A seasoned and committed career educator who served as Denver’s superintendent – before being run off by its dysfunctional, union-controlled school board – was named education commissioner this week for the entire state.

Susana Córdova also served briefly as a senior exec with Dallas’ school district and an education nonprofit since leaving Denver in 2020, but she spent most of her professional life living and breathing public education in her native Colorado.

Córdova’a return is cause for hope and has the potential to provide lift to our state’s sagging student achievement. It also could represent the resurgence of the education-reform movement within the ranks of Colorado’s dominant Democratic Party.

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If so, it would be a welcome development. Colorado’s public schools – in which only a minority of students perform at grade level in math and English – urgently need reform.

A Denver native and graduate of the city’s Abraham Lincoln High School, Cordóva spent much of her career in Denver Public Schools. She served as deputy superintendent, chief schools officer, chief academic officer and executive director of teaching and learning. She also was principal of Remington Elementary School and began as a bilingual language arts educator.

She has served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Denver’s School of Education. She is a member of the Board of Trustees at the University of Denver. 

Her appointment – announced in late May but made official Wednesday by the independently elected Colorado State Board of Education – has drawn accolades, including from Gov. Jared Polis.

“Her prior work boosting academic progress and improving access to high-quality education for learners of all backgrounds as superintendent of Denver Public Schools is sure to benefit students across the state as she brings this passion and experience to this new role,” the governor said in a news release issued by his office.

“I look forward to working with Susana as a member of my cabinet as we continue to carry forward our bold education priorities.”

It’s a telling compliment from this particular governor. Polis is, of course, a longtime exponent of education reform and an agent of change in public schools, having personally helped found two of Colorado’s 260-plus charter schools. Cordova hails from the same part of the policy spectrum – which helps explain her short time as super at Colorado’s largest school district.

The fact that Córdova wasn’t a good fit for Denver’s notoriously inept, heads-in-the-sand, anti-educational choice school board speaks well of her – and is a testament to the promise she holds in her new post.

As chief of the state Department of Education, she will oversee public education statewide and execute policy enunciated by the state board. Among the priorities she will attend to in her post will be the work of a task force that is looking at changes to the accountability system for the state’s schools.

Let’s hope she is wary of efforts to water down accountability in ways that might paper over the state’s glaring deficiencies in student achievement.

Here’s also hoping Córdova will help renew Colorado’s overall commitment to educational choice. The charter schools and innovation schools her former employer in Denver had scorned, in fact, have played a big role in previous strides made by our public education system – and should be expanded. While their creation is largely a matter reserved to local school districts, let’s encourage Córdova to do her part in advocating for more school choice.

We will be watching with interest.

Denver Gazette Editorial Board