Dear Educators,
Before we head into a well-deserved spring break next week, I am eager to share some updates as we look ahead to 2024-25. Our charge for the 2024-25 school year is to continue to build upon what’s working while making refinements that will hone our focus on what matters most. For the past two years, we have oriented around anchors that drive aligned actions across schools and the Office of Schools. The anchors provide shared language and understanding, which will continue in 2024-25:
- Safe and Welcoming: Intentional School Cultures
- Engagement with Grade Level Texts and Tasks
- Continuous Improvement
Beginning this month and through the spring, I’ll connect with school-based and central team members to gather input to refine our 2024-25 focus. Since there will not be time to connect with each of you, I invite you to take a moment to share your perspective in this short survey. I look forward to sharing updates, including a synthesis of the input I receive in April.
Instructional Framework
The development of the instructional framework will help us to dive deeper into our anchor: Engagement with Grade Level Texts and Tasks. This framework will include an instructional vision and practices to promote high student engagement and achievement, in addition to practices to ensure language, ability and race are not predictors of student success across DPS.
Last week we wrapped up engagement sessions with various stakeholders across the district (principals, community/advisory councils, teachers, students, central) and are in the works of synthesizing all of the input. Thank you to those who participated in an engagement session and/or shared your input through our survey.
A draft of the framework will be complete by April and we are excited to invite school leaders and teachers together to participate in a feedback session to deeply unpack the framework. Your insights and expertise are highly valued, and your feedback will significantly contribute to the refinement and enhancement of our framework.
Session Details:
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Date: April 10
- Time: 5-8 p.m.
- Location: 1860 Lincoln St., Denver, CO 80203 (14er)
If you are interested in attending the feedback session, please register here. Extra duty pay will be provided to team members under the DCTA bargaining unit at the negotiated rate. Please note that due to space constraints, registration is limited to 150 members.
I sincerely hope that you are able to take next week to rest and enjoy your time away! We’ll be ready to hit the ground running upon our return as we enter into our testing season.
Respectfully,
Dr. Tony Smith
Deputy Superintendent
