Public education in Colorado has been in steady decline for more than a decade and Durango School District 9-R has followed the state in that downward spiral. We recently reached a point where approximately half of the 9-R students are reading, writing and doing math at grade level (reading: grades three to eight, 51% or less; grades nine to eleven, better than 50%; math well below 50% for all but ninth grade).
Even more worrisome is the continual refrain in the pages of The Durango Herald and elsewhere that 9-R is “above average” when compared to other Colorado districts. To that I would say you are using the wrong metric: Being above average in a failing system is not success.
Sometimes it requires an outsider to remind us what success looks like, which is why I support Shelli Shaw for House District 59. Both of my children graduated from the Katy Independent School District in Texas, where Shaw was both a teacher and administrator.
Cinco Ranch High School ranks in the top 5% of Texas schools and more than 80% of the students perform at grade level. That is what success looks like. That is what 9-R should aspire to. Shaw has the background and drive to help us get there.
Erik Goodwin
Durango
