A plan to improve the struggling Westminster Public Schools was narrowly approved Thursday by the State Board of Education.
The Democrat-controlled board voted along party lines to approve the plan, with the Democrats voting in favor and the Republicans voting against.
The 4-3 vote followed months of negotiations and appeals between the 10,000-student district and the state.
Westminster is the first metro-area district in Colorado to face state intervention after more than five years of low performance on state English and math tests. It is the only district in the state, and one of a few in the country, that has tried to roll out competency-based education district-wide. Instead of traditional grade levels, the district moves students through instruction when they prove they’ve learned a concept.
As part of the improvement plan, the district has hired consultant AdvancEd to help diagnose problems interfering with the rollout of its teaching model and other achievement problems at each of the district’s underperforming schools.
