Dear Parents and Guardians,
One of the core beliefs of our strategic plan, Destination APS, is that families are our partners in education. We value this critical partnership and want to ensure we keep you updated on important matters.
The 2025-2026 school year has already been full of both celebrations and areas in which we want to grow. We are excited to be a school where students are empowered to shape successful futures and staff members support rigorous and relevant learning every day.
While we have much to celebrate, we know there is important work ahead. Each year, the Colorado Department of Education issues schools a school performance rating (Performance, Improvement, Priority Improvement or Turnaround). Ratings are based on student achievement, including state assessment scores and growth data. For high schools, postsecondary measures also factor into performance ratings including graduation rates, dropout rates, college entrance exams and college matriculation rates.
Schools that receive a Priority Improvement or Turnaround rating from the Colorado Department of Education are identified as schools on Accountability Watch. Aurora Central has currently received a preliminary rating of Priority Improvement at this time. APS and Aurora Central High School are working together with the Colorado Department of Education to review our assessment participation numbers to ensure accuracy at this time. This team will engage in a reconsideration process so that we can verify the numbers for assessment participation. This reconsideration process ocess will take a couple of months before it is resolved.
What does this mean for Aurora Central High School?
This year, we are focusing our work to dramatically improve in the following ways:
- Data Driven Professional Learning Communities - We are working with our teachers to ensure that all of our students are given standards-based grade level content on a daily basis. We will use the results from our common formative assessments that are grade level to determine how each and every student is doing in all of their classes. The teachers use this data and information to guide their support for each student. Our goal is to ensure that we have 95% assessment participation on all assessments to get results from all students so that we know when to intervene and which students need intervention.
- Instructional Monitoring and Support - We are working individually with each teacher to ensure that they are planning rigorous lessons that match the level of the standard and the assessments. Our teachers are planning weekly lessons and ensuring that they are planning to support each individual student throughout the lesson on a daily basis.
- Student Experience - We are planning for and monitoring each individual student and their ability to show proficiency on standards and ultimately passing their classes. Once we have identified that a student is off-track, the school will intervene with students and provide the necessary support to get them back on track to pass their classes and ultimately graduate.
As we develop our new Unified Improvement Plan, we encourage parents and guardians to provide input. Please join us for an upcoming meeting: September 25, 2025 at 9:30 am - 11:00 am. Our finalized Unified Improvement Plan will be presented as part of a public hearing during the Oct. 21st Board meeting. All Board meetings are held at the APS Professional Learning and Conference Center, located at 15771 E. 1st Ave. Aurora, CO 80011. They begin at 6 p.m. and are open to the public.
What can parents and guardians do?
We ask for your support in ensuring our students come to school on time and are excited to learn every day. Please know that every Aurora Central High School staff member is committed to continuous academic improvement and the success of our students.
With your help, we will continue to make the 2025-26 school year the best one yet! Please contact me if you have questions. Thank you for your continued support.
Sincerely,
Kurtis Quig
Principal
Aurora Central High School
Charles Burrell Pathway