14 Years of Reported Root Causes of Poor Achievement in Jeffco Schools — Updated inOctober 2023
Since the 1950s, organizations around the world have used a systematic performance improvement process that is frequently attributed to W. Edwards Deming and Toyota Motor Company. Its four steps are summarized as “Plan”, “Do”, “Study”, and “Act”.
In the study step, the root causes of shortfalls between intended and actual results are identified, using a variety of techniques. Plans are then designed and implemented to address these root causes.
Since the 2010, Colorado school districts have been required to annually prepare “unified improvement plans” that include the identification of the root causes of their achievement shortfalls, along with “major improvement strategies” to address them.
The UIP process is a version of the familiar Deming process that has driven performance improvement in thousands of organizations for the past seventy years. Yet in Jefferson County Public Schools (and arguably across multiple Colorado school districts) it has singularly failed to produce substantial improvement in student achievement results, which have in fact declined.
For example, in 2015, 58% of Jeffco 6th graders failed to meet state math standards; in 2019 this rose to 65%. By 2023, this had further worsened, to 68%.
Similarly, in 2015 56%of Jeffco 8th graders failed to meet state science standards; in 2019, this rose to 62%. In 2023, it was 63%.
What are the root causes of these shockingly poor results in affluent, educated Jefferson County, where 48% of adults 25 or older have a bachelors degree or higher?
In the context of the UIP process, there are three possible answers:
- The root causes that were identified were not the most important root causes;
- The major improvement strategies identified to address the root causes were incorrect (e.g., not based on strong research evidence);
- The major improvement strategies were poorly implemented.
This column kicks off a new series that will address these questions.
I’ll begin with a list of all the root causes that were contained in the Unified Improvement Plans that Jeffco Public Schools has submitted to the Colorado Department of Education since the 2010/2011 school year.
2010/11 UIP (Cindy Stevenson, Superintendent)
· “Schools lack district-wide formative and benchmark progress monitoring tools in writing to calibrate the fidelity of implementation of the district writing curriculum.”
· “Students needing to catch-up do not receive quality and/or adequate time for universal/core instruction in addition to effective, aligned targeted/intensive interventions.”
· “Many secondary schools do not have a systematic, tiered system of support to respond to the needs of catch-up students.”
· “The district has not strategically resource mapped and allocated resources differently among schools to better meet the needs of catch-up students.”
2011/12 UIP (Cindy Stevenson, Superintendent)
· “Schools lack district-wide formative and benchmark progress monitoring tools in writing to calibrate the fidelity of implementation of the district writing curriculum.”
· “Teaching and learning have not consistently demanded high expectations in every classroom due to superficial coverage of a large number of standards, lack of understanding of grade level mastery, lack of relevance for students, and lack of systemic progress monitoring.”
· “Educators lack consistently rigorous, growth-producing feedback through the evaluation process.”
· “The district is not meeting the state expectation of 100% highly qualified teachers…because an effective monitoring system is not in place for existing staff especially for secondary schools.”
2012/13 UIP (Cindy Stevenson, Superintendent)
· “The district lacks systemic practices in writing instruction and effective feedback in every classroom.”
· “The district lacks structures to ensure consistent quality of professional development is provided to all instructional staff.”
· “District and school leadership lack systemic understanding around multiple pathways for students to stay on track to graduate.”
2013/14 UIP (Cindy Stevenson, Superintendent)
· “Systemic implementation of intentional lesson design to engage students’ conceptual understanding of their learning and increase student cognitive load is not evident in all classrooms.”
· “Educators have received inconsistent training on effective literacy instruction and the use of research-based resources”
· “Math instruction tends not to be differentiated, lacking a variety of structures to meet students’ needs”
2014/15 UIP — Note: this is not a typo. The 2014/15 UIP repeats the same root causes as 13/14 because this was the year the state transitioned from TCAP to CMAS.
· “Systemic implementation of intentional lesson design to engage students’ conceptual understanding of their learning and increase student cognitive load is not evident in all classrooms.”
· “Educators have received inconsistent training on effective literacy instruction and the use of research-based resources”
· “Math instruction tends not to be differentiated, lacking a variety of structures to meet students’ needs”
2015/16 UIP (Dan McMinimee, Superintendent)
· “There is a need for implementation across the district of systemic evidence-based instructional practices that promote learning of rigorous literacy skills and competencies to ensure every student can “read to learn” by the end of third grade.”
