Denver Public Schools still has work to do if students are going to meet the state's new graduation requirements, but the problem isn't as severe as numbers released in December suggested.
The December data showed only 9% of juniors in DPS on track to meet three different district and state requirements.
But Mike Ramirez, Denver's deputy superintendent of schools, said 57% of students currently are poised to clear what he considers the highest barrier to graduating: proving competency in math and English. If students can do that, he said he doesn't anticipate a problem meeting the district-level requirements.
Statewide, this year's juniors will be the first class that has to show they've learned enough English and math to be ready for college or a career before they can get a diploma.
Students have up to 11 options to prove they've learned enough, including getting certain scores on tests like the ACT, passing a college-level class or completing a capstone project. Not all districts will accept all options as proof of competency.
Students who demonstrate competency should be able to get into a freshman-level college class without needing remediation, according to the Colorado Department of Education. That suggests the new requirement could be a problem for some students, because at least one-third of college-bound students in Colorado have tested into remedial classes in recent years.
To graduate in DPS, students also need to complete 24 credits and 16 online lessons about college and career planning. The December numbers showed that only one in 10 students, and one in 25 black students, was on track to complete both of those requirements and to demonstrate competency in math and English.
About 70% of DPS students graduated within four years in the most recent school year.
Ramirez said part of the reason the initial 9% figure looked so low is that district officials didn't have full data on how many students had completed their assigned college and career exploration. The December data had shown only about 17% of students were on track with online lessons, while 60% were on track to earn enough class credits to graduate. Black and Hispanic students were less likely to be on track for all three requirements.
Tamara Acevedo, deputy superintendent of academics, said the central office is working with each high school to support students who may not be on track. Schools are embedding activities into classes that will count toward a student's capstone project, making it easier for some to show competency that way, she said.
Ramirez compared the current situation to halftime at the Super Bowl, saying students still have a year and a half to complete everything they need to do. Some tests that could demonstrate competency aren't given until spring.
"That number's going to continue to go up," he said.
Brandon Pryor, a longtime DPS critic and one of the founders of the Michelle Obama STEAM Academy, a high school that has board approval but hasn't yet opened, said he's worried that predictions that few black DPS students would meet the competency requirements will prove correct. The district needs to do more to provide equitable resources to schools serving mostly students of color, and needs to hire more teachers who come from the same culture as their students, he said.
Even if the district follows through on commitments to do more for students of color, that won't help those who fell behind over the past 12 years, Pryor said.
"They're asking the junior and senior (level) teachers to perform magic tricks to catch these kids up," he said. "They're passing kids through so they hit the world with zero viable skills."
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