Newsroom

April 4, 2008 - Message on SPF to School Staff

Dear Colleagues:

Year after year we have heard from teachers, principals and parents who all agree that the School Accountability Reports (SAR) and CSAP alone do not provide an accurate assessment of how a school is actually performing. These static measures, though important, fail to tell the whole story.

Today, we are happy to share with you that we have created the School Performance Framework (SPF) and while not perfect, the SPF provides the most complete and comprehensive picture of school performance in DPS that we have ever had. The SPF will also be used to accredit our schools with the Colorado Department of Education, but it was developed to do much more. The SPF will help us identify best practices across the district and help ensure that all learners – struggling learners and advanced learners – are making progress from one year to another.

For many years now, districts have simply relied on SAR based on CSAP, administered by the state, and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which is mandated by the federal policy No Child Left Behind to provide an indication of school performance.

The purpose of the SPF is to provide a comprehensive body of evidence about school performance. It is aligned with district goals, as well as state and federal mandates. While the SPF incorporates data provided by SAR and AYP, it does not replace those measures. The state will still issue SARs every year and schools will receive a SAR rating, in addition to an SPF rating from the district. The federal government will also continue to measure AYP.

We think you will be pleased with the way SAR and AYP are incorporated into the SPF. They are integrated in a way that more accurately reflects the work being done in our schools. We, like most educators, believe that growth is a better reflection of the work we do on a daily basis. Growth is a more valid measure of schools because it focuses on students’ learning over time, and it provides visibility to school effectiveness in helping students learn. It is this demonstrated improvement from one year to the next that the SPF values most – growth measure accounts for 60% of the scorecard.

On Monday, each school will receive a School Performance Framework scorecard using 05/06 and 06/07 data. This year, schools will not get an overall rating because the data is from a test taken over a year ago. Schools will receive a new scorecard in the fall with an overall school rating that will reflect the most current data from 06/07 and 07/08 school years. Going forward, we will release one SPF scorecard per year in the fall.

Your principal will be introducing you to the SPF and sharing with you the data provided in your school-specific scorecard throughout the remainder of the school year and into next year. The data contained in your SPF is a tool. It will help school staff establish overall school improvement goals, track performance against those goals, as well as help us ensure that all schools are places of academic excellence. SPF will foster a collaborative environment where you and your colleagues will share proven approaches and methods for improving student learning with staff from other schools.

In closing, we want to express our deep appreciation and thanks for all that you do for Denver’s students.

Thank you,

Michael F. Bennet           Jaime Aquino