Engage in our School Community
Family involvement supports student success and strengthens our community. At AcademyACL, we work together with families, community members, and alumni to provide unique learning opportunities, collaborative projects, and events that build community and life-long relationships.
School Accountability
Get access to meeting agendas and notes to stay up to date with the latest information.
Our School Accountability Committee meets monthly to
discuss academic achievement and growth data, social-emotional needs of our student community, family feedback, and celebrate school-wide and individual student accomplishments.
Meeting dates are published on our school calendar, but typically fall on the last Monday of the Month. All meetings are held at AcademyACL at 3:30 p.m.
Parent Documents & Forms
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PAACL:
Parents of AcademyACL
PAACL is the parent organization for AcademyACL and every parent automatically becomes a PAACL member. PAACL operates independently of AcademyACL and communicates frequently with the AcademyACL Director.
PAACL focuses on family and social events, student enrichment, and teacher appreciation. They support AcademyACL's Chili and Games night every February, host book and clothing swaps, and provide coffee and snacks for a Cheers and Tears Breakfast on the first day of each school year so that parents can get to know one another. They also bring forward candidates to the AcademyACL Board when there is a parent member opening on the Board.
PAACL meets the first Wednesday of every month. Committee member meetings are usually held the third Thursday of the month. All meetings are open to the public.
Contact paaclpresident@AcademyACL.org for time and location of meetings and for copies of meeting agendas. AcademyACL encourages all families to participate in PAACL to help develop solid family-school partnerships.
Grading at Academy ACL
At AcademyACL, we use standards-based grading to provide a comprehensive and accurate picture of student progress. By focusing on mastery of specific skills and knowledge, we ensure that every student receives the support they need to succeed.
Students are provided learning opportunities that encourage progress over perfection, with multiple touch-points to demonstrate progress toward mastery of skills and knowledge. Short and long-term projects, design thinking and concept attainment activities, problem-based learning, and research opportunities in all subject areas allow students to collaborate, share, and apply what they've learned.
ALMA
ALMA (academyacl.alma.com) is our online learning management system that serves as a way to communicate with families and students about progress toward mastery of standards.
We use Alma in two ways: the gradebook program that tracks students’ progress on supporting standards for the year; with frequent progress reports released throughout the year, and a trimester “learning report” that illustrates students progress at the end of each trimester on the larger power standards for the year and includes a narrative from each teacher on your student's progress. This system allows us to capture students working at different grade levels of instruction than they might be enrolled, such as a “third grade” student working on level five math.
Standards-Based Grading
At AcademyACL, we use standards-based grading to provide an individualized, comprehensive, and accurate picture of student progress to guide each student to mastery of critical skills at each level.
With standards-based grading, percentages are not used, and scores on assignments are not averaged together. Instead, scores progress from a 1.0 (beginning to build foundational knowledge and introductory skills), to a 2.0 (developing comprehension of knowledge and application of skills with support), to a 3.0 (independent application of skills and mastery of content knowledge). Students who can independently extend into more complex applications of these standards, or substantially create new material significantly above the expected level of mastery may also receive scores up to a 5.0.
Students are provided learning opportunities that encourage progress over perfection and emphasize a growth mindset. Daily and weekly assignments, short and long-term projects, problem-based learning, and research opportunities in all subject areas receive feedback using Supporting Standards tied to individual assignments in our gradebook, ALMA. Engagement with supporting skills over the entire year results in eventual mastery of Power Standards highlighted on Trimester Learning Reports.
Teachers prepare Trimester Learning Reports three times per year, using a numerical scale to indicate progress toward mastery of Power Standards. These Power Standards represent the most crucial skills needed to successfully move to the next level. Students are expected to reach at least a 3.0 level of mastery on each Power Standard by the end of the year. Teachers include a short narrative in each child's Learning Report for each class to highlight areas of strength and exceptional progress or interest and areas of growth for the coming Trimester. By focusing on mastery of specific skills and knowledge over time, we ensure that every student receives the targeted feedback they need to succeed throughout the year in all areas of need and areas of strength.
What Makes AcademyACL Different
Innovation in Classroom Placement
Our classroom placement policy offers each child the greatest chance of success and support within their multi-page learning cohort. Our teaching staff considers multiple factors, such as intellectual, social, emotional, behavioral and developmental needs, leadership skills, preferred learning styles, and student friendships when determining classroom placement.
Family Conference Opportunities
We offer initial family conferences before school begins to get to know new families and share goals and plans for the school year. We also hold three additional sets of family conferences throughout the year to discuss student goals and progress. Families are always welcome to schedule time to meet with teachers outside of conference days.
