A VERY PUBLIC EDUCATION: 5 percent of Denver’s Black, Latino 3rd-graders are reading at grade level.

Since taking office in late November, the DPS board has largely ignored how DPS is performing its core function: educating students. Some board members – Tay Anderson, Michelle Quattlebaum, and Carrie Olson – have begun saying that it’s time to pivot away from adult priorities and back to kids, the district’s core constituency.

Some others, most notably board President Xóchitl “Sochi” Gaytán, have shown little outward interest in how kids are doing academically. “…part of what I believe is the vision for this board (is) to continue to move forward so that we are affecting our teachers in a positive way,” she said during the recent innovation schools debate, never once mentioning students or academics.

That’s problematic, given that the data reveals that in several schools in the part of town she represents, 0% of tested third-grade students – that’s not a typo – were meeting or exceeding grade level in reading.

The kids aren’t the board “constituents.” The teachers and administrators are.