Crawford Elementary School leader named National Distinguished Principal of the Year for Colorado

                                                                                                                                      

NEWS RELEASE #33
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 23, 2015

Crawford Elementary School leader named National Distinguished Principal of the Year for Colorado

Jennifer Passchier, Principal of Crawford Elementary School in Aurora Public Schools, has been named the 2015 National Distinguished Principal of the Year for Colorado by the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE), and will represent Colorado in the national award program.

An educator for more than 16 years and in Aurora Public Schools for all but her first year, Passchier has served as a principal for the past seven years. Upon starting at Crawford Elementary School two years ago, Passchier made the strategic decision to focus on a standards-based teaching learning cycle and writing across all content areas. She attributes this decision as the reason why Crawford achieved the highest overall proficiency increase of all elementary schools in Aurora based on 2014 TCAP (Colorado’s state assessment) scores.

Passchier also attributes the positive, trusting and collaborative culture in the building as a factor to the school’s success. The building climate survey results improved significantly under her leadership.  Teacher turnover decreased four-fold resulting in a strong community of educator professionals committed to the vision and sustaining the work.

Superintendent of Aurora Public Schools (APS) Rico Munn said, “Principal Passchier will be humble and defer to the great work of her students and staff, but we also want to recognize her incredible work. She is an incredible asset to the families at Crawford Elementary, Aurora Public Schools and the greater community.”

Jocelyn Stephens, Passchier’s supervisor and APS P-20 Learning Community Director, states, “I count it a gift to have a leader like Ms. Passchier in our learning community; she models how the work of a principal can be relevant to the true needs of a school community in a passionate, authentic and strategic way.” 

Upon being notified of this honor, Passchier stated, “It is a great honor and a humbling experience to be recognized in this way.” She adds, as Superintendent Munn anticipated, “In addition, this honor is a reflection of the hard work that our students and teachers have taken on this past year through our work together.”

Crawford Elementary School has a diverse student population of 755 students and is heavily impacted by poverty. Twenty percent of its students are refugees. Passchier has addressed some of the challenges of meeting students’ basic needs by creating community partnerships and family supports, such as classes for families to educate them on how to support reading at home.

Passchier was selected for this honor by her peers through a rigorous and competitive process facilitated by the Colorado Association of Elementary School Principals (CAESP), a department of CASE and affiliate of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP). The National Distinguished Principal of the Year program is sponsored by NAESP, in corporate partnership with VALIC.

“As studies indicate, principal leadership is second only to strong instruction when it comes to impacting student achievement,” stated CASE Executive Director Bruce Caughey. “CASE is proud to honor Jenny Passchier and to recognize the leadership she has demonstrated at Crawford Elementary School and throughout her education career.”

CASE and CAESP will formally present Passchier with her award at an upcoming school event on April 2. She and other CASE award winners also will be recognized at an awards ceremony this spring, as well as at the 46th Annual CASE Education Leadership Convention this summer in Breckenridge.

About CASE
The Colorado Association of School Executives (www.co-case.org) is the preeminent professional association for public school administrators in Colorado. The organization’s mission is to empower Colorado education leaders through advocacy, professional learning and networking to deliver on the promise of public education. 

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Interested media may contact APS News Media Specialist
Patti Moon at 303-326-2755 for more information

Aurora Public Schools Named Top 100 School District of Digital Learning

NEWS RELEASE #16
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 31, 2014

Aurora Public Schools Named Top 100 School District of Digital Learning
Knovation announces Annual Digital Learning Awards Program recipients

Aurora Public Schools has earned a Digital Learning Award for its use of pioneering digital resources to promote engaging and personalized classrooms.

Presented by Knovation, the Digital Learning Awards recognizes the top 100 school districts nationwide implementing digital resources based on their usage of netTrekker, which delivers learning-ready content to teachers and students. Schools nationwide use netTrekker to deliver more than 360,000 resources organized by grade level, content type, readability, subject and educational theme for use in the classroom and at home.

