Flagstaff Academy’s middle school students applauded a prestigious designation awarded to their school on Wednesday.
Members of the Colorado Association of Middle Level Education presented Flagstaff with a banner Wednesday to celebrate its recognition as a Colorado Trailblazer School to Watch. Flagstaff is one of four middle schools in the state to receive the award this year and the only charter school.
“The National Schools to Watch program has visited well over 500 schools across the United States just this year looking for the top middle schools in our country to be the models so that other schools can come and learn from them,” said Diane Lauer, state director of the Colorado Trailblazer Schools to Watch program.
Selection is based on a written application that requires schools to show how they met the criteria developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. In Colorado, teams organized by the Colorado Schools to Watch program conducted site visits in order to affirm that selected schools have indeed met the requirements of the award.
The teams observe classrooms, interview administrators, teachers and parents, then review achievement data, suspension rates, instructional quality and student work. Schools are recognized for a three-year period and, at the end of three years, must repeat the process in order to be re-designated.
Flagstaff previously received the designation in 2019.
“We were here three years ago when you guys were sixth graders and because of your continued excellence, we got to come here again,” Lauer said to Flagstaff’s eighth graders.
Flagstaff, along with more than 100 other schools across the nation, will be recognized at the National Schools to Watch Conference in June in Washington, D.C.
