Dear Cole Families,
After this message, you will find information about our 2024–2025 school rating from the Colorado Department of Education. Cole Arts & Science Academy is currently rated Orange: Priority Improvement. While this is not the rating we strive for, we want to be transparent about where we are and excited to share the steps we are taking to continue growing and move toward a Green rating, which remains our goal.
This year’s rating reflects that our school did not yet demonstrate enough academic growth in literacy and math on state assessments in grades 3–5. In response, we have made several intentional changes to strengthen instruction and better support student learning. In math, we adopted a new curriculum and implemented i-Ready as a data-tracking and instructional tool to more closely monitor student progress and adjust instruction in real time. We are also increasing opportunities to celebrate student effort and growth to keep students motivated and confident in math.
In literacy, our data showed strong results in some classrooms, while others did not yet meet expectations. To address this, we have strengthened our teacher coaching model, increased classroom support, and refined how we use assessment data to improve instruction and consistency across classrooms.
We also firmly believe that Cole students know more than they sometimes show, especially on tests. We ask for your partnership in encouraging your child to try their best on all assessments. While we recognize that testing can be stressful and does not always capture the full picture of a student’s abilities, these results do impact how our school is funded, recognized, and understood by the broader community.
Thank you for your continued trust, support, and partnership as we work together to ensure strong outcomes for all Cole students.
Warmly,
Meredith Brown
Principal
Cole Arts & Science Academy
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Dear Families,
Each school in Colorado is assigned an overall school performance rating every year based on student performance and growth on the CMAS, PSAT, SAT and/or ACCESS assessments. For high schools, graduation rates and the percentage of students who go on to college, career and technical education programs, and the military are also considered. Following the assignment of performance ratings, each school is required to develop a Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) that outlines targets for performance outcomes and strategies that the school will implement to improve academic outcomes for students.
Based on our school’s 2025 data, our school earned a Priority Improvement Plan rating based on not meeting expectations in achievement and approaching expectations in growth. Please visit the Colorado Department of Education's SchoolView website or contact the school to see the full School Performance Framework report.
Our UIP provides us with a focused improvement plan, including an analysis of student performance data and a detailed action plan. The plan must incorporate ideas and feedback from families, be adopted by the Denver Public Schools Board of Education, and was submitted to the Colorado Department of Education by October 16th for review. To meet that deadline, our improvement plan was developed by the school leadership team over the summer by analyzing data and developing an action plan to increase student performance. The improvement plan was presented to our staff and School Accountability Committee (SAC, usually called Collaborative School Committee - CSC) for feedback in the fall. If you have questions about our school’s improvement plan (UIP), please contact the school administration and consider attending an upcoming SAC (CSC) meeting.
Lastly, due to the timeline of receiving final SPF ratings in December, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education will review the plans for all schools rated Priority Improvement and Turnaround on January 22, 2026, at 4:30 PM, at 1860 Lincoln St. and live streamed via Vimeo. For more information, please contact board@dpsk12.org.
If you have any questions about our overall school performance rating or how you can get involved in our improvement efforts, please contact me.
Sincerely,
Meredith Brown
Principal at Cole Arts and Science Academy