés también se ve afectada.

“El grado en que los niños no tienen oportunidades de escuchar y hablar el idioma inglés es una gran preocupación,” dijo la subdirectora de los programas de aprendizaje de inglés de New America, un grupo de expertos con inclinaciones hacia la izquierda basada en Washington. “A nivel nacional, la mayoría de lo que he visto es que ha sido un desafío.”

Las barreras que existen en Adams 14

Aproximadamente la mitad de los estudiantes en Adams 14 están aprendiendo inglés como su segunda idioma, una de las proporciones más grandes en Colorado. La mayoría de los residentes de la zona industrial en las afueras de Denver son hispanos, y la mayoría son de bajos recursos.

Como otros distritos que sirven estudiantes con muchas necesidades, no le fue fácil asegurar que sus 6,500 alumnos podrían acceder al internet cuando cerraron las escuelas. En las primeras semanas, los maestros pasaron la mayoría de su tiempo asegurando que todos los estudiantes tuvieran acceso a una computadora y el internet.

“Se ha tratado de, ¿Te puedes conectar? ¿Estás en línea?’” dijo Tonia López, directora de educación e instrucción cultural y lingüísticamente diversa de Adams 14.

Estudiantes latinos, que constan de 80% de los estudiantes aprendiendo inglés nacionalmente, dependen de sus celulares desproporcionadamente para acceder a sus tareas escolares en casa — que puede ser útil en ciertas circunstancias, pero que no funciona para todas las tareas.

Mientras Adams 14 se dirigió a esos problemas técnicos, administradores estaban desarrollando un plan para continuar la instrucción. Crearon un plan con varias fases: Al inicio, estudiantes podían elegir actividades educativas; después, habría más classes en vivo y más tareas requeridas a través del internet. Ese plan priorizo estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, según un portavoz del distrito.

El distrito no podia equivocarse. Una investigación por la oficina de derechos civiles en el departamento federal de educación concluyó en el 2014 que el distrito había discriminado a empleados y estudiantes hispanohablantes. Adams 14 accedió a un orden federal para mejorar su tratamiento de estudiantes aprendiendo inglés.

El año pasado, Adams 14 también fue el primer distrito en Colorado que tuvo que dejar que una empresa privada tomara control de la administración cotidiana después de años de bajos resultados académicos. Antes de la pandemia, esa empresa, MGT Consulting, ya estaba colaborado con empleados del distrito y la Oficina de Derechos Civiles en un plan comprensivo para educar estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Cuando el virus forzó una transición a instrucción virtual, el distrito busco nuevas maneras de mantenerse en contacto con esos estudiantes. Los maestros y otros miembros del personal han traducido materiales para los padres, y los profesores de alumnos de inglés han estado disponibles para que los estudiantes pidan ayuda por teléfono, vídeo y texto.

Los maestros también están entrenando a profesores de otras clases para asegurar que que las tareas sean comprensibles para los estudiantes hispanohablantes. Todos los maestros del distrito han recibido capacitación a través del año para adaptar sus lecciones y tareas a esos alumnos.

“Hemos asegurado que todos somos conscientes del lenguaje en todas las lecciones que planeamos”, dijo Traci Whitfield, una maestra de cuarto grado en Adams 14. “Para mí, no tendria sentido construir lecciones de otra forma.”

Afirma Whitfield que más de dos tercios de sus 21 alumnos están aprendiendo inglés. Aproximadamente el 85% de sus alumnos están participando diario en lecciones virtuales de alguna manera.

Pero la transición ha sido difícil de todas maneras. María Rodríguez, una madre de tres estudiantes de Adams 14, se dio cuenta recientemente que Jahaira, su alumna de 11º grado, estaba faltando a algunas clases en vivo.

Aprender inglés no ha sido fácil para Jahaira; estaba inscrita en clases de desarrollo del idioma inglés cuando cerraron las escuelas, dijo Rodríguez. Teme que su hija está faltando clases remotas en parte porque está recibiendo menos instrucción en el desarrollo del inglés.

Segun Rodriguez, Jahaira le dijo que a veces no entiende a sus maestras en parte porque están hablando en inglés.

“Es más difícil ahora,” dijo Rodriguez. “Siempre necesitaba que los maestros le explicaban todo, y ahora que es virtual, es más complicado. Es tímida y a veces le da vergüenza para hacer preguntas.”

“No se que mas puedo hacer para ayudarlos,” dijo Rodríguez de sus hijos.

Administradores en Adams 14, como en otros distritos, reconocen que las escuelas están dedicando menos tiempo al desarrollo del lenguaje, tanto como han reducido la duración de todos tipos de instrucción.

