Stand for Children Colorado advances educational equity and racial justice in Colorado through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers. One of the ways we uphold this work is through our annual Advocacy Fellowship.   

Stand for Children Colorado Advocacy Fellows are community leaders advocating for policy solutions towards racial justice and equity in education.  With the support of Stand staff, advocacy fellows will deep dive into issues affecting Colorado communities today, co-create solutions, democratize knowledge back to their communities, work to break down barriers to power and access decision makers, and, in the process, build long-lasting relationships and invaluable skills. 

We are excited to introduce the 2023–2024 Fellows! 


Meet Yaeel

1. What are you most excited about this year’s fellowship program? Me entusiasma poder seguir aprendiendo de la organización y seguir aportando de una manera productiva para que las voces y necesidades de nuestra comunidad sean escuchadas. ( I am excited to continue learning from the organization and continue contributing in a productive way so that the voices and needs of our community are heard.)

2. What is your favorite children’s book? The Giving Tree.

3. What do you like most about Colorado?  Su Naturaleza,Su oxígeno,Su gente. ( Its Nature, its oxygen, its people.)

Stand for Children Colorado advances educational equity and racial justice in Colorado through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers. One of the ways we uphold this work is through our annual Advocacy Fellowship.   

Stand for Children Colorado Advocacy Fellows are community leaders advocating for policy solutions towards racial justice and equity in education.  With the support of Stand staff, advocacy fellows will deep dive into issues affecting Colorado communities today, co-create solutions, democratize knowledge back to their communities, work to break down barriers to power and access decision makers, and, in the process, build long-lasting relationships and invaluable skills. 

We are excited to introduce the 2023–2024 Fellows! 


Meet Tina

  • What are you most excited about in this year’s fellowship? I can’t wait to see the impact and stand behind all the noise that this year’s fellows will make for change.
  • What is your favorite children’s book? The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein
  • What do you love most about Colorado? I truly enjoy the weather and food here in Colorado!

The expanded Child Tax Credit, included in the American Rescue Plan in 2021, lifted millions of children out of poverty by significantly increasing financial support for eligible families, providing advanced monthly payments, so families could have immediate and consistent ability to cover essential expenses, and expanding eligibility, so more families could benefit. 

It expired in 2022, and the child poverty rate doubled. 

It’s time for Congress to act by reinstating the expanded Child Tax Credit! Take action by contacting your Members of Congress to ask them to reinstate the expanded Child Tax Credit to support our children and families! 

 Congress has an obligation to ensure America’s children and youth can thrive- and we know this works. Ask them to support expansion of the Child Tax Credit now! 

Stand for Children Colorado advances educational equity and racial justice in Colorado through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers. One of the ways we uphold this work is through our annual Advocacy Fellowship.   

Stand for Children Colorado Advocacy Fellows are community leaders advocating for policy solutions towards racial justice and equity in education.  With the support of Stand staff, advocacy fellows will deep dive into issues affecting Colorado communities today, co-create solutions, democratize knowledge back to their communities, work to break down barriers to power and access decision makers, and, in the process, build long-lasting relationships and invaluable skills. 

We are excited to introduce the 2023–2024 Fellows! 


Meet Lauren

1. What are you most excited about in this year’s fellowship?

I am the most excited about being allowed to continue learning from such impressive advocates and community organizers!

2. What is your favorite children’s book? 

My favorite children’s book is Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall.

3. What do you love most about Colorado?

I love the fall and spring in Colorado!

Stand for Children Colorado advances educational equity and racial justice in Colorado through meaningful partnerships with families, educators, schools, and policymakers. One of the ways we uphold this work is through our annual Advocacy Fellowship.   

Stand for Children Colorado Advocacy Fellows are community leaders advocating for policy solutions towards racial justice and equity in education.  With the support of Stand staff, advocacy fellows will deep dive into issues affecting Colorado communities today, co-create solutions, democratize knowledge back to their communities, work to break down barriers to power and access decision makers, and, in the process, build long-lasting relationships and invaluable skills. 

We are excited to introduce the 2023–2024 Fellows!  


Meet Lorelei

  • What are you most excited about in this year’s fellowship? I am most excited to continue working with Stand members to get a better understanding of Colorado Law processes and procedures, as well as learning more about communication efforts regarding outreach and support for legislation.

  •   What is your favorite children’s book? My favorite children’s book is “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”. I loved butterflies when I was younger. I even had a Monarch Butterfly Habitat that I was obsessed with, spurred on by this book. 

  • What do you love most about Colorado? I love that city life is just a hop, skip, or jump away from the mountains. It is nice to have the great outdoors and mountain activities so close to my house without having to live in the mountains full time. I get the amenities of a city with the joy and adventure of the outdoors in one location.

