| Type | School District, Government Owned |
|---|---|
| Industry | Education |
| Founded | Denver, Colorado (1859) |
| Headquarters | Denver, Colorado |
| Key people | Tom Boasberg, Superintendent |
| Employees | 13,087 |
| Website | www.dpsk12.org |
The Denver County School District No. 1, more commonly known as the Denver Public Schools (DPS), is the public school system in the City and County of Denver, Colorado, United States.
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The first school was a log cabin on the corner of 12th Street between Market and Larimer streets that opened in 1859. The school district was created in 1902 by a constitutional amendment that created the City and County of Denver and consolidated five school districts into today's School District No. 1.
Currently, DPS operates 87 elementary schools, 9 K-8 schools, 24 Middle Schools, 38 High Schools, and 30 Charter Schools. They also operate other school programs including the Denver School of the Arts, the Center for International Studies, Emily Griffith Opportunity School, DPS Online High School, an International Baccalaureate program, a Highly Gifted and Talented Program, and CEC Middle College of Denver. DPS also operates the Balarat Program, an outdoor education, western history, and environmental studies program at a 720-acre (2.9 km2) site in the mountains northwest of Boulder.[1]
In total, DPS educates 78,352 students as of October 2009. The ethnic/racial composition of these students are:
According to the DPS website, the graduation rate of DPS students is 52%.[2] The district's dropout rate is 10.4%.
Although Denver is about 40% non-Hispanic White, minority groups represent double the regular Denver population. The reason for this has been white flight over the past few decades and extremely strong Hispanic school-age growth due to relatively high birth rates. The predominant heritage in the Denver Public School system is Mexican American. Denver has a high Hispanic percentage of roughly 40% and they are a majority in the public school system. In addition, Denver's African-American percentage overall is half that of Denver Public Schools.
There are 13,087 employees of DPS; 4,555 of them are teachers.[2]