Families in the Northglenn-Thornton area north of Denver who are looking to immerse their younger students in a creative arts approach to education have a new option this fall. The Studio School (formerly known as the District Arts Magnet School) in Adams 12 opens its doors to students in kindergarten through 2nd grade on August 18. In each successive year, one grade will be added until it becomes a full K-8 school in 2014-15.

According to The Studio School’s website:

The arts are infused in core subject areas such as language arts, math, science and social studies. Staff empowers students with an interest in the arts to flourish and expand their artistic abilities through a solid academic environment. The learning environment capitalizes on the latest research linking academic success with the integration of arts concepts and experiences.

Each school day will include 85 minutes of creative arts–including visual art, music, theatre, dance, and literary art.

The Studio School is neither a public charter school nor a district school of choice. Applications must be made directly to the school, but only families living in Adams 12 are eligible to enroll. Students are selected by lottery on a geographic basis to represent different regions of the school district. Applications are closed for 2008-09.

Other new schools featured:

• Cesar Chavez Academy-North Central
• Early College High School Arvada
• AXL Academy
• The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

2 Comments »

In large part due to its remarkable success with its original Pueblo school, the Cesar Chavez School Network is expanding. 2008 brings the opening of Cesar Chavez Academy-North Central in Colorado Springs, open to students in kindergarten to 8th grade. The free public charter school is authorized by the state’s Charter School Institute.

The original Cesar Chavez Academy (CCA) has forged an excellent reputation. Working with a high-minority and high-poverty student population, CCA has helped nearly all its students to reach proficiency in reading, putting it on a rare plateau. The school’s success in closing the achievement gap has earned the attention of the U.S. Department of Education and generated a substantial waiting list of families waiting to get in.

The website for the new Colorado Springs school declares the focus of its mission up front:

It is the primary goal of the school, through an integrated K-8 program to dramatically increase the number of students who exceed district and state averages on the CSAP assessment and who enter secondary education prepared to succeed in a rigorous college-preparatory curriculum.

High expectations, equal learning opportunities, teacher teamwork, and parental involvement are all hallmarks of the CCA franchise. Like its predecessor, Cesar Chavez Academy-North Central will operate with an extended school day and an extended school year calendar. Those interested in enrolling at CCA-North Central can use the online form available here.

We sure hope to see Cesar Chavez Academy’s Pueblo success replicated in Colorado Springs. If so, you can expect parents will be trying to break down the doors to get in.

Other new schools featured:

• Early College High School Arvada
• AXL Academy
• The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

3 Comments »

I took a short vacation, but I’m back now. Thanks for your patience while I was gone. Now seems like a good time to continue our introduction to new charter and option schools in Colorado.

The AXL Academy in Aurora, starting with 240 students in Kindergarten to 5th grade next month, is promoting what it calls a “Revolution in Learning”:

All college prep schools expect students to excel in a rigorous academic program. But AXL asks more: that students discover how they learn, that they take intellectual delight and responsibility in their education, and that they gain the courage and integrity to negotiate the futures they create. AXL is committed to preparing all students to succeed in college and careers of their choosing.

Eventually, AXL Academy will grow to serve students up through the 8th grade. Each grade will receive an emphasis in experiential and project-based learning, in addition to character education, from a smiling faculty and staff - including head of school Audra Philippon.

What is different about AXL Academy? While the school is co-ed, the classrooms will be divided between boys and girls. And students will attend on a year-round basis with shorter breaks between each of the three trimesters. Class is in session Monday to Friday from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM, except for Wednesdays - which will release early at 1:00 PM.

For information on all your education options in Colorado, don’t forget to check out School Choice For Kids.

Other New Schools Featured: The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch

1 Comment »

Today’s post is the first in a series on new charter or option schools opening up in Colorado this year. I’m out there keeping an eye on developments in the world of education that are important to parents. This definitely includes knowing about specific new options that may happen to be in your area or the area of someone you know, with a child who might fit well into the school’s environment.

Our first featured school is The Imagine Classical Academy at Indigo Ranch - located in the Falcon School District on the east side of Colorado Springs. The Academy is scheduled to open its doors for the upcoming 2008-09 school year. A temporary facility (pictured at right) will be used for the first year, while the permanent site is under construction.

Catering to students in kindergarten through 6th grade in its first year, the Academy will a use the Core Knowledge curriculum, and has school uniform requirements. Check out the school’s website for access to much more information on enrollment, program, staff, and more.

The Academy is the first of two schools being opened by principal and charter school developer Tina Leone, under an operating agreement with the national non-profit Imagine Schools.

For information on all your education options in Colorado, don’t forget to check out School Choice For Kids.

3 Comments »

One of the most common critiques of No Child Left Behind is that its goal of achieving proficiency in reading and math for all students by 2014 is impossible to achieve. While it may be impossible for all American public schools to achieve the 100 percent proficiency marks, should we let that excuse stop many schools from achieving 100 percent proficiency, schools that really are able to get there?

The Washington Post highlights a Maryland elementary school that already has hit the mark:

Last spring, all 184 students in the third and fourth grades at Ocean City Elementary School passed the Maryland School Assessment, or MSA, a battery of tests given by the state every year since 2003 to satisfy the law.

The school was the first in the state, apart from a few tiny special-education centers, to meet the goal that has defined public education this decade.

“We think of MSA as the floor, as sort of the basics of what all students should be doing,” Principal Irene Kordick said. “We shoot for the ceiling.”…

The school serves 568 students in a coastal resort town with an odd mix of families — in oceanfront condominiums, middle-class colonials and Coastal Highway trailers. The student population is 89 percent white, 5 percent Hispanic, 3 percent black, 2 percent Asian and 1 percent American Indian. Twenty-nine students have limited English proficiency, and 134 qualify for subsidized meals because of low family income.

If you read the story, you get a strong sense of some of the things school leaders have done to make its performance exceptional. Yet with all the tax money funding K-12 education, Jonathan Butcher at Jay Greene’s blog points out wasteful examples of federal education spending, and the absence of focus on replicating school models, like Ocean City, that work.

I guess the moral of the story is that kids like me deserve schools that make fewer excuses, and parents deserve the power of choice to demand these kinds of schools to serve them. After all, as our own Pam Benigno wrote several years ago, No Child Left Behind Mandates School Choice. But if you leave it up to politicians to fund education programs, the money is going to feed all sorts of crazy pet projects before it reaches places that work.

No Comments »

Last week I gave a “cautious hooray” to the new Innovation Schools Act, which makes it easier for individual schools to free themselves from the red tape and union rules that crush reform efforts. The movement came to life last December when Bruce Randolph School asked for autonomy.

Bruce Randolph and Manual High School have had a hard time getting the local teachers union to approve their requests. Now another Denver school - Montclair Elementary - has come forward, reports the Rocky Mountain News, only to face similar obstruction:

Montclair teachers voted 22-1 in favor of seeking autonomy, and the staff sent the request to DPS and to the teachers’ union on April 18. DPS board members unanimously approved the request on May 15.

But Kimmal and his principal, Shannon Hagerman, say they’ve had no response from the union. So Friday, the last day for teachers in DPS, Hagerman, four parents and 21 teachers went to union headquarters downtown.

“We don’t want to go through the summer without any agreement with them,” Kimmal said.

Union leaders, including Denver Classroom Teachers Association President Kim Ursetta, were out, attending a Teachers Union Reform Network conference in Vail.

At least they weren’t sick in bed.

Let’s hope that the teachers and leaders at Montclair get the freedom they need soon so they can better help serve the needs of their students.

No Comments »