蜜桃影视

This essay originally appeared on the .

I was recently speaking with a group of national education experts about current issues in Denver Public Schools. As someone who knows the district and its leadership, I defended their actions and values but honestly felt I was at a loss to justify the 听辞谤 .

In that moment, a veteran observer of leaders and reform systems said, 鈥淭he sad thing is that Denver Public Schools is a victim of their own success.鈥� I was stunned by the clarity of this observation and how it spoke to the political climate in our city.

The success is evident. At a recent A+ Colorado panel on , Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova discussed the tremendous progress of ELL students.

There is no denying that for tens of thousands of students with English language needs in Denver, going back to the world of 2006 is not an option. In DPS schools, multiliteracy is promoted, encouraged, and showing real signs of strengthening in practice. District critics usually avoid this data point (for it would suggest to some that district coherence and infrastructure actually can lead to good outcomes and to others that the district is doing great work for some of its most vulnerable kids).

Another positive point is school turnaround, usually the quagmire of districts. With high-profile turnarounds operated by charter schools that have shown record gains or modest but steady cultural and academic improvement, the argument that charters can鈥檛 serve local communities is ebbing. The district has also shown progress in its turnaround work, with its producing real momentum at previously low-performing schools by prioritizing family voice and new academic designs.

Add to these points of progress charters and district schools sending more kids to college than ever before; an enviable educational advocacy community; tremendous investments from local and national philanthropies; ; and . Expectations for Denver students/schools are a mile high and increasing almost as fast as the population.

Still, district officials lament off-record how much more could be possible, and board members share publicly how far they know they are from real achievement. External partners of the district and are striking rapidly both publicly and privately against the current district leadership. Why? It鈥檚 the bittersweetness of increased success 鈥� they know how much more must be done and believe it鈥檚 possible.

The Denver of 2006 was too content with failed outcomes for kids of color and low-income communities. The Denver of 2018 is watching exploding growth among white and high-income populations while kids of color and low-income communities fall behind or barely narrow gaps. Progress of English learners is not matched by progress of African-American students. . And, as A+ Colorado has sadly reported, DPS is nearly 30 years from achieving its 2020 goals at the current rate of progress.

A regular observer could be forgiven for seeing frustration among the leaders who want more for kids. In 2018, communities in Denver can see clearly what is possible and what they aren鈥檛 getting at their school. A decade-long timeline of progress doesn鈥檛 help families that are in a system failing them now.

Vague notions of a path forward mixed with uneven progress causes anxiety. Anxiety combined with rising expectations is revolutionary rocket fuel.

At a recent event hosted by the Gates Family Foundation and Blue School Partners, an emerging generational divide about these rising expectations displayed itself.

. You could almost hear the revolution brewing around them in the auditorium. A newer generation is asking: 鈥淵es, we鈥檝e made progress and we hear you that more must be done. But don鈥檛 we need to do things radically differently?鈥� and 鈥淗ow do we give real power to those dispossessed in the system, not just the illusion of power?鈥� And they weren鈥檛 alone. They are joined by many who have led the fight for years asking the same questions.

: Moses and Joshua. In the biblical stories, Moses confronted Pharaoh and led his people to freedom. However, it was the Joshua generation that entered the Promised Land.

We have a Moses generation in Denver, dedicated activists, teachers, principals, and system leaders who fought to bring the potential and reality of educational progress to this city. Urgency and student outcomes was their battle cry. They were well connected among foundations, civic institutions, and prominent businesses, and banded together to push for a brighter future. They lost some fights, won others, and began many that remain unresolved. They eventually came to see their mission as one of equity (even if many had different definitions of what that meant). Now, many of them are the first to admit that Denver is wandering the desert.

We also have a Joshua generation emerging in Denver, new leaders who imagine using the tools given to us by the Moses generation to create a new kind of change. These leaders are more diverse than Denver has ever seen. They seek a community-driven, open system. They lead through engagement and empathy. They consider many 鈥渋nnovations鈥� and 鈥渋mprovements鈥� as lacking a real vision of what exceptional learning looks like in a rapidly changing world. They care deeply about process as well as outcomes. They want to move beyond equity, using innovation and autonomies to construct systems of liberation (with many ideas about what it will look like). They see a path toward lasting, enduring change. Yet they feel the previous generation blocking their path (i.e., no new call for quality schools); many of them see that previous generation not as Moses, but as Pharaoh. They ought remember there is a lesson in that Pharaoh and Moses were raised together and knew each other as siblings.

And they should remember that the enduring change they seek is possible now because of the generations that came before.

I have tremendous admiration and respect for those who have led our city and improved our schools. I can only imagine how hard it is for them to see so much progress and so many gaps at the same time. They鈥檝e poured their hearts, souls, and careers into it. I don鈥檛 think their time is up. In fact, I think the most critical period of their leadership approaches.

We live in and in an extremely . The center is not holding; it also doesn鈥檛 help that we are enmeshed in an outrage-fueled, hot-take national culture that punishes all for speaking their mind while simultaneously calling upon us all to speak truth to power. In Denver, the external discontent and district disconnect are rapidly approaching crisis levels, even more than defenders of the district would like to admit.

Denver is now full of education revolutionaries from different generations who believe they can change the world yet deeply doubt our current path. That鈥檚 a combustible combination. Now add for kindling a lack of clarity or alignment among leaders about the next steps. Strike a match of a fraught political climate calling for change.

The revolution will eventually come, whether people want it or not. And when it does, it will likely not end up like anything anyone expects; it never does.

Landon Mascare帽az is the A+ Colorado senior partner for advocacy and alliances.

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