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October 1, 2020
JEFFERSON COUNTY, COLORADO
A publication of
INSIDE: VOICES: PAGE 8 | LIFE: PAGE 10 | SPORTS: PAGE 13
VOLUME 16 | ISSUE 18
Jeffco’s patchwork of reading curriculum uneven
A Call to do Better
Some schools using state-rejected programs BY ANN SCHIMKE SENIOR REPORTER AND COMMUNITY EDITOR, CHALKBEAT COLORADO
about the image prior to the publication of that article but sent a team out to investigate after reading the story. The team painted over the image, which had already been graffitied on by a tagger. According to Spaulding, the image had actually been painted onto a wall owned by the Colorado Department of Transportation. However, the city crew painted over it as a courtesy. Spaulding said in an email that the city of Wheat Ridge “removes any type of graffiti as quickly as possible when it appears on city property.” The public can report graffiti by calling the city’s community service officers hotline at 303-235-2926.
Parents have asked. Community groups have asked. Media outlets have asked. For two years, none have gotten a clear answer about the primary curriculums Jeffco’s 90 elementary and K-8 schools use to teach children how to read. District leaders told Chalkbeat that each school has the autonomy to select its own reading curriculum, but officials don’t track what schools have chosen. A partial list compiled by Chalkbeat shows a patchwork quilt of reading curriculum in the 84,000-student district — with some schools using high-quality programs that have earned state approval and many others using programs the state has soundly rejected. More than half of Colorado thirdgraders can’t read well, and the coronavirus pandemic will likely make matters worse. Experts say low-quality curriculum is part of the problem. But Colorado parents and the public often don’t know what their local schools use to teach reading. Last winter, Chalkbeat filed public records requests to find out what K-3 reading curriculums Colorado’s 30 largest school districts use in their schools. Some districts initially said they’d charge for the information and others provided messy out-ofdate lists. Jeffco provided a simple answer — its own district-developed curriculum. Since then, Chalkbeat has learned that many schools in the district use reading programs officials never mentioned. It’s a black box that makes it hard for parents of struggling readers to figure out which schools can best help their children and obscures from public view the educational materials that schools spend millions of dollars on at taxpayer expense.
SEE GRAFFITI, P3
SEE SCHOOLS, P4
Members of Arvadans for Social Justice held signs protesting racism and police violence along Ralston Road on Sept. 21. PHOTO BY PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO
Arvadans for Social Justice open to residents wanting to make change BY PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO PALBANIBURGIO@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
“There were problems from the very beginning.” That’s what Arvada resident Daniel
MORE INFO Email: arvadansforsocialjustice@gmail. com Website: www.facebook.com/groups/asj. arvada Instagram: @ASJ_Arvada Mondragon said in comments he made to the Arvada City Council on Sept. 21 about the role racism had played in Colorado’s founding.
It was systematic racism, Mondragon said, that led several southern Colorado counties to be included in the state against residents wishes, and later caused two Spanish-speaking Hispanic legislators from those counties to show up to the first state legislature five days after it began with no accommodations in place for them to understand the deliberations all done in English. SEE ARVADA, P6
Graffiti image of Kenosha shooter briefly appears near I-70 Image appeared to glorify accused murderer Kyle Rittenhouse BY PAUL ALBANI-BURGIO PALBANIBURGIO@COLORADOCOMMUNITYMEDIA.COM
A Wheat Ridge city crew has painted over graffiti glorifying the Illinois teenager who shot and killed two people during recent protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The image, recently appeared on a wall that holds up an overpass where eastbound I-70 crosses over Clear Creek, depicts Kyle Rittenhouse standing in front of an outline of the
state of Wisconsin that has been filled in with the American flag. Westword, which first reported on the image, stated that the words “KYLE WAS RIGHT” had also been painted on the wall. In the image published by Wesword, obscenities and anti-police and racism slogans had been tagged onto the original image. Wheat Ridge Public Information Officer Sara Spaulding said the wall is located just east of Wadsworth and was visible from the east bound ramp from Wadsworth onto I-70. Clear Creeek runs on the other side of the wall. Westword’s story about the image came out on Sept. 24. Spaulding said the city had not received any reports