“No esperamos que nuestros estudiantes estén en línea por ocho horas al día,” dijo López. “Todos estamos tratando de hacer lo mejor.”

Un panorama nacional complicado

Si bien todos los estudiantes de inglés tienen derecho a ayuda lingüística, no tienen planes de educación con la fuerza de ley como los estudiantes con discapacidades. Su instrucción varía mucho, dependiendo de la ley estatal y las políticas de distrito. Algunos dicen que era difícil cumplir los derechos civiles de los estudiantes de inglés incluso antes del coronavirus.

“Los distritos escolares tienen bastante margen para determinar cómo están sirviendo a sus estudiantes,” dijo García, de Nueva América. “Tenemos todas estas obligaciones legales, pero ¿cómo se están llevando a cabo en este momento?”

La guía federal publicada esta semana aclara que las escuelas deben continuar proporcionando apoyo lingüístico a los estudiantes de inglés a distancia, pero reconoce que quizás no sea posible hacerlo al mismo nivel que antes de la pandemia. Observa que no hay un tiempo estándar que debe dedicarse a los servicios de inglés.

El Departamento advirtió también que los distritos deben vigilar a los alumnos de inglés que demostraron su dominio del idioma antes de que las escuelas cerraron en marzo, ya que es posible que necesitan ayuda adicional cuando se reabran los edificios — un reconocimiento de la pérdida de aprendizaje que muchos estudiantes están enfrentando en este momento.

Los defensores dicen que si los estudiantes de inglés reciben servicios reducidos puede ser difícil comprobar que es una violación de los derechos civiles, dada la amplia gama de instrucción que es permisible en tiempos normales, así como los desafios que enfrentan los distritos durante la pandemia.

Lo que es más, la administración de Trump no tiene un fuerte historial de aplicación. La subsecretaria de Educación Betsy Devos, de la Oficina de Derechos Civiles del Departamento de Educación, ha abierto menos investigaciones sistémicas y ha tenido menos probabilidades de apoyar las denuncias de discriminación contra los estudiantes de ingles que bajo la administración de Obama.

Mirando hacia adelante

La educación pública en la edad de COVID-19 está entrando un nuevo capítulo: Los distritos escolares están preparando para el otoño. Muchos de ellos, incluyendo Adams 14, tendrán una larga lista de tareas pendientes para asegurar de que los estudiantes de inglés obtendrán los servicios que requieren, incluyendo pruebas de dominio del inglés y decidir qué cursos son apropiados.

Las clases terminaron esta semana en Adams 14, y los estudiantes, padres y educadores no saben cómo será la escuela en el otoño.

Varios distritos escolares en la zona metropolitana de Denver, entre ellos Adams 14, están colaborando para encontrar soluciones comunes. Esperan crear un plan unificado, en parte porque hay maestros que tienen hijos asistiendo a clases en otros distritos.

Están considerando un plan híbrido que combina el aprendizaje a distancia con un poco de aprendizaje en persona. La mayoría de los distritos no han dado a conocer detalles de sus planes, y los planes finales probablemente no estarán disponibles hasta finales del verano.

Si el aprendizaje virtual continúa en el otoño, algunos maestros dicen que les gustaría aumentar el tiempo de instrucción para los estudiantes, incluyendo el tiempo de instrucción lingüística para estudiantes aprendiendo inglés.

Padres como Aracely Gómez de Denver piensan que sus hijos beneficiarán de un horario de aprendizaje más normal y de más tiempo aprendiendo el idioma inglés.

Su hija de 6 años está matriculada en un programa que se da principalmente en español al inicio, y luego se transiciona gradualmente al inglés. La instrucción en español continúa desde casa, dijo Gómez. Pero está preocupada por la transición al inglés, especialmente si su hija no ha estado practicando inglés académico en casa.

“Practica con su hermana mayor”, dijo Gómez. “Pero sé que no es lo mismo que el inglés que obtendría en la escuela.”

Koby Levin, reportero de Chalkbeat, ha traducido este reportaje.

Adams 14 se resiste a la reorganización; distritos vecinos dan su apoyo

2022-05-20T20:36:03+00:00

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Los líderes de Adams 14 tienen planes de resistir los esfuerzos del estado por reorganizar el distrito escolar (que lleva años teniendo dificultades), y están recibiendo el apoyo de los distritos vecinos, un frente unido que sugiere que el estado está a punto de entablar una batalla cuesta arriba en sus esfuerzos por obligar un cambio en la comunidad.