· “There is a need for implementation across the district of vertical alignment (PK through 12th) and interdependence of math concept development that leads to successful learning in algebraic thinking…There is a need across the district for systemic classroom-based instruction, assessment and grading practices throughout the elementary and middle years that focuson higher level math concepts and procedures.”
· “Core instruction in academics, and social and emotional skill development must meet the needs of all students in achieving the performance expectations that will prepare them each step in their chosen learning pathway to successful completion of a Jeffco education.”
2016/17 UIP (Dan McMinimee, Superintendent)
· “In many schools, there is a lack of systemic evidence-based instructional practices that promote learning of rigorous literacy skills and competencies to ensure every student can “read to learn” by the end of third grade…For many students, the various literacy interventions are not specifically matched to student learning needs and may create additional barriers to learning rather than supporting literacy growth…Evidence indicates that current professional development in standards/competency-based core instructional strategies and learning supports has had limited impact on the effectiveness of high level literacy practices and matching interventions to student needs…Evidence indicates that current professional development and resource allocation for literacy instruction has had limited impact on desired increases in student performance.”
· “In many schools, there is a lack of systemic classroom-based instruction, assessment, and grading practices throughout the elementary and middle years that focus on higher level math concepts and procedures leading to algebraic thinking…In many schools, there is a lack of systemic classroom-based practices that require application and transfer of higher order algebraic thinking to meaningful/relevant real world problems and contexts…There is a lack of understanding across the system of vertical alignment (PK through 12th) and interdependence of math concept development that leads to successful learning and algebraic thinking…There is a lack of commitment across the system to ensure consistent differentiated teaching and learning practices matched to student needs.”
· “There is a need across the district for a system-wide commitment to ensure classroom practices and programming choices that provide every student with the opportunity to successfully complete a Jeffco educational pathway…There is a need across the district for a clear understanding among students and staff of the most critical performance expectations to achieve in order to be prepared for each student’s learning pathway…The allocation (or reallocation) of resources and supports to meet students’ social, emotional, engagement, and advancement needs are not addressing barriers to learning for all students (including students with educational plans).”
2017/18 UIP (Jason Glass, Superintendent)
· “The district and schools have not provided equitable resources and support for math students to have a well-established foundation in: mathematical reasoning to explain, justify, and evaluate their thinking used to solve problems and applications of reasoning across content areas.”
· “Due to inequitable resources and support, schools have limited capacity to differentiate instruction and engage students in relevant, authentic tasks, specifically in the core areas of mathematical reasoning and conceptual understanding in addition to memorization of facts.”
· “All schools currently do not have the full capacity to meet all students’ early literacy learning needs due to inequitable resources and support, for a variety of reasons, including inconsistent structures and routines across schools for foundational classroom (core) reading instruction, variable evidenced-based instructional practices to differentiate teaching for all learners’ needs, and lack of literacy transfer and application to other content areas.”
2018/19 UIP (Jason Glass, Superintendent)
· “Early Literacy: All schools currently do not have the full capacity to meet all students’ early literacy needs due to inequitable resources and support, for a variety of reasons including: (1) Inconsistent structures and routines across schools for foundational classroom (core) reading instruction; (2) Variable evidence-based instructional practices to differentiate teaching for all learners’ needs; and (3) Lack of literacy transfer and application to other content areas.”
· “Middle School Math: The district and schools have not provided equitable resources and support (for example, differentiated professional learning, and interventions) for math students to have a well-established foundation in: (1) Mathematical reasoning to explain, justify, and evaluate their thinking used to solve problems; and (2) Application of reasoning across content areas.”
· “Post-Secondary and Workforce Readiness (PWR): Due to inequitable resources and support, schools have limited capacity to differentiate instruction and engage students in relevant, authentic tasks, specifically in the core areas of: (1) Mathematical reasoning and conceptual understanding in addition to memorization of facts; and (2) Literacy transfer and application to other content areas.”
