Denver School of Science & Technology One of Six Finalists to Have Pres. Obama Speak at Graduation Ceremony

From Bill Kurtz, the Principal of Denver School of Science and Technology in Denver:

Dear Friends,

I am thrilled to share with you that DSST has been selected by the White House as one of six finalists in a national competition to have President Obama speak at our high school graduation ceremony in May. You can read more about this in the press release that was issued by the White House this afternoon (please see below).

1,000 high schools applied for this honor. The application was 3 parts: Academic results, Student essays, and a Video. You can watch the video and read application materials here:
http://www.scienceandtech.org/

Later this month, DSST along with the other 5 finalist schools will be featured on the White House website for voting by the public to determine the top 3 schools. Then President Obama himself will choose the winner from the top 3. We will have more information about this process in the weeks ahead.

We are very proud of our students, parents, teachers, and staff for their achievements! Our continued academic success is what has made this great honor possible. We are very grateful for the support of our board and you, our community and friends, for your continued belief in our mission and model. Thank you and we will continue to update you as the story unfolds.


THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
_______________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2010


President Obama, Department of Education Announce Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge Finalists Six Public High Schools Selected to Compete for Presidential Commencement Address

WASHINGTON – The White House and the Department of Education announced today the six high schools selected as finalists for the first annual Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge. The Commencement Challenge, launched in late February, invited the nation’s public high schools to submit applications showing their dedication to providing students with an excellent education that will prepare them to graduate ready for college and career choices. Applications were judged based on the schools performance, four essay questions and supplemental data. The six finalists were selected for their dedication to academic excellence and for showing how they are helping prepare students to graduate college and career ready, and prepared to meet the President’s goal of having the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020.

Finalists:
· Blue Valley Northwest High School (Overland Park, Kansas)
· Clark Montessori Junior High and High School (Cincinnati, Ohio)
· Denver School of Science and Technology (Denver, Colorado)
· Environmental Charter High School (Lawndale, California)
· Kalamazoo Central High School (Kalamazoo, Michigan)
· MAST Academy (Miami, Florida)

“I thank all of the schools that submitted applications for the first Commencement Challenge and I congratulate the six finalists for demonstrating effective approaches to teaching, learning and preparing students to graduate ready for college and a career,” said President Obama. “The quality of the applications we received is a testament to the exciting work happening in schools throughout the country, and I look forward to visiting and speaking at the winning school later this spring.”

“These six schools represent just a few of the stories of success that are happening all across the country,” said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “We won’t accomplish the President’s national goal of leading the world in college completion by 2020 without the hard work and dedication of the school leaders, teachers and students exemplified by our six final high schools.”
Over the next few weeks, each school’s students will work with The Get Schooled Foundation, which includes Viacom and The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation among its founding partners, to create a short video highlighting how the school best fulfills the Challenge’s criteria. The six videos, along with portions of each school’s written application, will be featured on the White House website in the coming weeks and the public will have an opportunity to vote for the three schools they think best meet the President’s goal. The President will select a national winner from these three finalists and will visit the winning high school to deliver the commencement later this spring.

Watch a video of the schools being notified of their selection on Thursday, April 8, 2010.

Update: Denver Post article

Ridgeview Classical Schools

I spent the day at Ridgeview Classical Schools where a handful of us learned about how the charter school teaches reading and writing. First, Mr. Florian Hild, the principal, explained the school's classical philosophy, which is based on the trivium of learning: grammar, logic and rhetoric. The grammar stage is elementary school where students are taught lots of facts and information. Logic is where the students begin to apply this knowledge while under the guidance of their teacher. The full use of what a student has learned is the rhetoric stage. At the rhetoric stage students should be able to cogently explain what they believe and be able to ask probing questions because they have a foundation of knowledge upon which they can build.

Ridgeview Classical uses Riggs to teach students how to read beginning in Kindergarten. The program is heavily phonics based and is a complement to the classical educational approach used at RCS. Throughout the K-12 charter school the Socratic method of inquiry is used to guide discussion on primary and classical works.

RCS consistently scores in the top five high schools in the state. They do this without ANY preparation for CSAP. In fact, they aren't even aware of the state's model content standards that CSAP assesses. Instead, RCS focuses on teaching a solid sequence of learning based on what the school believes is important for students to know. The discussion, or Socratic method, is the methodology used to deliver the curricula.

Like almost all charter schools in the state, RCS has a waiver from using licensed teachers. They still must employ Highly Qualified teachers, but they don't have to meet that requirement with appropriately licensed teachers. The majority of RCS teachers have advanced degrees. The administrator's approach to hiring is an emphasis on hiring people with deep content knowledge. Most elementary school teachers did not receive a general, elementary education degree. Instead, many have a content area degree.

While RCS has developed a successful model over its ten-year history, how replicable the model is, particularly at the high school level, remains to be seen. Part of the school's success is being able to train students in the trivium prior to high school, allowing a higher level of achievement prior to high school graduation. Students that come in during the high school years require intense remediation and a desire to adapt to the model of high expectations. These elements that define Ridgeview Classical Schools are difficult to achieve in a new school and take time to develop to the level RCS currently enjoys.

The RCS vision has been guided since the school's inception by founders Kim Miller, Peggy Schunk, the first principal, Dr. Terrence Moore and the current principal, Mr. Florian Hild. Mr. Hild has been at RCS since its opening where he began as the German teacher. The clarity of vision for what the school is, and is not, has allowed them to develop a sophisticated, unique educational program that is effective with a number of students. The charter school's lottery pool is 1400 students.