Hashing out school-closing criteria at forums a fantasy

By Diane Carman Denver Post Staff ColumnistMay 24, 2007The conversations around the tables Tuesday evening were about real life: a granddaughter exposed to unruly children at school, a classroom where too many pupils don't speak English, a school where the children are making impressive gains but still haven't achieved proficiency on standardized tests.
None of that fit neatly into the agenda. It was all about abstractions.
Reality would have to wait.
It was the second of five community meetings held by A+ Denver, a group of volunteers assembled to map an escape from the tar pit into which Denver Public Schools has sunk.
The problems are the same at most urban school districts: pockets of low achievement, scarce resources and families fleeing to charter schools, private schools or the suburbs.
The goal of the meeting was to develop criteria for selecting schools to be closed - without ever mentioning actual schools.
It was like trying to land a plane blindfolded.
The concept implies that, somehow, 20 or 30 or some yet to be revealed number of schools can be identified using objective measures determined by broad consensus.
It suggests that this can be accomplished in five 90-minute meetings and that the ultimate decision won't be met with a storm of fiery protest.
It's pure fantasy.
Former Denver Mayor Federico Peña explained the agenda to the 30 or 40 people who joined a couple dozen folks from DPS at the meeting. Peña is co-chairman of A+ Denver and is trying to put the best spin on what everybody knows is a political cluster bomb waiting to explode.
"We have too many buildings for too few students," he said, citing statistics from DPS that show enrollment has dropped from 98,000 students in 1969 (before court-ordered busing began) to 68,500 today. "We've asked the community to give advice on which schools to close, reprogram or reorganize."
The committee just wants "rough ideas," he said. The school board will make the decisions.
The earnest participants listened carefully and punched numbers into clickers to record their preferences. The results of the polling appeared like hits on a PlayStation.
Thirty percent thought "low longitudinal growth" should spell a school's doom, while 26 percent said the key factors should be low student-retention rates or poor attendance.
Only 14 percent thought low CSAP scores should be the factor that shutters a school, which was a fairly resounding no-confidence vote in a state accountability system that's draining the education budget to the tune of $23 million a year.
But that's a steaming tar pit for another committee.
Schools in areas with declining enrollment were tabbed for extinction as well as schools that were expensive to run by virtue of their costly operations or crumbling buildings.
The group struggled to balance the needs of children in areas where academic performance is deficient with those who live in neighborhoods with growing school-age populations.
They knew exactly what these abstractions meant: poor inner-city schools pitted against schools in rich white neighborhoods. It always comes down to that.
"It's inherently unfair to ignore the way the game's been stacked for the past 25 years," Allen Potter said. "I don't want to make excuses for any failing school, but it's unfair to apply these criteria equally, as if the past doesn't matter."
Others questioned whether closing schools and disrupting communities would make any difference in the end.
"The big question is, what is DPS doing to improve the quality of education," said Kristen Sharp, a member of Padres Unidos, a community group advocating for better schools. "What is the district doing to help students meet the new graduation requirements?"
Participants were encouraged to write comments on cards left on each table. Peña promised that all the information would be assembled and analyzed.
An announcement on school closures is not expected to come until 2008, but no matter how many abstract criteria are applied to the process, the reality will be brutally real.
The one consensus every family in Denver is sure to reach is this: My school shouldn't close, no matter what.
Diane Carman's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 303-954-1489 or dcarman@ denverpost.com.