In 2015, A+ Colorado and a coalition of Aurora-based community groups came together to inform the Aurora community and offer recommendations in the report If Not Now: Transforming Aurora Public Schools from Failing to Great. At the time, we called for drastic change to dramatically improve student achievement and postsecondary readiness. Nearly two years later, many measures of student achievement have remained unchanged.
APS student achievement, as measured by state standardized tests, high school graduation rates, and ACT scores, has remained stagnant over the past 5 years. In this report, we pulled out some of the outliers: schools that showed excellent achievement and growth as well as schools that have a lot of room for improvement if they want to offer APS students the high quality education they deserve.
We repeat the call we made in 2015: change–drastic change–is imperative. First, let’s start with the facts.