February 07, 2011 09:36 PM UTC

Report: DPS Middle Schools Failing

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• by: Colorado Pols

With education looming large as both an issue in May’s municipal election, and the recall campaign against DPS Board President Nate Easley; a new report from education group Padres Unidos says that Denver’s middle schools are being left behind in the push to reform the public school system.

Denver Daily News reports:

The report, “Preparing Denver Middle Graders for Success: A Roadmap for the District” was released by Padres Unidos and researched by the Center for Education Policy Analysis at the University of Colorado Denver. While DPS has placed a focus on turning around high schools, the district has not placed enough focus on middle schools, according to the report.

“Students do not begin to fail once they walk through the doors of high school,” states the report. “For most, dropping out of high school is just the final step in a series of academic failures, and most students who are going to drop out do so early in their high school years.”

There’s a lot riding on education for the candidates for Mayor and City Council. For example, at a recent Mayoral candidate forum on education, Michael Hancock raised some eyebrows when he indicated that if he was elected, he would take a more active role in the business of DPS as Mayor. Hancock even went so far as to say “We have to let go of the concept that the mayor doesn’t run the schools.”

With the battle for DPS looming large, other candidates are still looking to stand out from the pack when it comes to education. Candidates with education backgrounds include James Mejia, who runs the Denver Preschool program, Carol Boigon, who was the executive director of the Mayor’s office for Education and Children, and Chris Romer, who founded and served as President of the education funding advocacy group Great Education Colorado.