IMPACT The Denver Public Schools Foundation believes Dear valued supporter, every child deserves an excellent education. The single most pressing and critical priority for our nation is to provide a quality education for It is our promise to the students in Denver Public every child. Our future depends upon it. Denver Public Schools has reached a historically significant milestone in its quest to become the best Schools – to the entire community – that with public school district in the country. Since the 2005 inception of the Denver Plan, DPS students have shown dramatically more improvement than the rest of the state in every core subject area. On-time your help, we will make that happen. graduation rates have risen by over 20 percentage points while dropout rates have been cut in half. We are making bold progress toward our goal of ensuring Every Child Succeeds. DPS is now the fastest growing urban school district in America, growing enrollment by more than 20% in the last six years. This is the first time DPS has been the largest school district in the state since the 1970s. Our students are our future. The community is choosing DPS as a destination for educating its children. You play a critical role in this growth and progress as part of a powerful community-wide movement to ensure the strength of our public school system. Your investment in the DPS Foundation provides the resources, tools and innovations that are changing the odds for more than 88,000 children and creating a generation of students better prepared to lead our community – and our nation – into the future. Our Mission: Our Vision: In partnership with Denver Public Schools, In Denver Public Schools, outstanding Thanks to supporters like you, we raised a record $14.9 million we raise and manage funds, make strategic educational achievements are the in 2012-13 to support Denver Public Schools. program investments, and serve as norm and all children have hope community leaders so that all students of a great future. We are grateful for your generosity, and need your help now more than ever in order to close our have the opportunity to succeed. achievement gaps and reach every child. Despite recent progress, it’s impossible to ignore the difficult truths. Though steadily climbing, only 61 percent of third graders are on or above grade level in reading. We won’t be satisfied until every child is reading at grade level and 100 percent of our high school seniors receive a diploma. With your help, we’re empowering school leaders to identify, grow, and replicate the highest- performing and most exciting new innovations; and we’re expanding core programs proven to have measurable impact on the lives of our students. Together, we will achieve our shared vision: every child in Denver Public Schools will succeed. Thank you for your commitment to our students... to our future. Sincerely, We are all DPS. Kristin Heath Colon Brooke Brown Tom Boasberg President & CEO Board Chair Superintendent, Denver Public Schools 2 Denver Public Schools Foundation Annual Report 2012/13 3 The DPS Foundation secured $4.2 million in private funding to leverage an additional $16 million in federal turnaround dollars to support the DSSN initiative. Thanks to this generous community support, DPS partnered with some of the greatest minds in school reform to build, implement and evaluate the DSSN, including Blueprint Schools Network and the Education Innovation Laboratory at Harvard University. Taking it to Scale Early results from the high-dosage math tutoring in the Private funding via the DPS Foundation DSSN showed many students advancing multiple grade helped DPS partner with the Blueprint Schools levels in a single year. This progress helped DSSN classes achieve a five-year record high in the number of students Network to determine five core strategies for scoring proficient or advanced in math. This remarkable improvement in Far Northeast Denver, based success allowed DPS to make a case for expanding the on national research about the common program using public funding, which voters approved in characteristics of high-performing schools. a 2012 mill levy (3A). DPS is now implementing similar math tutoring in classrooms across DPS. This is a shining example of private investment allowing school leaders to identify, incubate and evaluate promising CORE Fostering Innovation, new programs, leveraging them into scaled, sustainable solutions for all students. 