Dear DPS Community,
As we gear up for the start of the 2025-26 school year, we want to take a moment to extend our deep gratitude to each of you for your continued commitment to our Denver students. It’s a privilege to work alongside such a dedicated and passionate community, all united by our shared vision to ensure Every Learner Thrives.
For students, families and educators alike, the first day of school on Aug. 18 marks a fresh start, filled with excitement and hope for what lies ahead. From little ones saying goodbye to their families on their very first day of ECE to seniors savoring their final first day of school at DPS, this time of year brings a special kind of energy and anticipation. There’s a shared sense of excitement across Team DPS, fueled by a summer of reflection, planning and preparation to welcome both familiar and new faces into our schools.
This year marks an important moment in our collective work. We are entering the final year of our Strategic Roadmap, continuing to live our shared commitment to educational equity as our collective responsibility. As we look ahead, we remain steadfast in our charge to accelerate the trajectory of our underserved and underestimated students. At the same time, we step into the second year of implementing our Instructional Framework (our instructional vision and guidance shaped by the invaluable input of our DPS community) and continue to remain deeply focused on what matters most: our core business of teaching and learning.
Last year, we formally rolled out our instructional framework, and today, we’re proud to share that it is already driving momentum in the right direction. From early signs of growth in achievement to stronger alignment across schools and central teams, we are seeing the impact. Our Office of Schools leadership is excited to share some highlights reflecting the work happening across our schools in service of students.
Here’s what’s new and what we’re doubling down on this year:
80 elementary schools are implementing our new math curriculum, Illustrative Math (IM). Early results are promising with 24 schools having begun a phased rollout last year.
27 middle schools are implementing our new literacy curriculum, Amplify ELA. 12 schools began a phased rollout last year, setting a strong foundation and serving as early leaders in the use of high-quality instructional materials.
As we look ahead, we’re excited to continue supporting school and instructional leaders as we scale the implementation of the following high-quality curriculum across DPS:
Amplify ELA (Grades 6–8 Literacy)
Imagine IM (Grades K–5 Math)
HMH English 3D (Grades K–5 English Language Development)
OpenSciEd (Grades 6–12 Science)
Quaver Music (Grades K–5 Music)
We are reinforcing a simple but powerful goal in the classroom: every student should be able to articulate what they learned each day and every teacher should know how each student is doing. This means increasing the frequency and quality of formative assessments to determine student understanding and ensure instruction is responsive to each student.
Elementary and K-8 schools are utilizing targeted literacy interventions, providing the ability to intervene early and effectively when students need support.
Across our system, we are tightly aligned on Instructional Priorities to scale quality teaching and learning. Importantly, we’re looking not only at overall district results but digging deeper into the data to ensure that every student group is making meaningful progress.
This year, our focus remains steady, but our urgency is sharper. And we believe deeply that by building strong, student-centered learning environments where kids are seen, challenged and known, we can move closer to our ultimate goal: Every Learner Thrives.
Respectfully,
Dr. Tony Smith
DPS Deputy Superintendent