Adams County School District 14 (Adams 14) and TNTP, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve the quality of K-12 education, this summer formed a partnership focused on providing high-quality educational experiences for every student in every school throughout the district.
Adams 14 Superintendent Dr. Karla Loría said, “I feel energized and hopeful about the work we have begun with TNTP. We focus on what matters most: making sure our amazing students can access the excellent education they deserve.”
While serving as partial external manager of the district (as required by the Colorado State Board of Education), TNTP has aligned its efforts to the Colorado Domains for Rapid School Improvement (www.cde.state.co.us/fourdomains), a research-based framework provided by the Colorado Department of Education; these domains include Leadership for Rapid Improvement, Talent Management, Instructional Transformation, and Culture and Climate Shift. In addition, Adams 14 and TNTP has added a focus of equity across all domains with the goal of closing gaps in performance for the most historically marginalized students, such as students with Individual Education Plans (IEPs) and Multilingual Learners.
To date, through the partnership, Adams 14 and TNTP have collaboratively set major academic, culture/climate, and talent goals together to drive our work. TNTP has created a progress monitoring dashboard that is being used across the district and with the Colorado Department of Education to track weekly progress. This helps the team keep key stakeholders informed and guides the use of time and resources. In August, TNTP led our teams to create an assessment strategy at Adams 14’s request that allows school and district leaders to better understand the needs of students across the district and design data-driven solutions.
To support instructional transformation, Adams 14 and TNTP have created a professional development strategy for teachers and leaders. This strategy aligns instructional practices across all schools in the district and is focused on improving school culture and high-quality teaching practices with research-based curriculum aligned to state standards. Through this work, educators are developing a common language in Adams 14 Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), supporting teacher internalization of high-quality curricular resources, and monitoring students daily for mastery of state standards.
In addition, Adams 14 and TNTP are on the ground in schools and district offices, coaching school and district leaders using the Adams 14’s Academic Excellence Playbook as an anchor and our six major goals as the North Star. Adams City High School Principal Chris Garcia said, “As an administrator, it is not very often you get to be a participant and a learner, especially in your own building. Adams 14 and TNTP visits provide just that, and they are incredibly helpful.”
“We are honored to have been welcomed into the Adams 14 community. And we have built an authentic partnership with the team at Adams 14 and the progress monitoring team at Colorado Department of Education. Our top focus is on providing what kids need to be successful now; we want to be part of the solution,” said Sarah Lynch, TNTP’s team leader.
Adams 14 and TNTP agree that making district-wide improvement at the speed and scale students deserve will require a community-wide effort. The team has been working to analyze data on student performance as well as connect with students and stakeholders in interviews, surveys, and classroom observations. These are providing a deeper understanding of the student experience – especially the experience of students who have historically been marginalized – that is helping Adams 14 and TNTP identify the root causes of strengths and challenges across the school system. From there, our partnership has begun to develop a robust strategic plan that will guide the district forward.
We are continuing to engage stakeholders and over the next few weeks, we will ask community members to share their perspectives on what is most important to them via a virtual listening tour. Families and students can participate in the listening tour (tinyurl.com/Adams14Listens) on the Adams 14 Facebook page, and can learn more on the Adams 14 Strategic Partnership Plan website (sites.google.com/tntp.org/adams14-strategicplanningsy24/home).
About Adams 14
Nestled in the historic community of Commerce City, Adams County School District 14 (Adams 14) is proud to serve its 6,000 students from 13 schools across the district. The 900 employees at Adams 14 work each day to provide an inclusive learning environment for all students and are committed to inspiring, educating, and empowering Adams 14 students to succeed.
About TNTP
TNTP believes our nation’s public schools can offer all children an excellent education. A national nonprofit founded by teachers, we help school systems end educational inequality. We work at every level of the public education system to attract and train talented teachers and school leaders, ensure rigorous and engaging classrooms, and create environments that prioritize great teaching and accelerate student learning. Since 1997, we’ve partnered with more than 200 public school districts, charter school networks, and state departments of education. We have recruited or trained more than 50,000 teachers and inspired policy change through acclaimed studies such as The Mirage (2015), The Irreplaceables (2012), and The Widget Effect (2009). Our latest report, The Opportunity Myth (2018), followed nearly 4,000 students in five diverse school systems to learn more about their experiences in school. Today, TNTP is active in more than 50 cities.
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