2019/20 UIP (Jason Glass, Superintendent)
• “In Jeffco, we are intent on providing rich and authentic learning experiences for all students built on the foundation of “student task” — or what teachers create for students to do in the classroom. We want our students to have the opportunity to develop skills and abilities such as collaboration, adaptation to changing conditions, communications, creative problem solving, and civic and global engagement. The district has provided tools and supports for our teachers and staff to develop student tasks with these objectives as a priority across all levels and all schools…Supporting students to connect their learning from authentic experiences in a variety of settings, including state tests, has been inconsistent. This shift to a new way of teaching and learning takes time and one hypothesis for the dip in district test scores may be attributable to the learning curve associated with this new pedagogical approach.”
• “While the district has focused on authentic learning experiences for our students, factual information and deep content knowledge remain important. For the state accountability assessments, about 60% of the CMAS test measures factual information, with the remainder focuses on problem-solving and critical thinking. An analysis of the district CMAS performance by standards shows the lowest performing areas are the critical thinking sections, specifically integration of knowledge & ideas as well as prose constructed response for English language arts and reasoning and modeling for mathematics…Jeffco students generally are performing lower on the CMAS items that require more critical thinking and problem-solving (writing, modeling and reasoning) and [because they] may be experiencing fewer opportunities to demonstrate these higher-level thinking skills on district, school, and classroom tasks and tests.”
2020/21 UIP (Kristopher Schuh, Superintendent)
· “In Jeffco, we continue to focus on providing deeper learning, namely rich and authentic learning experiences for all students built on the foundation of “student task” — or what teachers create for students to do in the classroom. We want our students to have the opportunity to develop skills and abilities such as collaboration, adaptation to changing conditions, communications, creative problem solving, and civic and global engagement (a.k.a. Jeffco Generations Skills). Over the past century, historical approaches to teaching have not focused on this real-world application and it takes time for systems to adapt instructional approaches and change traditional practices.”
· “A major root cause for many of the district’s priority challenges this year concerns the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Disruptions to learning, increased social-emotional needs, and exacerbated opportunity gaps for students experiencing poverty, homelessness and other risk factors have all contributed to this year’s challenges for the district and schools.”
2021/2022 UIP (Tracy Dorland, Superintendent)
· “Inconsistent district/school/classroom leadership, data-based decision making, family partnerships, tiered supports and evidence-based practices to meet all students’ needs.”
· “Depending on the school and/or classroom, all students may not receive or benefit from effective continuous improvement processes to meet their varied academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs.”
· “District supports have not been integrated across all departments to develop and support systemic leadership, data-based decision making, family partnerships, tiered supports and evidence-based practices to meet all students’ needs.”
2022/2023 UIP (Tracy Dorland, Superintendent)
•“Prior improvement efforts through strategic planning and district unified improvement plans have not yielded anticipated results due to inconsistent district focus, clarity of expectations, adequate training/support for staff, and effective tools to check progress and adjust implementation strategies.”
2023/2024 UIP (Tracy Dorland, Superintendent)
• “Core instruction in every classroom has not consistently met high expectations due to lack of understanding and planning instruction at grade level expectations from the Colorado Academic Standards.”
• “The district has not provided a consistent expectation and framework to support schools in their data analyses and continuous improvement process.”
• “There has been insufficient focus on developing authentic relationships that enable all students and families to have a sense of belonging at school.”
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Reading this list of root causes from different years’ UIPs raises two critical questions:
First, why did the root causes change? If the ones listed were successfully addressed but achievement results didn’t improve, it implies that the real root causes either weren’t identified or for some reason were identified but not listed in the UIP.
Second, if the listed root causes were not successfully addressed, why were they then changed in the subsequent UIP?
The painful truth is this: Jeffco’s academic results have been declining since we moved here from Calgary in 2010. In the context of the Uniform Improvement Process, there are three possible explanations:
Either (1) the district has not accurately diagnosed the true root causes of the problem; (2) it has accurately diagnosed the root causes, but used ineffective major improvement strategies to address them; or (3) it has pursued major improvement strategies that have been effective in other districts, but has poorly implemented them.
Unfortunately, for more than a decade, nobody on the Jeffco Board of Education or the District Management Team has had any idea which of these has been the main driver of declining results (or if they do, they have kept silent about it).
And tens of thousands of Jeffco’s children have and continue to pay a lifetime price.
Tom Coyne is a business executive, former member of the Jeffco District Accountability Committee, and former chair of the Wheat Ridge High School Accountability Committee. His wife, Susan Miller, was elected to the Jeffco Board of Education in November 2019. These are solely his views.