“Creo que en esto vamos a tener más aliados que la Junta Estatal”, dijo Joe Salazar, uno de los abogados de Adams 14.

Adams 14, un distrito escolar al norte de Denver, ha probado el poder de la ley de responsabilidad del estado porque ha tenido que enfrentarse a muchas cosas que nunca habían ocurrido. A diferencia de otros estados, Colorado no tiene autoridad para adueñarse directamente de las operaciones de los distritos escolares.

En 2018, cuando el estado ordenó que el distrito contratara un administrador externo después de años de desempeño académico deficiente, la junta escolar local permaneció. Y en 2021, cuando esa junta contrató su propia superintendente, Karla Loria, ella no tardó en deshacerse de la compañía externa de administración, MGT Consulting.

Ahora, con la preocupación de que los líderes del distrito no tienen lo que hace falta para dirigir los planes nuevos para mejorar el desempeño de los estudiantes y que no están dispuestos a compartir suficiente responsabilidad con asistencia externa para hacerlo, la Junta Estatal de Educación le quitó la acreditación al distrito y ordenó que fuera reorganizado, una movida que pudiera resultar en la disolución del distrito, cierres de escuelas, y que los estudiantes tengan que asistir a distritos vecinos.

Pero Colorado nunca había hecho esto, y deja muchas preguntas sin contestar con respecto a cómo funcionará el proceso. Mientras tanto, la ley les da a las comunidades locales bastantes opciones para resistir al estado.

Líderes de distritos vecinos se unen para apoyar a Adams 14

Aunque Adams 14 tuvo una relación débil con algunos de sus vecinos en el pasado, este año Loria logró convocar a sus colegas y ha recibido su apoyo. Los líderes del distrito tienen la esperanza de que otros se unan, aunque sea solamente para defender el control local.

El estado ha dicho que los distritos Mapleton, 27J y Adams 12 Five Star también participarán en el proceso de reorganización junto con Adams 14. De conformidad con la ley, un comité compuesto por miembros designados por las juntas escolares y los comités de responsabilidad de cada distrito redactará un plan para los nuevos límites geográficos del distrito. Cuando el comité y la comisionada de educación hayan aprobado un plan, éste debe ser aprobado por votación de los electores en los distritos afectados.

Y en cuanto a qué tan nuevo e incierto el proceso es, el departamento de educación originalmente publicó una hoja de información en la que se indicaba que las juntas escolares mismas necesitarían aprobar el plan. Sin embargo, ese requisito en actualidad se trata de un proceso de reorganización distinto incluido en otra sección de la ley estatal.

Mientras hablaba ante la junta escolar de Adams 14 la semana pasada, Salazar también indicó que entendía que las juntas locales necesitarán tener una votación por el plan. Eso significa que los funcionarios estatales tienen un problema, dijo él.

“Quieren pelear con el Condado de Adams, y vamos a unirnos como el Condado de Adams”, dijo.

Aunque el proceso no requiere la aprobación de las juntas escolares, éstas pueden influir en el resultado porque son las que nombran a los miembros del comité.

Y si no quieren crear un plan, el estado no puede hacer mucho para obligarlos a hacerlo. Haber eliminado la acreditación es algo mayormente simbólico — pero ha sido la amenaza detrás de las órdenes del estado en el pasado. Su propósito es hacerles saber a los padres que el distrito lleva mucho tiempo teniendo un desempeño deficiente. Pero los padres ya saben que el distrito tiene retos, y muchos se han expresado abiertamente para apoyar el liderazgo local y creen que el sistema de responsabilidad del estado los juzga injustamente.

Decisión “en las manos de la comunidad”

La Comisionada de Educación Katy Anthes dijo que la reorganización de Adams 14 no es algo seguro, y que los resultados realmente dependen de la comunidad.

“Mi esperanza es que hagan un esfuerzo de buena fe, y estoy segura de que así lo harán”, dijo Anthes. “Si deciden que no quieren reorganizarse o que un plan no tiene sentido, o no pueden definir un plan, entonces tendremos que reevaluar todo en ese momento. La decisión está en las manos de la comunidad”.

Chris Fiedler, Superintendente del Distrito 27J, dijo que apoya a Adams 14. Su distrito, basado en Brighton, cubre partes de Commerce City y estará incluido en el comité de reorganización.

“Entiendo que debemos participar según la ley. No puedo optar por no participar, aunque me gustaría”, dijo Fiedler. “De todos modos creo que lo que se necesita para el éxito de los estudiantes de Adams 14, está en Adams 14. Sé que Karla es una superintendente excepcional, realmente una de las mejores que he visto mientras he ocupado este puesto”.

