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DDES is a 9news cool school!
Mission
The Downtown Denver Expeditionary School (DDES) is an EL Education K-5 DPS public charter school. DDES seeks to richly implement the core principles, practices, and curriculum of El Education to offer a diverse, caring and collaborative learning environment while utilizing the city as our campus.
EL Education
EL Education’s approach to curriculum makes subjects come alive for students by connecting learning to real-world issues and needs. The EL model provides academically rigorous learning expeditions, case studies, projects, fieldwork, and service learning projects to children of all backgrounds and ability levels. It inspires students to think and work as professionals do, contributing high-quality work that would be appreciated beyond the classroom. Students explore subjects through working on in-depth meaningful projects inside and outside the classroom. These projects are carefully planned “learning expeditions” encompassing the Colorado State Academic Standards and the Common Core Standards for each grade level.
Diverse by Design
Alongside our work in academics and aligned with our social emotional learning, we believe that preparing scholars for the world beyond also means experiencing the diversity of the world we live in today. By design, our network is intentionally diverse. We prioritized applicants from low income families. We are one of the few racially integrated elementary schools in Denver Public Schools. 40% of our population are families of color. 80% work downtown. 60% live within a 3 mile radius and we accept students from 44 Denver metro zip codes, making Downtown Denver Expeditionary the most geographically diverse elementary school in Denver Public. This unique aspect of Downtown Denver Expeditionary brings together students from many communities allowing us to create opportunities for them to share experiences, come together in classrooms and out on fieldwork, and connect across both racial and socioeconomic lines of difference. Valuing diversity is an organizational priority and a core belief shared in our school. DDES is proud to have recently been accepted and now accountable to the national Diverse Charter Schools Coalition, a group dedicated to helping create diverse public charter schools through research, advocacy, and outreach.