The Center for Education Policy Analysis (CEPA) at the University of Colorado Denver recently published a report that attempts to assess the effect of a “portfolio district strategy” on student performance in the Denver Public Schools. While the report convincingly demonstrates that the gains are not significantly due to changing demographics, it fails to address other critiques of the prior CEPA study on Denver’s reform strategy. Additionally, the report’s sweeping conclusion—that Denver’s reform is the most effective in U.S. history—is unsupported. The improved outcomes in Denver during this time period are impressive, but the authors seem overly determined to cite a package of favored reforms as the cause. Therefore, although the new report provides some additional suggestive evidence in support of the portfolio reform, its conclusions are exaggerated in both magnitude and certainty.

Suggested Citation: Shand, R. (2024). NEPC review: Systemwide and intervention-specific effects of Denver Public Schools’ portfolio district strategy on individual student achievement. Boulder, CO: National Education Policy Center. Retrieved [date] from http://nepc.colorado.edu/review/denver