Schools struggle to make the grade

More than half of the Pikes Peak region’s public schools received C’s, D’s or F’s for student achievement last year, according to the latest round of school report cards released Tuesday.

The region slightly outperformed Colorado as a whole, but its success was concentrated in three traditionally high-performing districts that include the area’s most affluent neighborhoods.

Two-thirds of the rated schools in the region’s largest district, Colorado Springs School District 11, received an average or low rating.

Colorado’s School Accountability Reports, known informally as school report cards, use springtime test results from the Colorado Student Assessment Program to issue easy-to-understand rankings for schools each year. The reports are one of three major accountability measures released about schools. The others are CSAP results and Adequate Yearly Progress designation.

On the report cards, schools are rated excellent, high, average, low or unsatisfactory based mostly on their CSAP scores, similar to the traditional A, B, C, D and F. Schools are required to distribute the report cards to parents.

This year, two local schools received unsatisfactory scores, Discovery High School in Widefield School District 3 and Shivers Academy, a charter school in Harrison School District 2. Twenty-one of Colorado’s more than 1,830 schools received the unsatisfactory rating, which requires them to submit to an improvement plan to the state. Schools rated unsatisfactory for a three-year period can be converted by the state to charter schools.

Suzanne Royer, director of student achievement for Widefield, said Discovery is an alternative school for students who aren’t making it in a traditional school setting. As soon as a stu- dent improves, he or she returns to one of the district’s other high schools. Students are coming and going throughout the year, she said. “You’re comparing apples to oranges (on the report card).” About half of Widefield’s schools improved, she said.

Shivers, like Discovery, is for students struggling to make it in traditional secondary schools.

Overall, 25 area schools scored low and 87 average. There were 69 highscoring schools and 34 rated excellent. One school’s rating was marked “unreportable.”

“It’s pretty much, in my opinion, a typical pattern of past years,” said Gary Sibigtroth, assistant commissioner for the Colorado Department of Education who also manages the Pikes Peak region.

Statewide, about 56 percent of Colorado’s more than 1,830 schools were average, low or unsatisfactory, while about 44 percent were high or excellent.

In D-11, 21 schools earned a high or excellent score, while 30 schools were rated average and 11 low.

Many alternative schools in D-11 and other districts are not assigned ratings on SARs.

About 16 percent, 34 of the region’s schools, earned an excellent rating, or an A. Most of the excellent ratings were found in Academy School District 20, in northern Colorado Springs; Lewis-Palmer School District 38 in the Tri-lakes area; and Cheyenne Mountain School District 12 in the Broadmoor area. Statewide, about 11 percent of schools earned the highest ranking.

Academy, the region’s second-largest district, earned an excellent rating in more than half of its 29 rated schools, including the Discovery Canyon Campus, which opened this year.

D-20 Superintendent Kenneth Vedra attributed the district’s success to intensive staff training, constant changes to curriculum and the hiring of outside experts to help in those efforts.

Although the district benefits from non-school factors such as high parental involvement and higher-income families, Vedra points to disadvantaged schools in the Denver metro area that have reinvented themselves and seen major improvements.

“I don’t think it’s going to stay the same,” he said about the predictable pattern of the Pikes Peak region. “I think we’re going to see more schools getting better and better every year at achieving the standards.”

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SPECIAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Some local schools were noted by the state School Accountability Reports on Tuesday for the following accomplishments:

Seven Pikes Peak region middle schools were named John Irwin Schools of Excellence in 2006 for being in the top 8 percent of all middle schools in the state:

- Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12.

- Cheyenne Mountain Junior High School, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12.

- Holmes Middle School, Colorado Springs School District 11.

- Creekside Middle School, Lewis-Palmer School District 38.

- Monument Charter Academy, Lewis-Palmer School District 38.

- Mountain Ridge Middle School, Academy School District 20.

- The Classical Academy, Academy School District 20.

Three schools with 50 percent or more of their students eligible for free-and-reduced lunch were recognized for high performance:

- Oak Creek Elementary School, Harrison School District 2

- Edison Elementary School, Edison School District 54JT

- Aragon Elementary School, Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8.

Six schools were cited for significant improvement in the past two years:

- Chamberlin Elementary School, Harrison School District 2.

- Cheyenne Mountain Elementary School, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12.

- Lewis-Palmer Elementary School, Lewis-Palmer School District 38.

- Mountainside Elementary School, Fountain-Fort Carson School District 8.

- Roosevelt Edison Charter School, Colorado Springs School District 11.

- Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy, Cheyenne Mountain School District 12.