From the archives: Force, Sabin most improved on district scorecards

From the archives:
Force, Sabin most improved on district scorecards

Story and photos by Joshua Cole
(originally published in Oct. 8, 2009, Denver Herald-Dispatch)

Just like most major sports teams, schools that are in a “rebuilding” process first show a decrease in results before a jump to prominence.

After refocusing their curriculum, staff and identity, Force and Sabin elementary schools had a large jump last year on Denver Public Schools' performance measurements. Force and Sabin were among five schools in the city to increase the most points on the district's School Performance Framework, which the district also refers to as its scorecard.

Each public school in the district is measured on its academic performance, academic growth, college and career readiness, student engagement and parent involvement. Academic performance and growth are based partly on the state assessment – CSAP – in addition to the district's own benchmarks.

Force Elementary
Photo caption: Jamie Ruiz, Alex Avila, Juan Manuel and the rest of their fifth grade classmates at Force Elementary School raise their hands to share their answers during writing class. Force Elementary, near West Florida Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard, had one of the highest point increases on the district's scorecards.
Substitute teachers know that if a teacher has good classroom management, students will behave well even when that teacher is gone. Similarly, a successful plan should succeed even if a leader leaves.

That's what happened at Force Elementary. The school had an interim principal in the 2009-10 school year, yet teachers continued to forge ahead with the school's improvement plan. And it worked. Force improved by 20 points on the district's scorecard. The school was the highest performing school in its cluster – a group of schools that have similar demographics. Force has 92 percent free and reduced lunch.

Growth, status and school demand met district expectations, with 79 percent of points earned on growth and 55 percent of points earned for status. Overall, the school jumped up to 91 out of 133 possible points, or 68 percent.

Photo caption: Fifth graders Andrea Amador-Murillo and Dominic Bell review their drafts during a writing workshop at Force Elementary School.
“It's the fruit of a number of years of real strong data analysis,” said the school's first-year principal Lisa Mahannah, who was a central coordinator before she was hired in the spring. “When you have strong instruction, you see the results.”


Force has implemented pilot programs, including Response to Intervention and Literacy Squared. In Response to Intervention, teachers track student performance, and when a student doesn't meet certain objectives, different people at the school respond by finding out why the student is struggling and then helping create solutions.

The school earned a $5,000 scholarship from Casio for calculators, and a new computer lab was donated by Pepsi, Mahannah said.

Two parent liaisons have increased parent involvement and a connection to the school.

“One of the big pushes we see is the students accepting responsibility for their learning. We're working on bringing the community into that piece as well,” Mahannah said.

Force, which is at 1550 S. Wolff St., near West Florida Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard, has also formed closer partnerships with the schools where its students feed into, Kepner Middle School, West Denver Prep and Abraham Lincoln High School.

Five years ago at Lincoln and when West Denver Prep started four years ago, students were immersed in a college-prep culture. Kepner, Force and other nearby schools followed, putting college as an idea early in students' lives.

“We're trying to make Force Elementary not only the best in southwest Denver but also the beacon across the district in community partnerships,” Mahannah said.

Sabin World School
Sabin jumped up 26 points on its scorecard, the second-highest jump among the district's 139 schools. Sabin jumped up to 64 out of 137 possible points, or 47 percent of possible points.

Like Force, Sabin became more closely aligned last year with its feeder schools, Henry middle school and John F. Kennedy High School. Sabin was officially designated as an International Baccalaureate World School. In the International Baccalaureate program, which both JFK and Henry have in their curriculum, a school becomes aligned with world-wide standards for not only student learning but also character.

Getting IB status took the school three years to train and hire teachers and other staff and then get teach the kids, said principal Wendy Pierce. The school started work to become IB in 2006 with planning, and the school was authorized as an official IB school in February.

Sabin is at 3050 S. Vrain St., near West Dartmouth Avenue and South Sheridan Boulevard.

“We've literally changed the past three years how we've done business here,” Pierce said. “We knew we were going to have a dip, but when the increase comes, it's going to be big. Now we're starting to really zoom. The teachers are hungry for it to be higher.”