Aparte de creer en el liderazgo actual del distrito, Fiedler dijo que en su opinión esto se trata del control local y confiar que los líderes del distrito conocen sus necesidades mejor que el estado.

Charlotte Ciancio, Superintendente de Mapleton, también dijo que apoyo a Adams 14 y criticó al sistema de responsabilidad del estado, que le ha dado calificaciones bajas a Adams 14.

“Lo que le está pasando a Adams 14 es resultado directo de un sistema que no asegura que a todas las comunidades se les trate de manera justa y equitativa”, dijo Ciancio en una declaración. “El sistema de responsabilidad y acreditación en Colorado tiene bastantes deficiencias. Un ejemplo de la injusticia es que para calificar a las escuelas usa los resultados de un examen administrado únicamente en inglés en una comunidad que predominantemente habla español. Mientras continuamos identificando la mejor ruta a seguir para Adams 14, ¡también continuaremos pidiendo un sistema de acreditación nuevo para las escuelas de Colorado!”

Los legisladores han ordenado una auditoría del sistema de responsabilidad del estado para determinar si está funcionando como se supone, lo cual incluye determinar si está perjudicando a los estudiantes de minorías raciales y bajos ingresos que se supone que proteja. Los resultados de esa auditoría deben estar listos en noviembre.

Les pedimos comentarios a los representantes de Adams 12 pero no recibimos respuesta. El distrito de Denver, que también colinda con Adams 14, no es parte del proceso porque una enmienda a la constitución estatal en la década de los 70 impide que los límites geográficos del distrito de Denver crezcan excepto si los límites de la ciudad cambian también.

Decisión de la junta estatal: “desestabilizante”

Jason Malmberg, presidente de la unión de maestros de Adams 14, dijo que en las escuelas la semana pasada lo que se percibía era una tristeza profunda. Muchas personas estaban confundidas por no saber cuál es el próximo paso, mientras que a otras les entristecía que el estado hubiese ido tan lejos, dijo.

Malmberg dijo que la decisión de la Junta Estatal era desestabilizante y que los miembros de la junta no lo entienden. “Las soluciones que sugieren no están ayudando”, dijo. “Están empeorando las cosas, no mejorándolas”.

Malmberg dijo que también le preocupa lo que las órdenes significan para el control local.

“¿La Junta Estatal de Educación tiene derecho, en el siglo 21 y en una democracia, para disolver un organismo elegido democráticamente?”, preguntó.

Si el comité de reorganización prepara un plan que disuelve el distrito completo, dándole las áreas a otros distritos, la junta escolar local de Adams 14 quedará disuelta.

Salazar dijo que este es un aspecto de la ley que le preocupa.

También le preocupa que reorganizar el distrito será una manera para traer más escuelas chárter, aunque Anthes dijo que ella no cree que eso esté dentro del alcance del comité de reorganización.

Otros escenarios posibles incluyen disolver a Adams 14 y crear otro distrito con nombre nuevo en los mismos límites geográficos (una manera de cambiar de marca y empezar desde cero), o dejar que los distritos vecinos absorban partes de Adams 14 para que el distrito se enfoque en menos escuelas.

Mientras tanto, los líderes de Adams 14 dicen que todavía están dedicados a educar estudiantes. Los líderes están continuando las negociaciones para trabajar con TNTP, una empresa de consultoría sin fines de lucro. Según el plan que el distrito le presentó al estado, TNTP trabajaría ‘hombro con hombro’ con la superintendente para hacer recomendaciones.

El distrito también tiene que ir ante el estado el próximo mes para presentar su plan para la Escuela Primaria Central. El distrito está pidiendo más autonomía para convertir a la Central en una escuela de la comunidad que ofrezca varios servicios de apoyo.

El estado había permitido que el distrito procediera con el plan el mes pasado, pero los Miembros de la Junta Estatal tienen que dar la aprobación final en junio o emitir otra orden de acción, que podría todavía incluir su cierre.

Anthes señaló la posibilidad de que, si los esfuerzos de mejorar del distrito tienen éxito antes de que se cree el plan de reorganización, quizás la Junta Estatal cambie de parecer.

“Es posible que el distrito implemente estos planes, que veamos que los resultados empiezan a cambiar, y que la junta entonces reevalúe su decisión”, dijo. “Quizás la orden de reorganización se cancele. Mientras tanto, las escuelas están abiertas, los niños están asistiendo a clases, y nosotros queremos que esas escuelas mejoren.”

