Northeast Denver Innovation Zone

The NDIZ empowers school leaders, teachers, families and caregivers, and community members to elevate the quality and equity of education for all students, in the NDIZ and beyond. We are an independent 501(c)(3) jointly governed by a community-based Board of Directors, school representatives, and Denver Public Schools (DPS). The Zone includes six schools in Northeast Denver serving students from early childhood to 12th grade: the Montclair School of Academics, McAuliffe International School, McAuliffe Manual Middle School, Northfield High School, Swigert International School, and Willow Elementary School.

The NDIZ ensures that decisions about the most precious educational commodities including talent, time, curriculum, and resources are made by people invested in our community, and at a more localized level than is possible at district scale. This means our schools can direct these commodities to where they know they’ll have the greatest impact. Our schools are liberated and empowered to create the best education for the students they serve, and to be nimble and responsive as needs change or arise. 

As a Zone, we are fully committed to equity and strive to do everything we can to realize this vision, including tirelessly working to open doors to new opportunities for our students and continuously working to build school teams that fully reflect the beautiful tapestry that is our students and community. We seek a tomorrow very different from today and push ourselves to adapt to meet this call for action. In particular, our moral compass directs us, with great urgency, to push courageously against all structures and systems that have been intentionally designed and sustained to negate the truth that Black lives matter.

While the NDIZ serves schools in Northeast Denver, our efforts are far from siloed. We consider the opportunity DPS has extended to us to be one of its few Innovation Zones as an imperative to prove and share what works best. We believe in sharing what we learn and ensuring that students — whether they are ever enrolled in the NDIZ or not — benefit from the gains made by our dynamic educational model.