Think Outside the Cage: Shattering Urban School Odds

Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.

Friday, June 08, 2007

Shattering Urban School Odds

It's amazing what kids can do with real support from the community and the adults in their lives.

The 260 students at Arrupe Jesuit High School in Denver aren't beating the odds for poor inner-city students - they are annihilating them.
The school's first senior class graduates today. All 47 seniors are college-bound. They have earned a collective $2 million in scholarships. More than 85 percent of them will be the first in their families to attend college.
On any given day at Arrupe, a college-prepatory school where more than 60 percent of the students live near or below the poverty line, at least one-quarter of them are absent from the building. And that's the way administrators like it.

The Denver Post