ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Su Teatro receives national grant
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Theatre Communications Group announced that Su Teatro is among 10 theater organizations to receive funding through the Audience (R)Evolution grant program.
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LOCAL
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Pledges help pets during Dumb Friends telethon In all, more than $300,000 was raised for homeless pets and horses during the 16th annual Dumb Friends League Pledges for Pets Telethon, Jan. 26.
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SPORTS
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Broncos prepare for Super Bowl It’s all about focus as the Denver Broncos prepare for the Super Bowl. Players talked about the trip after the last team practice at Dove Valley.
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S i n c e 19 2 6 January 30, 2014
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Vol. 93 No. 06
DCIS at Fairmont students enjoy day at Stock Show
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By Elizabeth Denton Hale
an. 23 was filled with fun, as the entire student body at DCIS at Fairmont attended the 108th annual National Western Stock Show. Teachers, parent volunteers and students alike enjoyed learning about the animals, watching the events and visiting the Petting Zoo.
Diego checks out the sheep and its baby.
Photo by Elizabeth Denton Hale
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DPS graduation rate continues strong climb On-time graduation rate up 22.6 points in six years
Submitted by DPS Denver Public Schools continues to post strong, steady improvement in its four-year “on-time” graduation rate, which has increased by 22.6 percentage points over the past six years. This means hundreds more students are graduating on-time from DPS each year. At the same time, the district’s dropout rate continues to fall, dropping from 11.1 percent in 2005-2006, to 5.0 percent in 2012-2013. This means that since 2005-2006, DPS has reduced the number of students who have dropped out by over 2,200 students a year. Data released today by the Colorado Department of Education shows DPS’ four-year graduation rate improved by 2.5 percentage points in 2012-2013 to
61.3 percent, an increase of 22.6 percentage points since 20062007. The five-year graduation rate for DPS rose 3.5 percentage points, bringing the 20122013 rate to 65.4 percent, while the five-year completion rate increased 3.6 percentage points to 72.7 percent. DPS also tracks the f o u r - y e a r, on-time graduation rate of those students who start high school in DPS (as opposed to transferring into a DPS high school after starting high school in another district, often to one of the district’s alternative high schools). For students who started ninthgrade at DPS, the four-year graduation rate was 68.6 percent for
school year 2012-2013. Of the students who started high school in DPS in the fall of 2009, we estimate that approximately 75 percent will have graduated by this spring. “It is terrific to see hundreds more students earning their high school diplomas, and I am very grateful to our teachers and principals for their hard work that is making this happen,” said DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg. “While we still have much further to go in reaching our goal of graduating every student prepared for success in college and career, we continue to make strong and steady progress.”
In addition, the district’s dropout rate continues to fall, dropping to 5.0 percent, a more than 50 percent decline compared to the 11.1 percent dropout rate in the district in 2005-06 at the start of the Denver Plan reforms. Many of the students in DPS who drop out have transferred into the district (mostly into the district’s alternative high school programs) from other districts after they start high school. The drop-out rate for DPS traditional schools, not including alternative schools, is 2.7 percent. For traditional high schools in DPS, the on-time graduation rate is 74.4 percent. Several schools last year posted significant gains, including South High School, which posted an 11.6 percentagepoint improvement in its graduation rate over the prior year. In two years, South has increased its rate by 20 percentage points, Continued on page 2