If you saw the Denver Public Schools performance ratings released last week, it was hard not to notice the dominance of West Denver Prep charters, all four of which were among the 15 highest- achieving schools in the city.
Impressive, to say the least, especially when you consider the percentage of low-income kids who attend those schools — more than 9 out of 10 receive free or reduced-price lunch.
How do they do it?
The answer encompasses a long list of practices that Chris Gibbons, lead founder and CEO of the West Denver Prep network, is happy to share, which he did during a recent meeting with The Denver Post’s editorial board.
But one thing jumped out at us. We asked Gibbons what happens if, say, a seventh-grader comes to school without his or her math homework. Gibbons said all homework is checked at the beginning of the day. If a student is missing any of it, a call goes out to the parents, and the child is scheduled to stay after school to get it done.
We asked if this was standard procedure at each of his schools, and Gibbons said without hesitation that it was.
In our minds, that one simple thing exemplifies West Denver Prep’s systematic and practical approach to education. It’s not magic. It’s not even complicated. You have to do your homework. If you don’t, the school creates the environment and provides help to get it done.
Some folks have speculated about the cause of West Denver Prep’s success, wondering, for instance, whether it is due to cherry-picking the most motivated students.
It’s not. It’s a result of a tight system that emphasizes a positive school culture, a strong organizational structure including committed leadership, and talented staff.
Homework is one small part of that system, but it’s an important part. If you’re familiar with Denver Public Schools, at this point you might be thinking about Infinite Campus, or IC.
IC is an online grade book used by DPS and other districts that, in theory, should allow parents to do approximately the same thing — log in to see if their children are turning in their homework and take steps if they are not.
However, teachers vary greatly when it comes to filling out IC. Some complete it on an almost a daily basis. Others take weeks to enter assignments.
Think about that. If your child missed something two weeks ago, it’s a big handicap for even the most committed parents to overcome.
We don’t think every DPS school should be a replica of West Denver Prep — choice and variation are laudable characteristics of the DPS system. But why can’t DPS, at the very least, require all teachers to fill out IC every day or every couple of days?
The district could, but that would require fitting it into the existing block of planning and professional time that teachers get, via their contract with the district.
That time amounts to an average of an hour each day for multiple tasks. And schools cannot require work beyond a 40-hour week without going through the collective bargaining process.
West Denver Prep isn’t beholden to that contract. Its teachers work roughly nine-hour days, including three hours of daily planning time. But West Denver Prep also gets to structure that day without the historic encumbrances of a complex contract.
Thus, creating a student accountability system to make sure homework gets done every day is built into the basic framework of the school.
Maybe you’re thinking we are obsessing on a small piece of the puzzle. Perhaps. But we are convinced that great schools are built on a foundation of solid, individual bricks that together create a formidable structure.
The freedom that West Denver Prep has had to build its schools ultimately has been the secret to its success.
