Today I visited the Denver School of Science and Technology and in part the visit was due to the kind generosity of the people at Smart Technologies and I want to publicly say thank you.  Large, very large, school districts as those in and around Denver have the capabilities of doing great things and this week I have been privileged to witness two different building sites that are leaders in the world of education.  The one thread I have found in common with the two site visits this year is they both say they are “small schools by design” .  The freedom of choice policy that is in place in the state of Colorado enables these large school districts to create pockets of “small school by design” schools.  The concept is wonderful,but two things I noticed about both districts I visited  is that they limit the number of students they accept to be able to meet their goals.  The rural America that I know is mostly made of small schools, but not by design, but by population.  I wish the parents at these rural schools wanted their children to learn as much as the parents at the Denver School of Science and Technology to be able to hold a student accountable for not doing their homework on the day it was due and not at the end of the term with a report card grade would greatly improve those all important test scores.  The teachers at the Denver School of Science and Technology seem to want to learn new things as much as their students do.  Again, not the norm in public school and something I hope is changing.   I think today’s site visit was a great trip.  The comments I heard on the bus ride home were also favorable with the exception the power point presentation was a little long.  I personally wish I had had some idea as to what their tech center actually was so I could have skipped it and not skipped visiting the Middle School.  Both the high school tour and the middle school tour could have included the tech center.