Expansion of school choice in Denver has led to dramatic improvements in student learning, according to an article in Education Next by David Osborne, a senior fellow at the liberal Progressive Policy Institute. School choice has grown in Denver to the point that today about two in five of the city’s students are in public charter schools or fairly similar innovation schools.
The results speak for themselves. The dropout rate was cut by more than half in the last decade. In the 2006 to 2007 school year, less than 40 percent of Denver students graduated on time. Today, about 65 percent do. The portion of students who scored at grade level or better in reading, writing and math also increased by 15 percentage points.
In Denver, 14 percent of students from low-income families enrolled in college. That’s disappointingly low, but it’s much preferable to the five percent number for the rest of the state.
What separates Denver from other cities that have expanded school choice is how the local district worked for school choice instead of trying to shut it down. “With an elected board, Denver Public Schools (DPS) has embraced charter schools and created innovation schools, which it treats somewhat like charters. Since 2005 it has closed or replaced 48 schools and opened more than 70, the majority of them charters,” Osborne writes.
Charter schools are publicly-funded and do not charge tuition. Compared to traditional public schools, charter schools have more independence and flexibility in their operations and curricula, which is why so many families find charter schools desirable. They are open to all students, but they often don’t have enough space to meet demand. In that case, they use a random lottery system to determine admission.
Innovation schools have less autonomy than charter schools, but more than traditional district-run schools. Also, at least in Denver, failing innovation schools haven’t been closed, nor have successful ones been replicated. The opposite is true for charter schools.
“Within a decade, the district could reach a tipping point, where a majority of public school families choose charters or innovation schools,” Osborne writes. “Denver will be well on the road to proving that an elected board can transform a 20th-century system organized on the principles of bureaucracy into a 21st-century system built to deliver continuous improvement.”
Jason Russell is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
