Successful schools need to be highlighted, and West Denver Prep Charter School gets the appropriate treatment from Nancy Mitchell in today’s Rocky Mountain News:

West Denver Preparatory Charter School was born over lukewarm coffee in the basement of a church called The Pearl in a graffiti- stained neighborhood at the south end of Federal Boulevard.

In meeting after meeting, a carefully selected and diverse group - The Pearl’s minister, the city’s chief operating officer, a troubled kid from L.A. turned veteran teacher - drew the bones of a school they hoped would change minds about what can be achieved in public education in Denver.

Today, West Denver Prep ranks No. 1 among the city’s 44 middle schools in the academic growth of its students. It stages annual lotteries to select pupils from an overflow of applicants and, from those not chosen, tears are not unusual. [emphasis added]

Read the whole thing. Three cheers to West Denver Prep, and continued best wishes for success. Here’s hoping other schools - as well as education policy makers - take the time to watch, listen, learn, and follow its example.

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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

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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

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Denver’s Bruce Randolph School, which serves a challenging, high-poverty student population, is really working to change the culture from the ground up. The Rocky Mountain News‘ Nancy Mitchell reports that Bruce Randolph - led by Principal Kristin Waters - is putting a stop to social promotion. The school has signed contracts with the parents to ensure high expectations are kept and that students can avail themselves of needed interventions to help them make it to the next grade:

Bruce Randolph’s part of the bargain was to closely monitor student achievement and to step in as soon as teachers saw a child struggling.

So they launched tutoring Mondays and Wednesdays after school in the fall. They began Saturday school in October. They launched a week of intense remediation, which came to be known as “F-land,” in December.

At the year’s midpoint, letters went home notifying parents if their children were facing retention. Letters went home again three-quarters of the way through the school year. In April, staff started weekly monitoring for failing grades.

“All year long, we’ve talked to the parents,” Waters said. “And every time, parents have been supportive.”

In May, teachers began calling homes to tell them the bad news. In some cases, the message was, “Your child is being retained.” In others, it was, “Your child will be retained unless they go to summer school.”

As of Thursday, the retention tally was relatively small. Two of 90 sixth-graders are being held back, as are 13 of 150 seventh-graders and 16 of 170 eighth-graders.

Bruce Randolph School has been in the news a lot the past six months, struggling with some success to free itself from the red tape of district bureaucracy and union work rules. Bruce Randolph has served as inspiration for the recent Innovation Schools Act.

Kristin Waters and the hard-working teachers who support her have sought freedom so they can go above and beyond to meet the needs of the kids they serve. Today’s story provides some evidence that they are working to get things done.

Kudos to Bruce Randolph. I know it would make me work harder to keep out of summer school.

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