Executive Summary. Colorado Connections Academy. Mr. Tim Carlin, Principal 8 Inverness Drive E, suite 240 Englewood, CO 80112

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1 Mr. Tim Carlin, Principal 8 Inverness Drive E, suite 240 Englewood, CO Document Generated On March 18, 2013

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Description of the School 2 School's Purpose 4 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement 6 Additional Information 7

3 Introduction Every school has its own story to tell. The context in which teaching and learning takes place influences the processes and procedures by which the school makes decisions around curriculum, instruction, and assessment. The context also impacts the way a school stays faithful to its vision. Many factors contribute to the overall narrative such as an identification of stakeholders, a description of stakeholder engagement, the trends and issues affecting the school, and the kinds of programs and services that a school implements to support student learning. The purpose of the Executive Summary (ES) is to provide a school with an opportunity to describe in narrative form the strengths and challenges it encounters. By doing so, the public and members of the school community will have a more complete picture of how the school perceives itself and the process of self-reflection for continuous improvement. This summary is structured for the school to reflect on how it provides teaching and learning on a day to day basis. Page 1

4 Description of the School Describe the school's size, community/communities, location, and changes it has experienced in the last three years. Include demographic information about the students, staff, and community at large. What unique features and challenges are associated with the community/communities the school serves? (ColoCA) opened in the fall of Through our contract with Mapleton Public School District we currently serve approximately 1,500 students in grades K-12 throughout the state. ColoCA is the second largest provider of online learning and one of 55 full time and 4 supplemental online program options in the state. We have an office in Englewood, where teachers, administrative staff, and support staff work collaboratively during the week. While the majority of our staff work in the office, a small number of staff work from home locations around the state. Our ability to allow teachers to work from a location other than our Englewood office helps increase involvement in community events and allows us to employ the best teachers from around the state. ColoCA offers an excellent education for students looking for options outside a traditional school setting. Our students come from a wide variety of backgrounds and have many different reasons for attending a virtual school: they may need accelerated course work, they are athletes, performers or artists with a need for a flexible schedule, they may also have alternative learning needs that can be well-served in a virtual school that focuses on providing a high-quality, personalized educational experience. ColoCA serves a diverse population of students, of whom approximately 19% are Latino, 8% African American, 6% American Indian or Alaskan Native, 3% Asian, and 2% Hawaiian Native or other Pacific Islander. Gender is evenly split with approximately 52% female and 48% male. Forty percent of the ColoCA student body qualifies for free or reduced meals. Fifty-six percent previously attended traditional (brick and mortar) public schools, 11% were previously home schooled, 8% attended another virtual school, while another 8% previously attended a charter school. Over the past three years, ColoCA has shown significant enrollment growth, particularly at the high school level. The school has grown from approximately 1,000 students in the fall of 2009 to nearly 1,500 students in the fall of ColoCA's enrollment growth has paralleled overall growth in online education in the state. In the 2009 "Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning" report, Colorado had just 20 total online learning options in 2009, compared with the 55 available today - a growth of 175%. The overall student population in online schools has increased from 11,641 students in 2009 to 16,221 students in 2012, with the most significant change in the program options coming from district-run programs and supplemental programs across the state. ColoCA has always focused on ensuring that students have access to experienced, highly qualified teachers. Specifically, over the past three years we have increased our teaching staff by 67%, reduced the number of students assigned per teacher by 11%, increased the number of teachers with advanced degrees by 34%, and increased our average teacher years of experience from 5 to 7. Our staff is comprised of very passionate, collaborative, and innovative educators who continually find new ways to improve the service we provide to our students and families. Given the diversity of our population and geographic locations of our families, one of our potential challenges is to build and maintain a strong sense of community at our school. After 10 years serving students in as a virtual school, ColoCA excels at creating a feeling of community, using strategies such as: keeping in constant communication with our families through a variety of means; requiring phone contacts between teachers and students and parents; hosting hands-on activities and events throughout the state; delivering updated information through our school newsletters and message boards; supporting Community Coordinators throughout the state; offering weekly LiveLesson sessions, and constantly monitoring/intervening to support student learning. Teachers and school staff are available to students during regular school hours throughout the week, and families are encouraged to contact their teachers whenever needed. Teachers respond to student and Page 2

5 parent communications within 24 hours during the work week. Finally, a wide range of clubs and activities, field trips, in-person events, and effective use of technology, help ColoCA ensure that the school is truly a community of learners with real and effective connections among students, teachers, and parents. Page 3

