Denver Public Schools - Case Study

With a student enrollment edging ever closer to six figures, Denver Public Schools (DPS) is Colorado’s largest school district. More than 4,300 teachers instruct students in elementary, middle and high schools, along with a mix of non-traditional and charter schools run by three main charter management organizations: Strive, KIPP, and Denver Sciences Schools of Technology.

As one of the nation’s largest and most diverse districts, DPS faces numerous challenges. It must meet the needs of a student population whose linguistic, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds vary widely—no small feat for a small network of schools, let alone the largest in the state. Meanwhile, a centralized management team must support and oversee the efforts of a distributed staff whose instructional methods range from more conventional classroom environments to the earliest stages of adoption of a competency-based education model.