Posted inEducation, News

Driving a decade of progress, Hispanic students in Colorado made huge gains in high school graduation

When Rosa Beltran was going through high school in the late ’90s in a small town in southern Colorado, she never expected to graduate. “My parents were very concerned about just working and trying to put food on the table. I don’t think I ever had that support from the school either,” Beltran said about […]

Posted inNews

Applications now open for The Colorado Sun’s 2022 Rise and Shine Journalism Workshop

The Colorado Sun has opened applications for its 2022 Rise and Shine Journalism Workshop for up to 25 middle and high school students across Colorado. The program will be held July 18-22 over Zoom. The Sun introduced the summer camp last year, exposing students to the fundamental skills of journalism — including reporting, writing, filing […]

Posted inNews

Colorado’s graduation rates fell last year. The drop was worse among students of color.

Colorado’s high school graduation rate fell for the first time in more than a decade in 2021, according to the Colorado Department of Education.  A total of 81.7% of the class of 2021 graduated last spring, down from 81.9% of the class of 2020.  The data shows wide graduation rate discrepancies between races and economic […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Schools should prioritize teaching youth about sexual consent

Denver area teens are back in the classroom. Administrators at Denver metro schools are working hard to keep our youth safe from the Delta variant of COVID, but they are harming them in another way: by failing to give them consistent consent and sexual assault prevention education. Educators, parents, and community leaders must prioritize teaching […]

Posted inCOVID, Education, News, Technology

Adams 14 will have no online option for elementary students next year and limited online spots for older kids

By Yesenia Robles, Chalkbeat Colorado Citing costs and logistical problems, and after seeing the slow student progress online learners made compared with their peers, Adams 14 officials will limit remote learning next year. Elementary students all will have to return to full-time in-person learning.  Students in middle and high school may sign up for one […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: Student engagement, relevance should be Colorado’s benchmark for school funding — including learning outside classroom walls

The traditional high school model is not meeting all of our students’ needs. Rather than ask students to sit in classes for eight hours a day, we should expand learning opportunities to build authentic and engaging experiences that will help them thrive after high school.  Shifting the culture in our schools from compliance-driven learning to […]

Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns

Opinion: A Colorado high schooler’s lament about Advanced Placement classes and almighty curriculum

Although meaningless to most of the population, many high school students taking Advanced Placement (AP) classes for college credit are intimately familiar with the name Trevor Packer.  Packer is the senior vice president of the College Board, the organization overseeing the AP program, and has a prolific presence on Twitter. Packer is a face of […]