School-Wide
Orientation
During the first three weeks of school, we intentionally plan learning opportunities around a common theme that changes from year to year. This time provides time for community building within divisions, establishing social contracts, and beginning of year testing to determine learning groups for core classes. Our September "ODD Night" (Orientation, Divisions, & Desserts) serves are our back to school night and showcases orientation projects, teacher-led informational sessions, and community.
A Schedule to Support Multi-Age Classes
At AcademyACL, we use an elementary scheduling model school-wide:
7:50 Students begin to arrive
8:00-8:30 Lifeskills
8:30-10:00 Art of Language
10:00-10:30 Fitness and Fun
10:30-12:00 World of Math
12:00-12:30 Lunch in classrooms
12:30-3:00 90-minute Historical or Scientific Inquiry, and 50-minute Encore classes
3:00-3:10 Reflection and Launch
3:10 Dismissal
All divisions have an outdoor break in the afternoon for 10-15 minutes.
Innovation & Best Practice
The Colorado Department of Education notes that a charter school has more flexibility than traditional public schools in regards to curriculum, fiscal management, overall school operations, and may offer an education program that is more innovative.
At AcademyACL. every teacher, including Encore teachers, specializes in the needs of advanced, gifted learners. We use a K-8 model with a block schedule which allows students to attend the level class they need for reading, writing, and math. Our curriculum comes from gifted focused, researched-based resources which are used to develop units of instruction around a Big Idea using the Integrated Curriculum Model (Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska) which focuses on Big Ideas and themes within and between disciplines, with Advanced Content and Differentiated Instruction & Projects designed for students.
Research-Based Curriculum
We use resources from the College of William and Mary, Lucy Calkins Writing Workshop, Reveal Math, Foss Science, and Physics-In-A-Box from Physcira and a partnership with Dr. Anatoliy Glushchenko in the UCCS Physics Department. Our teachers use these resources to develop Integrated Curriculum Model structured units of instruction and learning opportunities that correlate to the Colorado State Standards with gifted learners in mind.
Encore & Integration
Encore (Enhancing the Core) classes include Art, Music, Theater, Spanish, and Physical Education on a rotating basis. Upper Division students also experience two additional Encore classes that may vary from year to year. Currently, those classes are Technology and Handbells.
Encore teachers schedule time in the morning block classes to work with classroom teachers to integrate Encore subjects with math, reading, and writing standards. They often lend their expertise to Lifeskills lessons as well.
Enrichment Programs
Our enrichment programs offer a wide range of opportunities for students to explore their passions. We offer choir, Taiko drumming, art and construction collaborations with Concrete Couch, theater productions, chess, student-led clubs, and many others! We offer summer enrichment learning after the school year ends, with classes including Ozobots, Fiber Arts, Creative Writing, and Spanish Immersion. Offerings each summer vary.
Parent Involvement
We value the partnership between parents and the school community in fostering student success. Parents have opportunities to volunteer in classrooms, lead games or small group activities, support events, and share their expertise with both students and staff as special speakers or hosting activities during STEAM Day or other school-wide event days.
Family-Focused Communication
We use ParentSquare as our primary school-to-home communication platform. Families can choose to receive individual alerts by email or text, or digest alerts. Teachers use ParentSquare to send weekly updates about what students are learning about in the coming week, as well as events, special speakers, and celebrations.
Each Thursday, envelopes are sent home with reminders of upcoming events, community-based opportunities, copies of student work or assessments to help support school-to-home communication.
Teachers and staff are available by email or a message left with the office staff. We encourage our families to reach out to teachers with questions as the need arises.
Volunteering at AcademyACL
We encourage families to volunteer throughout the school year, whether it's to support in the classroom with small group activities, organize events or activities, provide workshops or presentations in an area of expertise, coach or lead club activities. Learn about D11's expectations for volunteering and their process for getting involved.
FAQs
Find answers to frequently asked questions about AcademyACL and our programs.
AcademyACL does not provide daily transportation services to and from school. However, we can assist families in finding carpooling options or public transportation routes to our school.
Our school hours are from 8:00 AM to 3:10 PM, Monday through Friday. We also offer before and after-school care through the YMCA for the convenience of our families.
AcademyACL uses a K-8 model with multi-age classrooms separated into divisions: Division I (Kindergarten), Division II (1st/2nd), Division III (3rd/4th), Division IV (5th/6th), and Division V (7th/8th).
To request enrollment to AcademyACL, please visit our Enrollment page. We look forward to receiving your request!
AcademyACL is a free charter public school that focuses on guiding gifted learners in the Pikes Peak Region. We provide a challenging and supportive learning environment for our students.