Last week, Colorado policymakers joined educators from across Colorado, Arizona, Washington, and Oregon at Poudre High School for the first-ever Center for High School Success Demonstration School Learning Lab.

Over 60 attendees learned directly from the educators at Poudre leading the ninth-grade success work that has been recognized by Colorado Governor Polis as transformational. Over the past three years of partnership with Stand’s Center for High School Success, Poudre has increased 9th grade on-track rates by 13%. Poudre was one of the first schools in Colorado to receive a Ninth Grade Success Grant from the Colorado Department of Education.

Supporting students by implementing a 9th Grade Success approach has consistently shown to improve graduation rates. In fact, students who are “on-track” (meaning they have no more than one F) at the end of their 9th grade year are three times more likely to graduate from high school than their off-track peers. 9th Grade Success programming includes targeted interventions, transition supports, school-based teaching teams, and certain instructional approaches.    

“The passion for this work from the educators at Poudre is incredible. We are proud of our partnership with them and excited their work is serving as a model for other schools and districts implementing the ninth-grade approach,” said Stand Colorado Executive Director, Krista Spurgin.  

The CHSS Demonstration Schools were chosen for their sustained improvement, consistently high 9th Grade On-Track Rates, and exemplary implementation of the CHSS Roadmap.  You can read more about why Poudre was selected as a leader in this work and hear directly from school Principal Kathy Mackay about their work in this blog.


The Center for High School Success (CHSS), a program of Stand for Children, announced that Poudre High School in Ft. Collins, Colorado has been named a 2023-2023 Demonstration School. CHSS Demonstration Schools are chosen for their sustained improvement, consistently high 9th Grade On-Track Rates, and exemplary implementation of the CHSS Roadmap.    

Demonstration Schools partner with CHSS to showcase the exemplary 9th Grade Success work to support deep learning for the current national network of high schools and to recruit new schools and districts to engage in 9th Grade Success Work. CHSS spoke to Poudre’s principal, Kathy Mackay about their work. We are excited to share more with you following Poudre’s first demonstration site visit.

MEET POUDRE HIGH SCHOOL IN FORT COLLINS, COLORADO  

Across the three-year partnership with CHSS, Poudre High School, a large, diverse high school in Fort Collins, increased 9th Grade On-Track Rates by 13%. 

Colorado CHSS Director, Judith Martinez shared about experience working with Poudre saying, “The Poudre team is transforming the high school experience by developing year-long transition supports for ninth graders. I’m most proud of the integration of ninth grade success approaches into the school’s pathway model.” 

Poudre High School has been recognized by the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and Colorado Governor, Jared Polis, for their transformational work in developing multiple pathways to meet the needs of all students. Poudre was one of the first schools to receive a CDE Ninth Grade Success Grant

Poudre’s work around changing how kids adjust going back to school was recently featured on Fox 31.  

Principal, Kathy Mackay, shared more about Poudre High School.  

Tell us a little about your school community. 

Poudre High School draws students primarily from three middle school feeder sites in the northern part of the District’s boundaries. Each of these schools is uniquely diverse in the types of students served—from mountainous and rural areas, from farms and ranches, from small towns, from bedroom communities to the larger Fort Collins area, from the very lowest income mobile home parks, and from the most expensive homes in old town Fort Collins. At PHS, we have six pathways that students opt into during their transition from 8th to 9th grade– Agriculture and the Environment, Arts and Humanities, Engineering and Design, Entrepreneurship, Health Science and Human Services, or the International Baccalaureate program. All pathways include opportunities to earn college credit and industry certifications. At PHS, we live by the philosophy of Ubuntu, translated as “I am who I am because of who we are.” We are Poudre High School. 

Tell us a little about your school’s history with 9th Grade Success Work?   

We began our journey with full-school pathway development in 2016, and embedded 9th Grade Success Work in 2018. Our pathway structure was perfect to support the 9th Grade Success Work. Our MTSS Coordinator serves as the Student Success Team Leader, and our Counselors oversee each pathway and facilitate the conversations among pathway teams of teachers. This model has been the best model for increasing teacher collective efficacy and truly integrating multi-tiered systems of support. We monitor student progress bi-weekly and intervene early and often. We’ve seen an increase in our on-time graduation rate over the last five years, and we know that this work has been incredibly influential in these gains. 

What are you most proud of? 

I’m proud that we’re using systems of support, rather than attempting random interventions here and there that may or may not be effective. I’m also proud that our staff believe in the work, it has created more collaboration to support students, and it has increased their individual and collective teacher efficacy. 

What has been an obstacle you’ve been able to overcome? 

Time is always the obstacle. There’s never enough of it. We’ve been able to “overcome” this obstacle by embedding the work within our weekly late start schedule and by using virtual meetings to be more efficient with time. 

