Accomplishing our goals of APS 2026: Shaping the Future will help us to satisfy the requirements of the district Unified Improvement Plan adopted by the APS Board of Education in March 2018.
What is a Unified Improvement Plan?
What does Unified Improvement Planning (UIP) mean?
What information does UIP provide for schools and school districts?
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Based on the Colorado Achievement Plan for Kids (SB212-08), the primary purpose of improvement planning is to align efforts to: Ensure all students exit the K-12 education system ready for postsecondary education, and/or to be successful in the workforce, earning a living wage immediately upon graduation. In addition, the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) requires that improvement planning be focused on ensuring that all students in the state reach proficiency in English language arts/reading and mathematics.
How does a UIP help schools and school districts?
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By engaging in a continuous improvement cycle to manage performance, districts and schools will improve their effectiveness and the outcomes for students. That cycle includes: Focus attention on the right things (performance indicators); Evaluate performance by gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about performance; Plan improvement strategies based on performance data and root cause analysis; and Implement planned improvement strategies. Then, enter the cycle again multiple times throughout the school year: Evaluate (or monitor) performance (based on interim measures) and implementation of improvement strategies (based on implementation benchmarks) at least quarterly.
Where can I learn more about Unified Improvement Planning?
What is our current UIP data?
From a district perspective, the UIP incorporates data from high-level demographic information to assessment data (such as CMAS, ACCESS, and DRA2 ) and academic data including Graduation, Attendance/Truancy, Credit Accumulation, Discipline, and Dropout rates. APS also used the results of recent school RMC Quality School Reviews, internal school visits, and program evaluations to validate the root causes identified in the UIP.
What UIP designation does our school district have? What does the designation mean?
For more information on the data used to determine the Accredited with Improvement designation for APS, view a district detailed summary of the data on the Colorado Department of Education website. Data for specific schools is also available at the Colorado Department of Education website. Choose Adams-Arapahoe 28J as the school district and then click on each school to view its UIP data.
What are the root causes for our data?
Based on our achievement and growth data, the Colorado Department of Education has identified five Root Causes for assigning APS an Accredited with Improvement designation:
Root Cause #1: Instructional Infrastructure in Early and Foundational Stage of Implementation
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The instructional infrastructure in APS that aligns curriculum, resources, instruction, assessment, and professional learning is considered to be in the early and foundational stage of implementation.
Root Cause #2: Instructional Infrastructure in Foundational Stage of Implementation
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The instructional infrastructure in APS that aligns curriculum, resources, instruction, assessment, and professional learning is considered to be in the foundational stage of implementation.
Root Cause #3: Lack of Plan for Recruitment, Development, and Retention of SPED Staff
Root Cause #4:Instruction not aligned with Individualized Education Programs (IEPs)
Root Cause #5: Lack of Supports for Off-Track Students and Post-Secondary Matriculation
For more information on the root causes, view the APS District Unified Improvement Plan detailed summary.
What are the Major Improvement Strategies?
To address the root causes for our Accredited with Improvement designation, we have developed four Major Improvement Strategies as part of our District UIP Accredited with Improvement Plan. We are incorporating these strategies into the APS 2020 Shaping the Future Strategic Plan.
Major Improvement Strategy #1: Specially Designed Instruction/Programming for all Students with Disabilities
Major Improvement Strategy #2: Improved Student Supports for On-Time Graduation and Post-Secondary Readiness
Major Improvement Strategy #3: Improved Foundational Stage of Instructional Infrastructure (ELA)
Major Improvement Strategy #4: Improved Early and foundational Stages of Instructional Infrastructure (Math)