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Comunícate con Yesenia escribiendo a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Las escuelas de Colorado recibieron más dinero para los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés. ¿En qué se está usando?

2022-03-03T18:13:11+00:00

Personal nuevo, capacitación adicional para los maestros, y poco de dinero directamente para las escuelas.

Estas son algunas de las cosas que algunos distritos de Colorado han planificado con los fondos estatales nuevos para atender mejor a los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Pero otros distritos que también recibieron ese dinero, y que tienen decenas de miles de estudiantes de inglés, no están planificando agregar ningún servicio nuevo.

El estado no está monitoreando cómo los distritos usan los fondos, y tampoco obligándolos a usar el dinero para su propósito.

Cuando los legisladores de Colorado decidieron el año pasado darles más dinero a los distritos para atender mejoer las necesidades de los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, la idea era que esos estudiantes requieren servicios adicionales para poder acceder el mismo nivel de educación que sus compañeros. Los legisladores reconocieron que la falta de acceso a Internet y las barreras de idioma habían hecho más difícil que algunos estudiantes participaran en el aprendizaje remoto, y querían que los distritos tuvieran los recursos necesarios para ayudar a esos estudiantes en particular.

Según las cifras estatales, el estado proporcionó aproximadamente $16,800 millones en fondos adicionales para los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés. A pesar de las buenas intenciones, los defensores dicen que los fondos no son suficientes para que los distritos atiendan adecuadamente a los estudiantes de inglés, y a algunos les preocupa que el estado no creó maneras para asegurar que las escuelas y los distritos estén usando el dinero para los servicios que los estudiantes requieren.

Es bueno hacer más, ¿pero entonces cómo se verá cuando lo reciban? Yo le pregunté a Cyntha Trinidad-Sheahan, persidente del grupo de defensa sin fines de lucro Colorado Association for Bilingual Education. ¿Cómo ustedes van a educar a los distritos, darles apoyo y luego responsabilizarlos? Ese es el detalle que se le olvida al estado.

Muchos distritos no están agregando servicios

De una docena de distritos que contestaron las preguntas de Chalkeat acerca del uso de los fondos adicionales, solo cinco describieron cambios en sus servicios.

La mayoría de los distritos dijo que como siempre han gastado más dinero en servicios para los estudiantes de inglés del que el estado les ha provisto, el dinero adicional simplemente está ayudando a cubrir lo que el distrito ya gastó en el pasado. En la mayoría de los casos, el aumento en fondos todavía no cubre servicios para los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, dijeron los funcionarios.

Entre esos distritos están el Distrito Escolar de Denver y el Distrito Escolar Jeffco, el más grande del estado. Ambos indicaron que no han agregado servicios con los fondos nuevos.

El distrito de Denver, que atiende la mayoría de los estudiantes de inglés (aunque no cuenta con la proporción más alta), recibió este año más de $9 millones específicamente para el aproximadamente 30% de sus estudiantes identificados como estudiantes de inglés, a diferencia de los más o menos $5.9 millones que recibió en años previos según las cifras del estado. Sin embargo, los funcionarios del distrito dijeron que ellos asignan aproximadamente $30 millones cada año a servicios para los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Los funcionarios dijeron en una declaración escrita que el dinero que el distrito asigna de sus fondos generales para apoyar a los estudiantes multilingües excede por mucho la asignación de fondos recibida por el estado, aun tomando en cuenta los fondos adicionales provistos este año escolar.

Trinidad-Sheahan dijo que parte del problema es que los presupuestos de los departamentos que atienden estudiantes se han mantenido estancados por años, aun cuando los distritos estaban viendo cambios demográficos (los cuales que implican diferentes necesidades), o a pesar de tener fondos adicionales disponibles.

Muchos de esos presupuestos no han aumentado; se han mantenido iguales por años, dijo ella. Cuando ese dinero entró, nunca se vio como fondos adicionales.

Añadiendo programas nuevos

Los distritos que han usado los fondos estatales adicionales de este año para aumentar los servicios también gastan más en los estudiantes de inglés que lo que el estado les da para esos servicios. De todos modos, estos distritos decidieron usar los fondos estatales para tener más servicios.

El distrito escolar en Eagle, donde aproximadamente un 30% de los estudiantes están aprendiendo inglés, recibió casi el doble en fondos estatales de lo que había recibido previamente para esos estudiantes. De todos modos, los $864,000 que recibe del estado cubren menos de un 29% de sus gastos anuales de más de $3 millones en los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Este año escolar, el distrito agregó personal para expandir el programa bilingüe del distrito en las escuelas intermedias y también pagó por capacitación para los líderes del programa. Las escuelas de Eagle han estado expandiendo su programa bilingüe desde el año 2012-13, y este año lo está ofreciendo en cinco de las ocho escuelas primarias y todas las cuatro escuelas intermedias.

