NEDERLAND - As public education continues to rebound from the COVID pandemic and faces a changed world, there are clear trends and research emerging about what schools are doing to ensure better outcomes for students.

A recent report by TNTP – an education nonprofit that brings research, policy, and consulting together to reimagine America’s public education system – identifies three things “trajectory- changing schools” do to improve outcomes for students: 1) foster a culture of belonging, 2) deliver consistently good teaching for ALL students, and 3) set priorities that are clear to all.

Reading this report, I was pleasantly reassured to see that Nederland Elementary hits all three of these and we are indeed leading the way in BVSD and along the whole Front Range to ensure that all our students have every opportunity for success.

Back in August, before students returned for the school year, our staff engaged in a rousing conversation to answer the question, “What is the single most important thing we do every day for our students?” After much discussion we landed on doing everything we can to get all of our students to be at grade level by the time they leave our building and head to middle school. Looking back on that conversation now, I realize we were actually discussing the three things “trajectory-changing schools” do to improve outcomes. 

First, Nederland Elementary prioritizes fostering a strong school culture and a sense of belonging for all students. This has been a priority for years, and we are leaders in BVSD in this area. Through our partnership with TEENS, Inc. we were the first school in BVSD to implement the Second Step Social Emotional Learning curriculum; we have innovative positive behavior support with Panther Paws, bead jars, and spirit assemblies; and we have what I believe are the strongest mental health supports in BVSD.

This all helps create a strong sense of belonging because ultimately, if students don’t feel they belong, they won’t learn.

Second, we have the best teaching staff who consistently deliver strong instruction for all our students. Our staff are characterized by being lifelong learners who are always looking for ways to improve and innovate while being sure all students are making progress towards grade level standards.

I was telling a parent the other day that our staff has the perfect blend of veteran teachers whose decades of experience keep us on track, combined with teachers new to the profession who come with energy, enthusiasm, and the latest teaching methods.

Over the past five years we have also prioritized ensuring that all students are consistently working with complex grade level texts, solving challenging grade-level math problems, and ultimately meeting grade level expectations.

Third, our priorities are clear. We run every decision through our filter to be sure we prioritize our time, energy, and resources with efforts aligned to our vision. There are a million and one incredible ideas out there, and our job is to select only those that align with our vision.

Our vision can be summed up with the following words, which serve as our guiding principles: Adventure, High Expectations, Stewardship, Equity, and Whole Human Beings. This focus has allowed us to say no to certain ideas and fully embrace other ideas.

For example, by focusing on high expectations and equity we were an early adopter of a new literacy curriculum, and led BVSD in the implementation of that curriculum. This curriculum is rich with high quality and complex texts and tasks that require us to hold high expectations for all our students.

We also focused on being sure our students experiencing poverty have everything they need to meet grade level standards. This is some of our most important work, as research tells us that when students who experience poverty have strong academic outcomes, their odds of earning a living wage by the age of 30 increase from 3 in 10 to 6 in 10 (6 in 10 is in line with students from more affluent families).

This combined work is paying dividends, as Nederland Elementary has simply never been better. We are now one of the highest-performing schools in BVSD. Data from the 23-24 school year shows the highest percentage of students reading at grade level and doing math at grade level than ever before.

Our students experiencing poverty outperform their peers across BVSD by significant margins, and our students with disabilities made tremendous progress towards meeting grade level standards.

To put a number on it, we can look at our School Performance Framework, or SPF. The SPF is the “report card” from the Colorado Department of Education, and every public school in Colorado gets an SPF score. This year our SPF score was 88.7 out of 100. This is an increase from 57.2 in 2019 and the highest score ever for NES by 10 points. A score of 88.7 is in the top quarter of scores among elementary schools in BVSD.

I am extremely proud of our work.

Nederland Elementary will have a table – along with Nederland Middle/High School – at the Nederland Community Holiday Fair on December 7 and 8. I invite and encourage you to visit the holiday fair, stop by our table to chat with staff, and learn more about our amazing programming.