More students on track to graduate

Denver school officials can barely contain their excitement over recent high school data showing hundreds more students enrolled, taking tougher college-prep courses and on track to graduate.

“This is among the most positive data we have seen in the last three or four years,” said Superintendent Tom Boasberg, who took over the leadership of Denver Public Schools one year ago. “This is work. A lot of really good work is going on.”

And Denver has company.

Across Colorado, 4.8 percent more 12th-graders are enrolled in the 2009-10 school year than the previous school year.

Gains are even more pronounced in the metro area, where Aurora Public Schools saw a 23.7 percent increase in 12th-graders, Denver a 23.6 percent jump and Adams Five Star a 20 percent boost.

State education officials suspect the surge in high school seniors is the result of a combination of recent changes and initiatives.

In 2006, the legislature lifted the compulsory age at which students must be in school to 17 from 16. Students in their fifth year of high school are counted as 12th-graders.

Last year, a new law streamlined the systems that allow students to get college credit in high school. And metro districts also began focusing more efforts on dropout-recovery programs.

DPS officials also credit the Denver Scholarship Foundation and high school Future Centers, which offer computer terminals and staff that help students apply for college and get scholarships.

Today, the figures will be presented to Denver’s school board in a special session focused on achievement.

Digging deeper into the report, the district’s figures show kernels of success:

• Overall high school attendance is up 5 percentage points over the past two years to 87.5 percent.

• The number of ninth-graders after one semester who are on track to graduate increased to 83.1 percent in 2009 from 68 percent in 2007.

• Over the past year, the number of students taking credit-recovery courses has soared to about 2,400 students last fall from about 600 students in fall 2008.

• The number of AP exams taken increased by about 67 percent over the past five years, and the number of tests that received passing grades rose by about 40 percent.

• The number of DPS students enrolled in college courses increased 69 percent over the past four years to 1,842 students in 2008-09.

Throughout the hallways at Martin Luther King Jr. Early College, the evidence of the district’s high school surge is palpable and tangible.

Among traditional high schools, the school has the highest percentage of freshmen on track to graduate, at 97.3 percent.

“The kids feel safe here; they feel engaged,” said principal Allen Smith, who produced a DVD to promote the school that begins with its sordid past and a report by ABC News years ago that called it the country’s worst school, an image supported with hidden video of students out of control.

“It still has some of that stigma,” Smith said, adding that the school was designed with the same layout as a medium-security prison.

But Smith last year got rid of 40 teachers, kicked out 32 disruptive students and worked on the school’s culture. The staff is focused on attendance, helping students who are academically slipping and providing interventions.

Districtwide, the number of out-of-school suspensions is falling — decreasing about 44 percent over the past six years.

On a recent weekday, Derek Hawkins, an ex-Marine and one of MLK’s interventionists, led a “boys group,” talking to eight sixth-graders who have been prone to violence about how to avoid getting into fights, advising them to talk it out before fighting.

“You got to learn to use these,” he said, pointing at his lips. “Instead of these,” he said, raising his fists.

Denver Post staff writer Burt Hubbard contributed to this report.
Jeremy P. Meyer: 303-954-1367 or jpmeyer@denverpost.com