Tag Archives: AXL Academy

Last week I took a look at the work of Aurora Public Schools’ “outside-the-box” superintendent John Barry, and concluded: Of course, changing the leadership model isn’t the only way to fix public schools. There are limits to the sort of “top-down” approach. More “bottom-up” reform that decentralizes authority and empowers parents with school choice and accountability is essential. But there’s also something to be said for school boards working to find more leaders like John Barry. There was more to the point about the “bottom-up” approach than I realized. John Barry is doing a lot of good things from a reform perspective, but as Alan Gottlieb writes today over at EdNews Colorado, it appears that he’s missing the most important thing: But one area where Barry’s forward-thinking regime has been slow to see the light is on charter schools. Last night, the Aurora school board decided to asked voters to approve a $215 million bond issue this fall. From that amount, the district is ofering [sic] a total of $750,000 to the district’s six charter schools. That’s a grand total of one third of one percent of the proceeds. Not exactly generous. Still, better than Denver, Adams 12 and Douglas, […]

I took a short vacation, but I’m back now. Thanks for your patience while I was gone. Now seems like a good time to continue our introduction to new charter and option schools in Colorado. The AXL Academy in Aurora, starting with 240 students in Kindergarten to 5th grade next month, is promoting what it calls a “Revolution in Learning”: All college prep schools expect students to excel in a rigorous academic program. But AXL asks more: that students discover how they learn, that they take intellectual delight and responsibility in their education, and that they gain the courage and integrity to negotiate the futures they create. AXL is committed to preparing all students to succeed in college and careers of their choosing. Eventually, AXL Academy will grow to serve students up through the 8th grade. Each grade will receive an emphasis in experiential and project-based learning, in addition to character education, from a smiling faculty and staff – including head of school Audra Philippon. What is different about AXL Academy? While the school is co-ed, the classrooms will be divided between boys and girls. And students will attend on a year-round basis with shorter breaks between each of the […]