DSST middle school celebrates having no achievement gap and having the second highest SPF score in the city. School Director Jessica Heesacker told the students, “Everyone in the room will go to college and have the opportunity to be successful.” Superintendent Tom Boasberg (left) asked the students, “What makes your school so good?”

Brooke Jones responds to the superintendent’s question, “We’re all different. We have different ethnic groups. We come from different backgrounds.”

Bill Kurtz, DSST Public Schools CEO who founded DSST 10 years ago, applauds the students’ success.

While DSST celebrates their School Performance Framework (SPF) scores and talks about the importance of continuing their hard work, Superintendent Boasberg is looking at closing the achievement gap throughout DPS. He says, “The number one overwhelming focus that we have is the quality of our teaching. We’ve significantly increased our investment in teacher leaders who give one-on-one feedback…and teacher collaboration time. The most effective way to help our teachers learn and grow is one-on-one regular coaching and feedback.”

To download a larger SPF chart click here.

Above: Scores for NE Denver elementary and middle schools.

SPF – School Performance Framework; FRL – Free and Reduced Lunch; ELL – English Language Learner; SPED – Special Education