How do we ensure that all students in Jefferson County have the resources and opportunities they need to succeed from cradle to career? The leadership at Jeffco Public Schools has worked hard over the last few years to develop their Jeffco Thrives 2025 Strategic Plan.

The vision of Jeffco Public Schools is to be a thriving district where all students achieve their biggest dreams.

This school year, one of the themes for the district is “Focused Acceleration.” One of the key areas they are focused on in this effort is “exploring and defining a strategy to intentionally address gaps in achievement for Jeffco’s students experiencing poverty.”

Addressing achievement and opportunity gaps in Jeffco is a passion area for us as we have walked alongside students, families, educators, and school leaders over the last ten years. Our area schools have the highest percentage of students facing the hurdles of poverty. Students were struggling academically before the pandemic and the impacts have multiplied over the last three years. Educators and school leaders are working hard, but they don’t have the resources they need to support students and families.

Students that face the hurdles of poverty should be able to access a great education. Educators in our local schools deserve the tools and resources they need to support students.

The frustrating part for our community is that academic struggles in our local schools go back thirty years. There have been bright spots over the years, but we have not seen sustained academic growth. The hardest part about advocating for the needs of local students and educators is that a majority of students in Jeffco are white and middle class. It’s hard to raise the issues facing our local schools when most of our county have not experienced what local students and educators face each day.

The growing academic and opportunity gaps in Jefferson County are an injustice that we should be talking about more and collectively taking action to address. Other districts have advocacy groups that stand up and demand a better education for students of color. Unfortunately in Jeffco, we don’t have advocacy groups demanding change.

So here are some of our ideas for how to move forward and address these gaps:

Conduct an Equity Audit of Jeffco Public Schools

We can’t begin to address the academic and opportunity gaps in Jeffco if we don’t fully understand them. An equity audit would look at the extracurricular activities, curriculum, class options, sports, and other opportunities that are available at a building and district level. Click here to read more about equity audits.

Co-Design Innovations in the Edgewater Area Schools

We need systemic changes that would allow our community (families, students, educators, and community members) to come together to dream and design what a great educational pathway could look like in the Edgewater area. To much change has been done TO our community instead of WITH our community. Over the years, families have come together in more suburban areas of our county to dream and design an educational environment that fits their children. Many of Jeffco’s charter schools were launched in this way. Why can’t Latino families in east central Jeffco have the same opportunity to dream and design schools that meet the needs of their students? We have a real opportunity in the Edgewater area to design integrated schools that lift up the bilingual and bicultural assets in our community.

Rally Together for Growth

Poverty is a hurdle to academic growth, but it is not a barrier. Students in the Edgewater area deserve to be ready for college or a career just as much as students at D’Evelyn, Ralston Valley, or Evergreen. Too often people sing the academic praises of more affluent schools and then in the next breath make excuses for why our local students aren’t growing academically. We need to rally together to remove hurdles to academic growth and celebrate growth wins. Families deserve to know if their students are on grade level in reading and math as well as have access to the resources their student needs to reach grade level. Educators deserve to have the support they need in their classrooms so that they can differentiate learning for the various groups of students in their class.

Jeffco will only be a thriving school district if ALL students have access to a great education and ALL educators have the resources they need to support student learning and growth. Let’s do better together!