Finish this sentence. “9th Grade On-Track Work/9th Grade Success Work has been transformational at our school…” 

Period. The Roadmap provides a true roadmap to implementing the structures and practices needed to do the work. The structure creates a teaming model that increases teacher collective efficacy. The data shows us that it’s the right work. We’re keeping students on-track and it’s resulting in better student outcomes, including increases in our on-time graduation rates. 

How has partnering with CHSS been transformative? 

CHSS has been the best support I’ve received as a principal in my ten-year career. The Roadmap, coaching, collaborations, data analysis and training have been invaluable to my growth and the growth of our teams. 

Anything else you’d like to share? 

At the Arts& Humanities “Kid Talk” student, RB, was brought up by the Social Studies teacher as a student she was concerned about. RB had great attendance but was failing classes because of an apparent refusal to complete or turn in work. As the teachers discussed RB, they noticed that it wasn’t as if he didn’t want to do the work, or was distracted, or didn’t understand. He was pleasant, stayed off of his phone, and was attentive to the work! He just wouldn’t do it. It was determined in the Kid Talk that RB is extremely gifted and only wanted to produce perfect quality work. He would rather not do anything than have it not be perfect. His teachers would beg him to just put down something, even if it wasn’t perfect, in order to earn some points. RB’s science teacher suggested introducing him to a High Dosage Teacher who was working with another student in her class. Once the connection was made, RB started finding success. The tutor helped give him the confidence he needed to get the work done. He had the knowledge but lacked the executive functioning skills to actually ‘do’ the work. The match was so effective that RB requested to continue working with his tutor in his second semester classes and he passed them all! 

My 7th grade son, Roman, and I went to the last Denver Public Schools board meeting to ask them to reconsider their recent change to limit public comment to two hours during their regular meetings.

You may have heard that the board announced that they would immediately start limiting how long parents, educators, and community members may address them during public comment sessions while they develop a policy for public comment moving forward.

We are asking YOU to share your thoughts on how you want the board to engage with their constituents. 

We believe there is a solution that ensures there is time and space for the community to connect with their elected representatives and addresses long working hours for DPS staff. This feedback will be shared with DPS Board representatives so that YOUR voice and opinion can help them create an inclusive and equitable policy for public comment sessions. 

This year is an “off year election,” meaning that you won’t be voting for president or others running for office at federal levels of government. What you will find on your ballot this year is officials running for local office – like the school board, people who are much more likely to have an impact on your day-to-day life. You will also be asked to consider several important ballot initiatives.

Your ballot for the upcoming General Election will be arriving in your mailbox in the coming weeks. Election day isn’t until Tuesday, November 7th, but we are sharing information, so you have time to prepare to vote in this important election.

Get More Information:

Here’s where you can get the latest information about your voter eligibility and ballot drop off and polling locations. It’s not too late to register to vote or update your information if you’ve moved. 

Research What’s on the Ballot:

  • You don’t have your ballot yet, but you can still prepare! This website will provide you a sample ballot for your address.   There will likely be candidates running for your local school board. These people can have a deep and lasting impact on the schools in your community and your child’s education, so make sure to do your research before you vote!
    • Visit their websites, check out their social media, and Google their name to see recent news coverage. 
    • Pull information from organizations you trust to see who they have endorsed. 
  • There are also statewide ballot initiatives for you to consider this year. Stand has endorsed both Prop II and Prop HH.
  • The Blue Book (you will receive a hard copy of this in the mail, too!) is a voter guide with easy-to-understand explanations of each ballot initiative compiled by nonpartisan staff of the Colorado Legislative Council.  

Vote By November 7:

Here’s where you can find locations to drop off your ballot. Just be sure you drop it off by November 7.

We spent time this summer in conversation with parents, educators, policymakers, and community members. Now our team has identified goals that build upon our impact in recent years and act on what we heard in listening sessions. Will you please weigh in on our plans?  

Our Goals for Next Year:

  • Early Literacy
    • Understanding how to better support educators to use the science of reading and evidence-based curriculums and practices in their literacy instruction.
  • Ninth Grade Success
    • Expanding funding for the Ninth Grade Success Grant program.
  • Supportive Schools
    • Promoting educator diversity by securing continued funding for policies that create equity in teacher preparation and alternative pathways to enter the workforce.
  • Justice System Reform
    • Helping prevent recidivism in our justice system by updating probation and parole supervision to include remote check-in options.
    • Expanding access to criminal record sealing for non-violent offenses, helping to remove barriers to housing and employment.
    • Reducing unjust fees for incarcerated individuals and their families. 

We cannot do this work alone – we need your help! Read more about our priorities and let us know which ones you are interested in working with us to advance.