Los distritos, tanto los nuestros como otros, hacemos lo que se necesita cuando vemos las necesidades, dijo Melisa Rewold-Thuon, asistente al superintendente del distrito. Por supuesto que nunca hay suficiente.

El programa bilingüe atiende a los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés como segundo idioma, y también a estudiantes de hogares que hablan inglés y desean que sus hijos sean bilingües.

Nosotros pensamos que darles a ambas poblaciones la oportunidad de aprender otro idioma y cultura está uniendo a nuestros estudiantes, dijo Rewold-Thuon.

Aunque no está necesariamente cubierto por los fondos nuevos, el distrito también contrató maestros bilingües del exterior porque no puede encontrar suficiente personal calificado para sus programas bilingües. Previamente el distrito contrataba más o menos unos cinco maestros del exterior anualmente, pero este año está contratando 30.

Las escuelas secundarias de Eagle agregaron maestros de desarrollo del idioma inglés. Más o menos desde el año pasado se ha visto una nueva ola de inmigrantes adolescentes, que incluye menores no acompañados, y estos estudiantes llegan con brechas en su educación, en parte por las interrupciones de la pandemia.

Un día, los funcionarios de Eagle quieren desarrollar un programa para los estudiantes inmigrantes nuevos, pero por ahora, sin tener ese programa, los maestros de desarrollo del idioma inglés de Eagle están asumiendo el rol de trabajadores sociales para guiar a los estudiantes inmigrantes nuevos mientras se ajustan a su nueva comunidad y encuentran recursos para navegarla.

Nuestro distrito está muy, muy dedicado a satisfacer las necesidades de todos nuestros estudiantes, dijo Rewold-Thuon. Cuando consideramos la equidad, algunos estudiantes necesitan apoyo adicional hasta para poder lograr ese nivel básico de educación. Por eso es que esos fondos adicionales son tan importantes para nosotros.

Flexibilidad para las escuelas

Anita Pizzo, maestra de desarrollo del idioma inglés en secundaria en Aurora, dijo que en las últimas dos semanas su escuela ha recibido 15 estudiantes que acaban de llegar al país. Son procedentes de Congo, Afganistán, Latinoamérica y otros lugares.

Los maestros en Eagle están notando que, por las interrupciones de la pandemia, cada vez más de esos estudiantes nuevos en Aurora llegan sin haber asistido nunca a la escuela secundaria. Pizzo dijo que esos estudiantes a menudo han aprendido a depender de Google Translate, y ahora es necesario enseñarles a dejar de usarlo y aprender inglés.

Todos los maestros necesitan más capacitación para atender a esos estudiantes, dijo Pizzo.

Al igual que muchos otros distritos, Aurora le asigna a cada escuela un presupuesto basado en la cantidad de estudiantes matriculados. Ahora mismo, la fórmula de Aurora para asignar fondos a las escuelas no toma en cuenta si los estudiantes están aprendiendo inglés, pero sí considera otros factores de riesgo. El próximo año escolar cada escuela recibirá $195 adicionales por cada estudiante de inglés, y los principales tendrán flexibilidad para usar ese dinero como lo consideren necesario.

Para algunas escuelas, el aumento por los estudiantes de inglés no será mucho, pero para otras escuelas, podría ser suficiente para contratar a una persona adicional, por ejemplo.

Aurora, uno de los distritos con la mayor proporción de estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés, recibía $3.6 millones del estado y ahora está recibiendo $6.3 millones. El Jefe de Finanzas (CFO) Brett Johnson dijo que el distrito ya había estado gastando más de $6.1 millones cada año para que todas las escuelas contaran con maestros líderes como Pizzo. Los fondos nuevos del estado, hasta ahora, han ayudado a compensar por lo que el distrito ya estaba pagando.

El próximo año escolar, el distrito dividirá $1.2 millones para que las escuelas los usen a su discreción.

Algunos maestros y defensores dicen que les gustaría que haya más transparencia en cómo sus escuelas y distritos están usando los fondos del estado y de otras fuentes destinados a apoyar a los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés.

Pizzo dice que ella tiene otras ideas para apoyar las necesidades de los estudiantes, como por ejemplo cambios en el currículo o contratar paraprofesionales que apoyen a los estudiantes mientras están en clases que se imparten completamente en inglés. Otros maestros también dicen que les gustaría ver más capacitación, tutorías o hasta más especialistas que puedan ayudar a los maestros a ajustar sus lecciones para ayudar a los estudiantes de inglés en sus salones.