6 School's Purpose Provide the school's purpose statement and ancillary content such as mission, vision, values, and/or beliefs. Describe how the school embodies its purpose through its program offerings and expectations for students. The mission of (ColoCA) is to maximize individual student potential by delivering top-quality, personalized instruction in a high-tech, high-touch virtual environment. is a virtual public contract school which combines Colorado-certified teachers, standards-aligned curriculum, unique technology tools, and community experiences to create an individualized alternative to the bricks-and-mortar classroom. ColoCA uses Connections Education as our provider of turnkey educational services, including standards-aligned curriculum, offering hundreds of courses to our students in grades K-12. In addition to core subjects for elementary and middle school students, ColoCA offers a wide variety of electives, foreign language courses, gifted and talented math, language arts, and science courses for grades 3-8, and several supplemental programs to enhance the learning experience. High school courses include 17 Advanced Placement (AP) courses offered, foreign languages (Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Latin, Sign Language and Spanish), and over 25 electives courses. Courses are available in foundation, standard, and honors core courses at each high school grade level. Additionally, there are over 15 clubs and activities (not credit based) in which students can participate. Minor revisions and updates are made to the curriculum throughout the year as needed, and curriculum is fully updated on a 6-year cycle, ensuring the curriculum remains current, relevant, accurate, and engaging. Incorporated into the curriculum are educational tools such as Teachlet Tutorials, Connections' proprietary video tutorials. Our organizational mission is guided by a school vision that centers on student engagement and providing students and families with all the supports they need for success in an online learning environment. By continually gathering feedback from stakeholders, researching engagement strategies, and collaboratively norming best practices, our staff is dedicated ensuring students are effectively engaged in learning. We also spend considerable time designing our school-wide systems of support that include close progress monitoring, tiered intervention strategies, and a focus on building strong relationships. Our staff embodies this mission and vision through our highly accountable daily actions. Our staff collaborates in various modalities as department teams, professional learning communities, and response to intervention grade level groups. Teachers and staff are encouraged to provide our leadership with feedback and thoughts on how to improve each individual student's academic outcomes, as well as inform us on overall school improvement planning. Our school has an experienced leadership team that meets weekly to discuss the most important aspects of the current time in our school, address concerns or barriers to success and determine solutions, and work to build new ways to improve our services. Our school leadership team models the engagement and support strategies we want for our students, and our survey results show that we have succeeded in creating an engaging work environment. Our teachers clearly set expectations related to our school mission through daily communication, timely and appropriate feedback on assessments, and by building strong relationships with our parents/learning Coaches who are crucial to our overall success. Connexus tools such as the Grade Book keep all stakeholders informed of student progress, and as students work through our curriculum, teachers communicate whether their progress is meeting expectations and provide support through Live Lesson time, phone conversations, and WebMail communication. Page 4

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8 Notable Achievements and Areas of Improvement Describe the school's notable achievements and areas of improvement in the last three years. Additionally, describe areas for improvement that the school is striving to achieve in the next three years. has been recognized for many notable achievements over the past three years. We are currently accredited by North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI) and AdvanceEd. In we made "adequate yearly progress" according to the Colorado State Department of Education. Our teachers have been named "Online Teacher of the Year" by the Colorado State Department of Education in 2008, 2010, and Finally, we meet or exceed expectations on all quality standards (Colorado Senate Bill 215) for online programs. A summary of our 2012 performance highlights include the fact that our student average of all proficient/advanced performance in reading exceeded the Colorado state average. We also met the state average growth rate for math at 50 for the high school level and reduced our percentage of students performing unsatisfactory in math by 14% in one year. We significantly closed the performance gap for students with disabilities at the middle school level indicated by increasing our median growth performance by 25 points in one year to 62 total (12 above the state average). At the high school level we also increased the percentage of graduates attending a 4-year college by 18% from 2011 to 2012 (65% of graduates are attending a 4-year college). Finally, our ACT composite average met state expectations (20.4 composite). Our three-year trends show great progress and areas for continual growth. Our reading and writing performance results show a primarily positive trajectory over the past three years. Our 4th grade and 7th grade levels are showing very positive trends for achievement and growth over the past three years. Looking forward to the next three years our school is dedicated to finding new and innovative ways to increase student engagement and achievement at all levels. We are integrating new intervention processes for math, focusing on guided practice methods, flipped classroom models, and developing a clear understanding of student engagement. We are also continually refining our high school program, as a significant influx of students at the high school grade level has occurred in the last several years. ColoCA's enrollment changes from year to year, and we often have a significant population of new students each year. We strive to quickly gain an understanding of each student's needs and to find the best methods for serving new students. Currently we have many projects in place to address the needs of new students in our school, and to assist students new to online learning. We plan to build upon our learning this year to create specific programming for transitional grade levels to ensure students are ready for the next grade. By dedicating our school wide focus to early identification and intervention, we strive to distinguish our school as one that can truly meet the needs of all students in a dynamic online learning environment. Page 6

9 Additional Information Provide any additional information you would like to share with the public and community that were not prompted in the previous sections. As one of the first virtual schooling options in the state of Colorado we have a history of expanding access to educational resources throughout our state. Going into our 11th year of operation, we continue to set high expectations for ourselves as we embody a culture of continual improvement. Our staff has a unique dedication to collaboration and sharing that is unparalleled in traditional school models and it enables us to take on new challenges in our ever-changing educational environment. Our decisions and actions are always centered around the services we provide to students and families throughout the state and how we can positively impact their ability to achieve at the highest level. The constant communication, community involvement, and dedication to rigorous standards of learning help us to prepare all students for advanced educational options while embedding a versatile 21st century skill set. We recognize that we are one of many options for students in our state and realize that the availability of alternatives is key to unlocking the potential of all students around our state. Page 7