From Innovation Schools to an Innovation Zone in Denver, Colorado

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret

Bridgespan Group research examines district-led “innovation zones” as a promising approach to turn around failing schools and improve student outcomes. The article explains how districts can grant schools control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting through contractual and state-law guarantees, sometimes via nonprofit operation with district accountability. It highlights five leading districts and then focuses on Denver Public Schools’ Luminary Learning Network, describing early-stage conditions, ambitions, and the policy framework that enabled autonomy.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages8

Reading Time20 min

AccessFree to download

Innovation Zones and Their Design Features

Denver Public Schools and the Luminary Learning Network

Policy Context: Colorado’s Innovation Schools Act

Building Autonomy Through Innovation Schools

From Innovation Schools to an Innovation Zone in Denver, Colorado By Nithin Iyengar, Kate Lewis-LaMonica, and Mike Perigo Collaborating to accelerate social impact October 2017 This article is part of a Bridgespan Group research project that focuses on anew wave of district-led “innovation zones” that holds promise to overcome the challenges of turning around failing schools and deliver significant improvements in student outcomes. This new wave provides a subset of district schools with control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting. Such autonomy often is guaranteed by a contractual agreement and enabled by state law that can sustain the zone despite potential changes in district leadership. The schools are sometimes operated by a nonprofit that is held accountable to the school district for significant improvement in student outcomes. Our research highlights the experiences of five school districts that are vanguards of this new wave of innovation zones—Chicago; Denver; Indianapolis; Memphis, TN; and Springfield, MA. These innovation zones reveal certain design features that place a focus on improving teaching and learning over multiple years—the heart of any successful turnaround effort. Specifically promising innovation zones: • Set ambitious goals • Guarantee autonomy • Improve teaching and learning • Follow the students • Are sustainable, scalable, and built to last The article that follows looks in detail at one of the school districts profiled in the Bridgespan report A New Wave of District Innovation Zones: A Promising Means of Increasing Rates of Economic Mobility. Cover photo: Denver Green School The Denver Pubic Schools (DPS) approved creation of the Luminary Learning Network (LLN), the district’s first innovation zone, to build on past progress rather than to catalyze a turnaround effort. Previously, the district had designated the four elementary schools that make up the network as innovation schools, and each improved student outcomes under that designation. Nonetheless, leaders of the four schools requested innovation zone status to gain increased autonomy to tailor instruction to each school’s needs. “If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done,”said Susana Cordova, then-acting superintendent of DPS.1 The Context Since its founding in 1858, Denver has grown on the strength of the mining, transportation, ranching, and energy industries. It also has been, historically, a source of innovative thinking in all of those areas, as well as in the field of education. Consider Emily Griffith, a Denver schoolteacher who in 1916 opened a school that offered language and vocational courses during the day and into the evening to make education accessible to what we would now call nontraditional learners. So perhaps it is no surprise that DPS became one of the first public school districts in the nation to explore the idea of creating innovation zones of autonomously operated schools to improve student outcomes. A district of 199 schools serving 92,331 students, DPS empowers individual school leaders and leadership teams with the authority to ‘‘If you want something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done.’’ SUSANA CORDOVA, FORMER ACTING SUPERINTENDENT, DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS make school-level decisions on behalf of their students. Like two other innovation zones profiled in this report (Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership in Springfield, MA, and Phalen Leadership Academies in Indianapolis), LLN is in its early stages and does not yet have a record of proven success. Nonetheless, the innovation zone structure in Denver creates a powerful set of conditions for fostering success, making it worth consideration for other districts and for funders seeking opportunities to support initiatives designed to help more students receive a high-quality education. 1 “State Approves Joining Four Schools into First DPS Inno

FAQs

What is the purpose of district-led innovation zones in this research?

The research focuses on innovation zones that aim to overcome the challenges of turning around failing schools and to deliver significant improvements in student outcomes.

What autonomy can innovation-zone schools receive?

Innovation zones provide control over staffing, curriculum, and budgeting, often sustained through contractual agreements and enabled by state law.

How does Denver Public Schools’ Luminary Learning Network fit into the innovation-zone model?

Denver DPS approved the LLN to build on prior progress and expand autonomy beyond the earlier innovation-school designation for four elementary schools.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Margaret