3. Assign Additional Accountability to Each Learning Center to Ensure Transparency and Accountability for the Communities in Which the Learning Centers Operate
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EXHIBIT A Facts about APS ● APS 2020: Shaping the Future is the district’s strategic plan to our vision that every child shapes a successful future. The APS Board of Education and Leadership Team gathered feedback on the plan from staff, parents, students, community, and business members. ● APS students come from more than 130 countries and speak over 160 different languages. ● 51.2% of students speak English as a second language; of these, 78.9% are native Spanish speakers. ● 66.5% of our students receive free or reduced lunch. ● 12.7% of our students benefit from special education programs. ● Our annual budget for 2018-19 is $410.9 million. ● 76 cents of every dollar from the APS operating budget goes directly to support the instructional program. ● There are 63 schools in APS: 4 child development centers, 28 elementary schools, 6 P-8 / K-8 schools, 6 middle schools, 1 Grades 6-12 academy, 6 high schools, 1 vocational/technical college, 1 gifted and talented K-8 school, 9 charter schools and 1 home school support program. ● The current K-12 enrollment for Aurora Public Schools is more than 37,947 students. Our students are: Native American 0.7% Asian 4.9% Black 17.8% Hispanic 54.1% White 16.4% Native Hawaiian/ Pacific Islander 0.8% Two or More Races 5.2% ● To enhance student and staff safety, all schools are equipped with public-address systems, doors that lock from the inside, and classroom telephones. Each school has an emergency plan that includes lockdown procedures and evacuation plans. Our automated phone system can deliver phone messages to all parents and staff members in a matter of minutes. ● Our 4-year graduation rate is 76.5%. ● Our dropout rate is 2.6%. ● For more information visit the district Web site at aurorak12.org. Important phone numbers: Main District Phone Number 303-344-8060 Nutrition Services 303-343-0295 Early Childhood Education 303-364-9371 Exceptional Student Services 303-340-0510 Head Start 303-343-6326 Aurora Public Schools Educational Services Center – 4 1085 Peoria St. Aurora, Colorado 80011 OPR: Accountability & Data Reporting, Finance, Communication – Updated 2/27/2019 EXHIBIT B District Program Monitoring Report APS Avenues Date: May 14, 2019 Section 1: Brief Overview. For the 18-19 school year, APS launched APS Avenues, a multi-site blended learning program, following the Board of Education’s decision to close APS Online for the 2018-19 school year. APS Avenues replaced APS Online, the district’s online high school, and the Rebound program, a program for students who dropped out, were expelled, or were referred by their home high school as a student who would benefit from an alternative learning environment. APS Avenues serves three purposes for the Aurora Public School District: ● to provide an alternative educational setting for students to complete the requirements for their high school diploma. ● to support students’ development of necessary social emotional skills that increase the self-esteem and self-confidence necessary for a successful future. ● to create an environment that support students who have been expelled or on the verge of an expulsion. APS Avenues does this by providing students with access to a standards-based academic program using a combination of direct instruction and online learning in a small environment students. Students come to APS Avenues either by being referred by a counselor or teacher or attend APS Avenues while they are expelled. In order for students to attend APS Avenues through a direct referral, they need to interview and participate in an orientation with a parent or guardian. Since APS Avenues is a program, students remain affiliated with their home school. By its name, APS Avenues has four separate avenues/services to support students: face to face programming, blended programming, online programming and credit recovery programming for the district. Additionally, APS Avenues provides the expulsion program for the district. For the 18-19 school year, these Avenues are the following: ● Avenue 1: Common Campus@Pickens- Face-to-Face Programming. Face-to-face programming is offered at APS Avenues for students that are in grades 9-12. Students are in classes that are equivalent to graduation requirements in comprehensive high schools and are aligned with grade level standards. Avenues runs on six, six-week hexters (i.e., sessions) that give students the opportunity to earn 6-7 credits a year that is equivalent to any high school in the district. ● Avenue 2: APS Avenues @Montview Annex- Blended Programming. Blended programming is offered at our Montview Annex site. This programming offers a morning program from 8:00am-12:30pm and an afternoon program from 1:15pm-5:55pm. Students are in classes that are equivalent to graduation requirements in comprehensive high schools and are aligned with grade level standards. Students also follow the six, six-week hexter schedule that give students the opportunity to earn 6-7 credits a year that is equivalent to any high school in the district. Students need to work from home to supplement the time needed to have a full-time schedule to keep up with course work. Students that opt into the blended program have circumstances that prevent them from attending a full-day program, such as work schedules, health issues, parenting, etc. 1 ● Avenue 3: Full virtual - Online Programming. Online programming is for students that need a full virtual option. Students must have at least a 2.5 GPA and not be more than one credit behind toward graduation to be eligible for this avenue. Students will start by taking our course: Introduction to Online learning and once that is completed they will be enrolled in academic courses. Students also follow the six, six-week hexter schedule. Students are required to keep up with the schedule of classes independently and they are to reach out to teachers to advocate for assistance when needed. Assessments and quizzes must be completed on site when teachers direct them to. Students are also required to check in on a weekly basis to be supported with time management and course work. ● Avenue 4: Middle School programming. Located on the campus of Gateway High School, students that are in the middle school can be part of our program as an eighth grade direct placement or a sixth through eighth student that has been expelled. Students have direct instruction in math, English, Social Studies and Science. The focus in the middle school program is to support their socio-emotional development to be prepared to access high school. Additionally, students enrolled in Avenues 1 and 2 participate in the Discovery program. At the high school level, The Discovery Program is a six-week intensive learning opportunity program focused on helping students develop socio-emotional skills that support their success both inside and outside the classroom. Specifically, the Discovery program covers the following units: Effective Groups, Anger Management, Communication Skills, Assertiveness Training, Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution. Students must pass with at least a 70% or above to be able to then move into the academic portion of their Avenue. Students enrolled in the Middle School Programming have some elements of Discovery embedded throughout their program Students that are transitioning to APS Avenues can also be placed in Academic and Behavioral Intervention (ABI), particularly if transitioning to APS Avenues in the middle of a hexter. ABI is utilized to support students that have struggled with attendance or behavior and need a time-out from the dominant culture. This allows students an opportunity to both reset and develop buy-in for their work at APS Avenues moving forward. With support from an Expelled and At-Risk Student Services (EARSS) grant from the Colorado Department of Education, APS Avenues has also implemented a Parent University that provides a monthly opportunity for families to come in to learn about topics relevant to our program or are related to supporting their students. Section 2: Key Evidence for Implementation. When APS Online opened in 2011, the intention of the school was to serve learners with credit recovery. In 2012, the school shifted to focus on serving students interested in online learning. Subsequently, the students enrolling in APS Online shifted from students who thrive in a primarily virtual environment to students who wanted and needed the flexibility of a virtual program, but required differentiated academic intervention. During the 2017-18 school year, approximately sixty percent of students enrolled in APS Online were at least one year below grade level in literacy and/or math and 100% of students were on campus for academic support 2-5 days per week. Because of these changing needs of the student population, APS launched the STUDIO Design Team in September 2017 to begin the discussion about how to better expand and enhance comprehensive support for any APS student at risk of not graduating. 2 Section 3: Students Served, Demographics, and Grades. Because of the nature of the students served via APS Avenues, students may cycle in or out of the program at the end of each hexter. For example, a student may graduate or decide to return to a more traditional setting. As a result enrollment fluctuates over the course of the year. As of April 8, 2019, APS Avenues had enrolled 370 students over the course of the 2018-19 school year. As of May 3, 2019, 223 students were currently enrolled in the current hexter as follows: Table 1: APS Avenues Enrollment (May