5 STRATEGIES Transforming Communities Your support is changing the odds. Not just for the 88,000 students in Denver Public Schools today, but for the many 1. Excellent leaders and teachers thousands of students who will follow them for generations What does it take to improve educational to come. 2. Extended school day & school year You’re changing the course of education in our country. outcomes for an entire community of children? Thank you! 3. College-going culture of high expectations 4. Data driven instruction The DPS Foundation has helped fund one of the nation’s 5 5. Daily math tutoring most ambitious and comprehensive school turnaround projects known as the Denver Summit Schools Network (DSSN) to improve DPS opened 5 new schools in the DSSN an entire feeder pattern of persistently low performing schools in Far Northeast Denver. ENROLLMENT IN 6TH AND 9TH GRADE HAS GROWN 60% IN THE REGION VISIT: www.dpsfoundation.org/impact to learn more about how DPSF funds innovative initiatives across the district. Building on our 21-year history and close alignment with 4 Denver Public Schools Foundation Annual Report 2012/13 DPS, we are poised to aggressively accelerate our role in 5 At several DPS schools, these innovations in teaching are now available thanks to generous community support. Grant Beacon is one of six Janus Blended Learning Labs in DPS, thanks to a multi-year commitment from Janus – their second gift since 2008, totaling more than $5 million in support from DPS’ most generous corporate donor to date. Blended Learning is defined as the coupling of teacher- led instruction with online curriculum. This approach allows students to individualize the pace of their learning, while providing teachers with actionable real-time student data to inform their instruction. When you walk into a classroom at Grant Beacon, you’ll This is better preparing me for find groups of students working simultaneously in different formats – some complete assignments on their laptops, while my future, because our generation others work together in small collaborative groups, while others receive one-on-one instruction from their teacher. is technology-based. When they “The technology allows me to track each of my students bring technology into school, individually and instantly, so I can see exactly where they’re we’re able to learn more about answering a question wrong or getting stuck on a problem,” said Jeff Kurtz, a teacher at Grant Beacon. “I used to have what our future is becoming. to wait until I got home to grade assignments and have Creating a Better Denver a clear picture of where specific kids in the class were – Cherokee, former Grant Beacon student; struggling. Blended Learning has given me the tools to current South High School student individualize instruction to the students who need it – and One School at a Time allow others to move ahead at their own pace. It’s truly changed how I’m teaching.” What does it take to prepare students Changes Taking Hold The progress is already evident. The number of Grant for the 21st century marketplace? Beacon students scoring proficient or advanced increased The DPS Foundation funded a by nine percent in reading and by 15 percent in math the NEW SCIENCE CURRICULUM first year of Blended Learning. What’s more, this fall, Grant Beacon moved from a “yellow” to a “green” rating on the and fifth-grade science scores School Performance Framework, the state’s scorecard for The teachers and students at DPS’ Grant Beacon Middle School how schools are meeting the needs of their kids. Principal Alex Magana says Blended Learning has been instrumental can answer that question. Technology in the classroom. INCREASED in this progress. “It’s a game-changer in terms of how we’re Innovations in teaching. Blended Learning. educating our kids.” 13% Denver Summit WANT TO SEE WHAT BLENDED LEARNING LOOKS LIKE? VISIT: www.dpsfoundation.org/impact to look inside a Grant Beacon classroom. 6 Denver Public Schools Foundation Annual Report 2012/13 7 A Day in the Life of a DPS Student Enrolled in Fit, Fun & Literacy When the bell rings at Cowell Elementary School, Doubled Impact for the the day is far from over for dozens of students. Fit, Fun & Literacy Program Picture this: in one room, several students conduct a hands- Consider this: without Fit, Fun & Literacy, many of these What does it take to help Every Child Succeed? on science experiment, creating makeshift volcanoes using students would go home to an empty house. They would vinegar and baking soda. Out on the playground, another lack adult supervision and might have no one to help with group plays “gator ball,” getting 45 minutes of rigorous homework, and may not have access to nutritious food to physical activity – which is proven to keep kids healthy replenish them after a long day. and focused. In a quiet corner of another room, a struggling reader gets help with homework, his face lighting up Thank you for investing in after-school programs – one For students enrolled in DPS’ Fit, Fun & Literacy enriching after-school experience; served 20,000 when his instructor praises his progress. At the end of the of the many ways you are helping Every Child Succeed. program, it starts with the basics: a healthy meal, healthy dinners to children and their families; afternoon, every student sits down to a hot, healthy dinner exercise and a safe place to study after school.