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DHS named ‘School of Opportunity’

Group recognizes diversity of approaches
Teacher Teri Kopack leads a discussion with other small-learning community teachers during an early release session. The teachers discussed kids who are slipping through the cracks and need additional support near the end of the school year.

Durango High School is one of 17 high schools named in a first-year program as a “School of Opportunity” for its diversity of approaches to education.

The National Education Policy Center at the University of Colorado, Boulder, selected the schools, all of which are in Colorado or New York as part of a pilot project.

The people behind the program are Kevin Wehner, a professor who specializes in educational policy and law in the School of Education at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Carol Burris, principal of South Side High School in the Rockville Centre School District in New York.

The designation as a School of Opportunity is expected to be extended to other states in coming years.

School of Opportunity designation is based on 11 principles identified by experts in the 2013 Oxford University Press book Closing the Opportunity Gap. Wehner and Stanford University professor Prudence Carter edited the book.

Among the 11 specific principles are effective student and faculty support, outreach to the community, health and psychological support, fair discipline policies and high-quality teacher induction and mentoring.

To earn School of Opportunity designation, school applications went through four levels of screening. The project was funded by the Ford Foundation and the National Education Association.

Three high schools in Colorado and two in New York received gold-level recognition.

daler@durangoherald.com

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