Originally posted on Fox 31 KDVR, Jan. 17, 2012. Copyright © KDVR.org
Read here. Written by Eli Stokels.
Here, in the city that's home to the most one of the most pro-reform and yet divided school boards in the country, Denver Public Schools has a new school choice system that's supported not just by reformers but by the state's largest teachers' union too.
"That's probably the most remarkable thing about all of this," said Van Schoales, the director of A+ Denver, an education reform advocacy group. "Everybody is coming together to create a better system for families to choose schools."
Under DPS's new, centralized school enrollment program, families can apply to five schools -- traditional neighborhood schools, charter schools, magnet schools -- with one, uniform application.
"This is the first place in the country where charter schools are included as part of the same application for other public schools," Schoales said.
Sheryl Ziegler, whose four-year-old daughter is a year away from kindergarten, has applied to five schools that stood out as she did her homework, reviewing the school performance framework that shows how schools are doing with parent satisfaction, grades and CSAP scores.
"It really just affords you the opportunity to be very involved," Ziegler said. "There's just one universal application. You don't have to have several applications for all these different schools."
"Not every school is for every kid. So this affords you to say, what's really a good fit for my kid."
The deadline to apply for a student's enrollment this fall is January 31.
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