Schools arming to prevent heart attacks

Denver will soon place heart defibrillators in every school in the district. But should schools be doing more to safeguard young hearts?

Opinion: Schoales taking helm at A+ Denver

The A+ Denver citizens committee is about to get a makeover, with longtime Denver education reformer Van Schoales taking the helm of the organization later this month.

By hiring Schoales, the A+ board and its co-chairs, Terrance Carroll (former speaker of the state House of Representatives) and Mary Gittings Cronin (who ran the Piton Foundation for 21 years) would seem to be signaling a desire to raise the organization’s profile and sharpen its edge.

(Full disclosure: Schoales and I are old friends, and he is a frequent contributor to the Education News Colorado opinion and commentary blog)

Cronin said the organization would continue to pursue its mission – “to harness the power of Denver’s civic leadership to build public will and advocate for reforms necessary to dramatically increase student achievement in public education in Denver.”

She said expects that Schoales “will relate well with Superintendent (Tom) Boasberg and we look forward to him reenergizing and reactivating the membership of A+.”

But she also made it clear that Schoales’ job isn’t to act as head cheerleader. “We expect that under his leadership the focus of A+ will continue to be as it has been, which is providing support to the DPS reform agenda, but also very importantly holding the district accountable for results. Everything is focused on academic success for kids.”

Some states leave low-income kids behind

A ProPublica analysis shows, in some states, high-poverty schools are less likely to have students enrolled in higher-level classes. Link to interactive database

Monday Churn: New head for A+ Denver

Van Schoales, most recently executive director of Education Reform Now, will be the new head of A+ Denver. Plus NEA news