Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2016
ESL teacher Thuy Hoang works with students at Castro Elementary School.
New Professional Learning Center Website Launches
Featuring innovative search functions and comprehensive information
The recently launched Professional Learning Center website is a one-stop shop for all your professional learning needs. The website features:
  • A new course catalog with an innovative search function that allows you to filter content by school (including courses automatically aligned with a school's flexibility decisions), subject, grade level and role
  • A course calendar with video tutorial
  • Professional Development Unit (PDU) opportunities and credit options
  • Learning communities where you can connect with other educators to collaborate and share best practices 
  • A resource library with planning checklists, guidance and more
Please also keep an eye out for additional professional learning resources available on The Commons next week.   Contact the Professional Learning team to share your feedback or ask questions. 
Faculty Meeting Q&A 
A feature focused on sharing your top questions from recent faculty meetings

Throughout the school year, Superintendent Tom Boasberg and Deputy Superintendent Susana Cordova will be visiting every school to meet with teachers and leaders to hear what's going on in their schools and to answer questions. Last week, they met with teachers from Maxwell, Amesse, Marrama, Green Valley and DCIS Ford Elementary Schools.

Q: Considering the early learning goal, can you tell us what percentage of DPS schools have all-day preschool?
 
A:  There are 79 DPS schools that offer full-day early childhood education (ECE) classes, five of which are charter schools. All DPS elementary and K-8 traditional schools have access to ECE services with the exception of Polaris and Kunsmiller. Some schools have a center that provides the classes. For example, the Stephen Knight Center for Early Education serves ECE students from Slavens, University Park, Steele, Asbury and Cory elementary schools since there are no ECE classes located in those schools. 

Even with all the ECE classes provided, our research shows about 37% of students entering kindergarten in DPS did not attend a Denver preschool. These students tend to score the lowest on district assessments as they continue in school. Our most recent data shows that students who attended either half- or full-day ECE classes scored on average 5% higher on district assessments than students who did not attended ECE.*  Our research also shows that our English language learners who attend ECE in DPS are 87% less likely to be long-term English learners, which means they are more rapidly becoming proficient in English. 

To better prepare children to enter school, DPS and numerous community partners have developed a set of recommendations focused on leveraging and aligning current programs, and when necessary developing new programs, to support children's health and social-emotional needs from birth. The recommendations also include providing even greater access to preschool so children are prepared to enter school ready to learn and thrive. Learn more about the plan, called the Birth to Eight Roadmap.

*2008 -2010 DRA/EDL Word Analysis Cohorts

Have a question we can help answer? Email us at [email protected].

Professional Growth Plans Due
Please remember to submit your Professional Growth Plan (PGP) no later than Sept. 30. You can select your PGP through Schoolnet under the Educator Development tab. Questions? Please contact the LEAP team . 
Grants Administration Resources Available
Do you have a grant? Would you like to seek funding for your school or department? Check out our new site on The Commons where you'll find the Grants Guidance Manual, funding opportunities, support from grant administrators and other helpful resources. 
Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) Test Scores Now Available on Parent Portal
Schools will soon receive the paper CMAS Individual Student Reports (ISRs) for each student. For parents who would like to view their scores earlier, they can access the PDF version of the ISRs already available on the Parent and Student Portals. Parents and students can click on the "District and State Tests" section and download the PDF version of the CMAS ISRs by clicking "My CMAS Reports" in the top right corner. If parents/guardians do not have a Parent Portal account already, please encourage them to create one by visiting myportal.dpsk12.org to access this valuable resource. Read Full Story >>
Share Your Good News on The Commons
Do you have a success story you'd like to share? Is there something special happening in your department or school we should know about? Would you like to recognize a student or teammate? Share Your Good News with us  here .
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Note: We send many DPS communications via this platform. Please do not unsubscribe from these messages or you will not receive future and important messages. If a specific message doesn't interest you, simply delete it and stay tuned for a future communication that will be of more interest. If you have any questions, please email [email protected].