“We are inspired by districts using 21st century practices to enhance the educational experience,” said Randy Wilhelm, CEO of Knovation. “Aurora Public Schools’ use of digital resources demonstrates its commitment to create meaningful learning experiences to engage all learners.”

“The use of such online resources by our teachers is fostering the creation of blended learning environments for our students,” said Kevin Riebau, Educational Technology Program Director for APS.  “This is important as our students engage in learning aligned to the new, rigorous, Colorado Academic Standards which include the use of technology.”

To learn more about the Digital Learning Awards, visit http://www.nettrekker.com/dla.

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Interested media may contact APS News Media Specialist
Patti Moon at 303-326-2755 for more information

APS Joins National Cohort of Union and District Leaders to Improve Student Learning

NEWS RELEASE #15
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 29, 2014

 

APS Joins National Cohort of Union and District Leaders to Improve Student Learning

Outstanding records of achievement qualify four teams for the NEA Foundation Institute for Innovation in Teaching and Learning

(WASHINGTON, October 27, 2014) – The NEA Foundation has selected an Aurora team led by the educator union president and superintendent to join the NEA Foundation Institute for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, a national effort to build teacher-led instructional effectiveness.

The Aurora Public Schools union-district team was selected because of their joint labor-management commitment and working collaboratively to take on tough issues like the use of time and new evaluation processes. Over the next year, they will jointly focus on designing comprehensive, job-embedded and strategically individualized professional development, which will complement the new state evaluation system required by SB 10-191. 

 “Our district and association have collaborated on a number of important concepts: Pilot schools that allow staff autonomy to make the best decisions for their students and teachers, and waivers to allow individual building staff to repurpose the way in which time is used,” said Amy Nichols, President of the Aurora Education Association. “We fully understand that to increase student achievement, we must purposefully rethink what we do and why we do it.  The opportunity provided by the NEA Foundation will help us enhance our administrators’ and teachers’ focus on effective teaching behaviors through a systematic analysis of each element in our state model evaluation rubric.  Calibration of each element will ensure teachers and administrators know what proficient and accomplished teaching looks like, and it will allow us to strategically support all teachers with the individualized resources they need to provide quality instruction to students.”

"Aurora Public Schools is honored to participate in the National Cohort of Union-District Leaders to Improve Student Learning, said D. Rico Munn, Aurora Public Schools Superintendent.  We have a long-standing positive relationship with our teachers’ association that supports accelerating learning for every Aurora Public Schools student, every day.  We look forward to collaborating with Institute colleagues to ensure that the Colorado quality teaching standards and evaluation system are useful tools for our teachers and students.”

The new teams hail from: Aurora, CO, Cedar Rapids, IA, Fall River, MA, and Berkshire Hills, MA. They will participate in a two-year program that is designed to lead to significant changes in teaching and learning, becoming part of a network of collaborative teams tackling some of the most pressing issues in public education.

“We welcome these teams and feel confident in their capacity and joint commitment to develop strategies that will strengthen their work in support of improving student outcomes,” said NEA Foundation President & CEO Harriet Sanford. “The Institute will provide opportunities for them to engage in a partnership to change teaching and learning in their communities, and ultimately, improve the opportunities of their students.”

Teams were competitively selected based on applications co-authored by teacher union presidents and superintendents demonstrating their ability to address difficult issues of systems change and collaborative reform, with a sense of urgency and focus. Sanford said the Foundation also sought to develop a cohort whose action plans would reflect a diverse set of issues, increasing what it will learn from these sites’ experiences and share within the field.

The NEA Foundation
The NEA Foundation is a public charity supported by contributions from educators' dues, corporate sponsors, and others who support public education initiatives. We support student success by helping public school educators work with key partners to build strong systems of shared responsibility. Visit www.neafoundation.org for more information. Find us on Facebook and Twitter, and visit our blog 

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Interested media may contact APS News Media Specialist
Patti Moon at 303-326-2755 for more information