The Donnell-Kay Foundation is interested in bettering Colorado's public education system, providing thoughtful research, dialogue and critical thinking in the development of creative and systemic ideas to strengthen and improve schools.
The Donnell-Kay Foundation is interested in bettering Colorado's public education system, providing thoughtful research, dialogue and critical thinking in the development of creative and systemic ideas to strengthen and improve schools. These are our current areas of focus, but please check out the work we have in the pipeline by clicking “upcoming” and our old areas of work in “past projects.”
The Donnell-Kay Foundation believes that all students deserve a high quality education to ensure they are ready to graduate high school prepared for a career or post-secondary success. Unfortunately, there are thousands of youth in Colorado who have either dropped out of school or are so far off-track from graduation that their future is in jeopardy. This population is known nationally as Opportunity Youth, and in Colorado, these youth are often served by...
EdSeeds is designed to encourage innovation in Colorado’s K-12 schools by providing a platform to help educators solve specific classroom challenges in novel ways. EdSeeds is housed at the Donnell-Kay Foundation, with a concept loosely based on principles from technology accelerators such as Y Combinator and TechStars. We believe many educators have initial thoughts about how they might innovate within their practice, but they lack the structure, time, and...
The Donnell-Kay Foundation believes that all students deserve a high quality education to ensure they are ready to graduate high school prepared for a career or post-secondary success. Unfortunately, there are thousands of youth in Colorado who have either dropped out of school or are so far off-track from graduation that their future is in jeopardy. This population is known nationally as Opportunity Youth, and in Colorado, these youth are often served by the state’s Alternative Education Campuses (AECs).
Expanding digital and online offerings can begin to alleviate significant inequities that exist within our public school system today. Some students have access to high quality teachers and a diverse array of courses and schools. Others lack access because they live in communities that struggle to attract talent or find the resources to provide the variety of options that a wealthier or larger district can offer. A shift to a blended model of learning – one that combines face to face, online and digital learning – is an important next move for our state.
In recent years, many new resources and reports have generated new knowledge on blended learning. The Donnell-Kay Foundation has collected selected resources in one place to inform policy making, and help community and school leaders understand and overcome barriers to successful implementation. If you are looking for the materials from a recent summit or workshop, visit our Summits page.
Several states and researchers have demonstrated that online and blended learning increase educational opportunities and improve outcomes for a wide range of students. Though we have learned of pockets of innovations sprouting up across our state and nation, the expansion of such efforts is happening at too slow a pace.
Please click on "Dispatches" or search for the term "blended learning" on our site for podcasts and other information from the 2nd Annual Blended Learning Summit.
Co-hosted by The Donnell-Kay Foundation and the Morgridge Family Foundation
This workshop, held in Denver on March 21, 2013 was co-hosted by CEE-Trust, Gates Family Foundation, and University of Colorado School of Public Affairs.
We planned a competency-based pathways summit in early 2011 to explore how states and districts can move from "seat time" to "proficiency" for student graduation.
The foundation has an ongoing interest in Denver Public Schools (DPS), and in recent months, we release two papers with a focus on DPS.
In May 2012, we released the report "True North: Goals for Denver Public Schools," along with partners A+ Denver, Together Colorado and Stand for Children Colorado.
EdSeeds is designed to encourage innovation in Colorado’s K-12 schools by providing a platform to help educators solve specific classroom challenges in novel ways.
School districts and charter schools across Colorado – large and small, urban and rural, wealthy and poor – are struggling to keep up with their construction needs because the funding system for school facilities is broken. That was our conclusion in 2005 when Donnell-Kay Foundation released a report estimating that the capital construction needs of K-12 public schools in Colorado were $5.7-10 billion. Turns out we underestimated.
The Donnell-Kay Foundation is embarking on a project to design and launch an education system in Colorado that is so aligned to a successful future for students that there is no question about why learning in this system will lead to a better path for life. If you are interested in participating in this initiative, or would like to learn more about the project, please read our Request for Information (RFI), and consider submitting a proposal.
