Democratic School Design: Reimagining School Turnaround in Denver Public Schools

Abstract

After a decade of focused attention and millions of dollars, school turnaround remains one of the education sector's most pressing challenges. Research shows that tackling it requires the implementation of tried and true levers—high-quality instruction, effective school leadership, and family engagement—at the highest possible levels, and that it requires a sophisticated interrogation of broader structural challenges such as segregation, poverty, and racism. This capstone explores a novel approach to school turnaround in Denver Public Schools (DPS), the Year Zero Redesign cohort. This approach strives to equip principals with the mindsets, skills, and autonomy to build partnerships with families, redesign their schools, and effectively lead dramatic change efforts. Through this inquiry, I explore the unique role of principals in system-level transformation; the way trust affects schools and communities; and the quest to redesign schools in alignment with the needs and preferences of students and families. I also examine how DPS, a large and ambitious school district, might learn to support this work in a rapidly evolving policy environment. I argue that taking time for intentional school design and leadership development—not instructional leadership development alone, but community and creative leadership development as well—holds great potential for more consistent results in school turnaround and school redesign. I also suggest that this and other creative approaches to turnaround will become possible only when system-level incentives and accountability measures allow for it. This capstone offers lessons for DPS as it seeks to create an ecosystem of excellent and diverse school models, and for practitioners and policymakers across the sector seeking to realize transformative change through community mobilization and school design.