Scaling Our Impact ~ Generation Schools is at Home in the Rocky Mountains

Over the next five years, Generation Schools is expanding our impact in two regions: the Northeast and the Rocky Mountains, bringing over $100 million dollars in added value and cost savings to our partner districts.

Why Colorado? With a successful history of labor innovation in public schools, and a per-pupil funding pattern that reflects most of the country, the Denver metropolitan area is the ideal site for reform. Here, we will test the model’s cost-effectiveness, adaptability to multiple districts, and potential to be scaled nationally. We are working closely with Denver Public Schools to launch a full-model school serving 1,200 students in grades 6-12 in a turnaround campus.

Our recent expansion to the Rocky Mountain region has proven that significant structural innovation is possible in a variety of districts without changes to current teachers’ contracts.

Critical Partnerships Developing in the Rocky Mountain Region ~ Responding to Data & Engaging Parents

Generation Schools is positioning itself to help meet the needs of struggling students in the Metro. An interesting phenomenon about the greater Denver area discovered by Colorado Youth for a Change (CYC) is that students on boundary lines where the 15 districts intersect struggle the most to complete high school. Generation Schools plans to partner with CYC in helping districts implement the Generation Schools model near boundary lines to catch the large number of 9th graders who essentially need to start high school over. It’s wonderful to have the results from Brooklyn Generation School demonstrate how the model can help support over-age and under-credited youth in moving toward graduation. For more on CYC click here >>>

Generation Schools has also begun to work with Padres Unidos, a community and parent organizing group, that has made a huge impact on educational outcomes in Denver. Padres Unidos has brought in higher-performing schools, forced school turnaround options, and worked with the district to adopt equitable disciplinary policies for all students. Their next project is middle school reform, and they see the Generation Schools extended learning time model as an answer. For more on Padres Unidos click here >>>

We refer to existing schools with whom we are partnering to conduct whole school redesign as affiliate schools. With our affiliates, we are demonstrating that by redeploying existing school staff, it is possible to accomplish more without costing more.