Denver — School Performance Frameworks

Denver’s SPF is ingrained into system management and accountability decisions, and public conversations about school performance. However, the complexity of the system has prompted a planned reimagining of the SPF.

System Summary:

Denver Public Schools (DPS) uses its SPF to monitor school progress, support struggling schools, and hold schools and district leaders accountable for school performance. Additionally, the SPF is a tool that helps students and families understand how their school is performing. The SPF features a five-point color-coded rating.

Key Metrics:

Denver’s SPF sorts metrics into six indicator categories, with several metrics in each category. System leaders have adjusted and added metrics to the SPF over time. But some recent additions may have negatively impacted the reliability and credibility of the SPF by shifting results unexpectedly and making rating processes more complicated.

Use Cases:

The Denver SPF was primarily designed to serve system management and accountability purposes. It was not designed for everyday, continuous improvement, but DPS does use the SPF to communicate priorities to school leaders through its metrics. The SPF also serves as a tool for family and community information, and the district has made the tool more family-friendly over time.

Changes have included the addition of the color-coded ratings, improvements to readability and design of public-facing documents, and making the SPF available in multiple languages.

However, the large volume of metrics and complexity of the rating system make the SPF unpredictable and difficult to explain families. After 10 years with the SPF, district leaders are reevaluating the SPF, which may result in significant changes to its goals and metrics.

The collection of images below is a sample of the Denver school performance framework website and public-facing school reports as of 2018-19. Click on each image to view an enlarged version.