Trinidad-Sheahan dijo que una idea para responsabilizar a los distritos sería pedirles que expliquen cómo los fondos que están gastando van a apoyar directamente a los estudiantes en cada nivel de dominio del idioma inglés. Ella dijo que los estudiantes más nuevos son los que necesitan más apoyo, como los que acaban de llegar, o los que están en los niveles más bajos de dominio del inglés.

Pero en ocasiones, dijo, ella ha visto que los distritos le dan prioridad a gastar en programas o materiales que apoyarán a un número mayor de estudiantes, como por ejemplo en un currículo o una clase de inglés que, aunque quizás incluya un par de estudiantes cuyo nivel de bilingüismo es más avanzado, los estudiantes más nuevos no pueden ni siquiera matricularse en esa clase hasta que tengan más dominio del inglés.

¿Los distritos pueden realmente probar que están beneficiando a todos los estudiantes que están aprendiendo inglés de todos los niveles? Sería difícil probarlo, dijo Trinidad-Sheahan. Estos fondos deberían ser adicionales. Los estudiantes deberían recibir más.

Yesenia Robles es reportera para Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre asuntos relacionados con los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, envíale un mensaje a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Las escuelas de Cherry Creek quieren ayudar a los niños de primaria en proceso de duelo

2023-05-02T17:00:00+00:00

Read in English.

Por años después de que Oliver Dean perdiera a su padre a los 5 años por cáncer, había cosas que le desencadenaban depresión.

Pero Oliver contaba con algunas ventajas: Tenía una madre que trabajaba en su escuela, un orientador escolar accesible y un psicólogo especializado en duelo infantil. Juntos, le ayudaron a sobrellevar recuerdos abrumadores y el dolor incapacitante.

Desde que comenzó la pandemia, más niños han sufrido la pérdida de un padre o cuidador, pero muy pocos de ellos tienen acceso a este tipo de apoyo.

El año pasado, el Distrito Escolar de Cherry Creek empezó un programa piloto con la organización sin fines de lucro Judi’s House en Aurora, dedicada a la atención al duelo, para ofrecerles terapia de grupo a los estudiantes de primaria. La Cherry Creek Schools Foundation está financiando el programa piloto.

Este año el programa atiende a 20 estudiantes en dos escuelas.

“Creo que hay mucha más necesidad, sin duda”, dijo Steve Nederveld, director de salud mental del Distrito Escolar de Cherry Creek. “Hubo escuelas que nos pidieron específicamente este tipo de programa”.

Dean conoce esa necesidad.

Un día en tercer grado, leer un libro sobre una niña que padecía alopecia (una enfermedad que provoca la caída del cabello) llenó la mente de Dean con dolorosos recuerdos sobre su padre calvo y sobre cómo no lo recordaba con pelo.

A menudo, los maestros sabían avisarle a Dean cuando un tema en clase podría recordarle su pérdida. Ese día, Dean no esperaba que le invadiera una oleada de dolor. Pero como había estado aprendiendo cómo manejar sus emociones, reconoció lo que sentía y decidió salir del salón de clases.

Ahora a los 19 años, Dean dice que tuvo suerte de contar con ese apoyo, en parte organizado de antemano por su papá, un trabajador social. Él sabe que la mayoría de los niños no son tan afortunados.

“Mucha más gente de lo que se espera pierde a un ser querido antes de cumplir los 18 años”, dijo Dean. “No conoces las circunstancias de todo el mundo. La gente que se siente identificada es mucha más de la que esperas”.

La necesidad de atención al duelo está creciendo

Si el ensayo de Cherry Creek demuestra que ayuda a los niños, los líderes dicen que les gustaría que pudiera convertirse en parte regular de los programas de Judi’s House para las escuelas. Para ello se necesitarían más datos que demuestren que el programa funciona, así como una forma de pagarlo, ya que el grupo no les cobra a las escuelas por el servicio.

Por años, la organización sin fines de lucro se ha enfocado en las escuelas intermedias, donde considera que sus limitados fondos pueden tener mayor impacto. Pero los líderes de otras escuelas conocían el programa y pidieron también servicios similares a su nivel, dijo Nederveld.

Es difícil obtener cifras firmes, pero las personas que trabajan en las escuelas dicen que cada vez hay más estudiantes que estudiantes que sufren pérdidas. Nederveld dijo que parte de ello está relacionado con el COVID, pero los estudiantes también están sufriendo las consecuencias de muertes por suicidio, sobredosis de drogas y violencia armada.

