15 Things To Know About DPS Supt. Finalist Susana Cordova

DENVER, CO – By Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado. The biggest criticism of Susana Cordova, the sole finalist for the Denver superintendent job, is also what some see as her greatest strength: The 52-year-old deputy superintendent has spent her entire career working in Denver Public Schools.

Critics say she’s partly to blame for the district’s shortcomings, especially the wide test score gaps between students of color and white students. Supporters say her deep knowledge of the district, which goes back to childhood, is precisely what will help her make meaningful changes.

The school board is expected to vote Dec. 17 on whether to hire Cordova as superintendent. Before then, on Tuesday evening, the district has set a forum for the public to meet her and ask questions. Ahead of the forum, here are 15 things to know about Cordova.

1. She grew up in Denver during forced busing, when the district was under a U.S. Supreme Court order to desegregate its schools. Cordova, who graduated from Abraham Lincoln High, said she benefited from attending integrated schools.

“It gave me access and opportunity to a world that didn’t exist in my neighborhood,” she said at a previous public forum Wednesday. “My mother grew up in Denver and went to the Denver public schools, as well. She didn’t have access to the kinds of classes I had access to.

“It leveled the playing field for minority kids like me.”

2. Cordova is bilingual but didn’t grow up speaking Spanish.

“I grew up at a point in time where I found it more difficult to embrace my Latino culture, academically,” Cordova told Chalkbeat in 2016. “There were, I would say, probably some negative messages around what it meant to be Latino.”

Instead, she said the message she heard was to leave her culture behind if she wanted to be successful. She began reconnecting with her heritage when she attended the University of Denver and ended up traveling to Mexico to study Spanish.

3. She was the first in her family to attend college. Cordova said she personally understands the test score gaps, often called achievement or opportunity gaps, because she is on one side of the gap, and family members are on the other.

READ MORE in The Colorado Independent

Image: Susana Cordova visits a classroom at College View Elementary School in 2016. (Photo by Melanie Asmar, Chalkbeat Colorado)