Un modelo desarrollado por Judi’s House calcula el número de niños que sufrirán la muerte de uno de sus padres o hermanos antes de los 18 años. En 2018, esa cifra fue de 1 de cada 18 niños en Colorado. En 2022, subió a 1 de cada 14 niños.

Eso representa más o menos un 7% de la población de niños.

Las escuelas consideran beneficioso ayudar a los estudiantes a superar el duelo

Judi’s House está operando sus grupos de terapia de duelo en la primaria Village East Community de Cherry Creek, donde casi un 70% de los estudiantes califican para comidas con subsidio (una medida de la pobreza) y en Rolling Hills, donde califica alrededor de un 15% de los estudiantes.

En otoño, el personal se comunicó con familias de estudiantes que sabían que habían perdido a un familiar cercano. Si la familia estaba de acuerdo, el personal clínico de Judi’s House entrevistaba al estudiante para ver cómo le estaba afectando el duelo y asegurar que el grupo podía beneficiarle. Los maestros también llenaron cuestionarios sobre el comportamiento de sus estudiantes en clase.

Luego los estudiantes se asignaron a uno de los dos grupos dependiendo de su edad.

Los lideres del distrito y de la escuela dicen que el hecho de que el grupo funcione en la escuela, durante el día escolar y de forma gratuita, ayuda a las familias que pudieran enfrentar barreras al tratar de conseguir esos servicios fuera de las escuelas.

Karen Arrowsmith, psicóloga de Rolling Hills, dijo que a mitad del programa de 10 semanas para estudiantes de tercero a quinto grado, los maestros informaron de que los estudiantes están entusiasmados.

“Ellos esperan con gusto participar en el grupo, están empezando a compartir más, y están checando para verificar que la reunión del grupo todavía va a ocurrir esa semana”, dijo Arrowsmith.

La meta es ayudar que poco a poco a los estudiantes entiendan mejor sus sentimientos y procesen sus emociones. Luego los estudiantes aprenden varias estrategias para sobrellevar el duelo.

“Cuando muere alguien cercano a un niño, su mundo se tambalea”, dijo Arrowsmith. “Yo diría que vemos una variedad de emociones: confusión, tristeza, coraje, preocupación. Los niños me dicen que es difícil dormir. Concentrarse en las tareas escolares puede ser difícil”

Para el grupo más joven, un curso de seis semanas les ayuda a definir y entender sus sentimientos y aprender estrategias para sobrellevarlos.

“La manera en que un niño entiende el mundo puede quedar destrozada o alterada”, dijo Emily Napier, la trabajadora social clínica licenciada y gerente de atención comunitaria de Judi’s House que dirige el programa piloto. “Es muy doloroso. Eso puede manifestarse en cambios de comportamiento. Es de ayuda que las escuelas puedan decir no queremos castigar a estos niños por este comportamiento, pero también necesitamos que ellos puedan funcionar y aprender.”

La mamá de Oliver Dean, Lisa Dean, dice que cuando Oliver estaba creciendo ella veía cómo su dolor se manifestaba de diferentes maneras. Los cambios, como el final del año escolar, eran difíciles. Los maestros notaron que estaba teniendo dificultades en su bar mitzvah, y ella se dio cuenta de que la razón era que echaba de menos a su papá.

“El duelo no es un acontecimiento, es un viaje que cambia con el tiempo dependiendo de la madurez del niño”, dijo Lisa.

Napier dijo que los grupos son una “poderosa oportunidad para que los niños se sientan vistos”.

“Especialmente con los niños pequeños, a veces como sociedad subestimamos el dolor que sienten, pero los niños pequeños sufren tanto como nosotros”, dijo Napier.

Oliver, que ahora está en la universidad, desea que más escuelas estuvieran preparadas para ayudar a los estudiantes que sufren la muerte de un familiar cercano.

“Vivimos en una sociedad que no quiere hablar de la muerte. Pero para las personas que están en duelo, es más difícil no ver que otra persona lo entiende”, dijo. “No es justo dejar a los estudiantes solos con la expectativa de que se desempeñen al máximo nivel, incluso cuando ya han pasado por tanto. A veces hay cosas en la vida que son más importantes”.

Yesenia Robles es reportera de Chalkbeat Colorado y cubre temas sobre los distritos escolares K-12 y la educación multilingüe. Para comunicarte con Yesenia, escríbele a yrobles@chalkbeat.org.

Page 2 of JH Services 2022 Double Sided (1)

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