The Promise of Adams 14
A report assembled by community organizations and
partners invested in the success of the students, families,
and educators of the Adams 14 school district.

 INTRODUCTION
What will it take to ensure success in Adams 14? This question has plagued students, families, educators and
advocates for far too long. As the district goes before the State Board this fall, stakeholders and supporters invested
in the success of the Adams 14 community have a unique opportunity to present a strong vision and plan for true and
lasting improvement for the students and families who deserve the highest quality educational opportunity.
Beginning in early 2018, a group of partners began meeting regularly to discuss the challenges facing the district and
how we, as partners that are committed to improvement but often located outside of the community, can best
support students and families in the district. Originally, we came together to share experiences and discuss issues
related to biliteracy, family and community engagement, student experiences and district leadership. Through these
conversations, we identified two overarching needs within the district: stronger leadership at both the local board
and district level as well as a need for student-centered policies.
As with all successful efforts to effect systems change in education and beyond, our efforts have been grounded
from the outset in the experiences and perspectives of those most directly impacted by the problem, in this case the
students and families of the Adams 14 school district. Therefore, we spent time as a group and individually deepening
our understanding of the local context through collecting and analyzing quantitative and qualitative data relating to
the performance of schools and the district as a whole.
In this report you will find:
 testimonials and stories captured through the qualitative data collection that capture the lived experiences of
students and families in the district,
 historical and current data that provide quantitative insights on student and school performance, and
 a set of recommendations for school and district improvements developed in response to the data gathered.
It is our hope that this document will help inform the efforts that are underway and that are urgently needed in order
to see significant, enduring improvement in the district. Regardless of the option(s) selected, this information and the
recommendations will help guide the conversation with district officials and guidance set for the district by the state.
We recognize change is difficult and results take time. That said, more must be done to serve the students and
families of Commerce City and we stand ready to lend our support however it is needed to ensure the Adams 14
community is set up for long term success.
In partnership,
A+ Colorado
Andrew LaCrue, Community Member
Climb Higher Colorado
Colorado Association of Bilingual Educators (CABE)
INSPIRE
José Guardiola, Adams 14 Alumni, Former Employee, Community
Member, Commerce City Council - At Large

Ricardo Rocha, Adams 14 Alumni, Community Member
Stand for Children, Colorado
The Colorado League of Charter Schools
Together Colorado
Transform Education Now (TEN)

 TESTIMONIALS
District improvements must be rooted in the reality of what it looks and feels like to be a student or parent of a child
in Adams 14. Unfortunately, the reality of this experience is characterized by a chronic inability by the district to
meet the needs of those the school system is supposed to support. Through our outreach and research, we have
uncovered a wide range of indicators that underscore the district’s current inability to serve its students and families,
which include:




Students at the primary high school, Adams City High School, are reporting still having substitutes daily and
some still do not have schedules.
There are only 10 kindergarteners left at Monaco Elementary School.
Last year, students reported not having math class at the high school for the first 3 months of school.

These issues are symptoms of larger, more systemic challenges and help illuminate why over 3,000 families chose
to send their children outside of the district, resulting in a loss of over $26,000,000 annually. Chief among these
challenges, as supported by the stories below, is the lack of effective leadership by the district superintendent and
members of the local school board.
Below you will find a sample of stories from parents, students, and community members that we would like to
highlight. Each illustrates the current state of the district and underscores the need for urgent action on behalf of
students in Adams 14. We stand alongside the Commerce City community members who are asking the State Board
of Education to act to ensure immediate action be taken on behalf of these individuals and community as a whole.
Please note: we received these written testimonies from community members and did not correct student
testimonies for spelling or grammar. Testimonies received in Spanish are provided with the original language along
with an English translation that follows.
PARENTS:
“My son was a special education student in Adams 14. I walked into a classroom and saw him sitting in a
corner, not living, not thriving. The teacher told me he would never learn to read. He is now reading and
writing and about to graduate High School, the only reason is because he left Adams 14.” - Martha, Parent
“A principios del ciclo escolar 2017/2018 no me dejaron entrar a la escuela Monaco Elementary la unica
explicación fue que era la seguridad de los niños y el personal. Yo he tratado de participar durante muchos
años como voluntaria y nunca habia pasado eso al menos yo y algunas mamas que vamos no le hacemos
nada a nadie.” - Anonymous survey entry, Parent
Translation: “At the beginning of the 2017/2018 school cycle, they did not let me enter Monaco
Elementary School. The only explanation that they offered was that it was for the children’s and
school staff’s safety. I have actively participated throughout the years as a volunteer and this had

 never happened to me. Neither I nor any of the other moms who have gone have ever done
anything to anyone.” - Anonymous survey entry, Parent
STUDENTS:
“They Failed to give us our best. They fire every teacher who wants to help us. I would fire the super
intendent because he doesn’t do his job right. He only thinks for himself. He thinks teachers try to out power
him because they have a relationship with the students!” - Laura, Student
“I have only attended the school for about 2 years, but even through that time, there has been so much
change and it just seems like the staff does not care about our education.” - Addyson, Student
COMMUNITY:
“Stop the petty fighting and actually focus on the kids. The adults are screwing up the children and it’s
absolutely unfair.” - A14 Former Staff Member

ACADEMIC OUTCOMES
Adams 14 has failed to make significant improvements in schools that have been consistently low performing. As a
whole, the district’s performance actually declined from 2017 to 2018. When looking at the Colorado Department
of Education’s document Historical Report on Performance Frameworks, the district went from 37.6 percentage
points on their district performance framework in 2017 to 36.8 percentage points in 2018. This translates to a deeply
troubling trend. While the district has remained on Priority Improvement both years, it will not actually achieve the
points necessary to move off of the state’s performance clock if trends persist. While some measures of academic
outcomes for students have inched up, the progress we have seen is not nearly significant enough. Specifically, in
2015, 16% of students in grades 3-8 were meeting expectations in English language arts. Only 20% of 3-8 graders
were meeting expectations in 2018.

 Low achievement is all the more concerning when paired with the low growth we see in Adams 14, where most
students are making less progress than their academic peers across the state. Even “green” schools on the
accountability clock had low achievement. For example, Alsup Elementary School only had 26% of students meeting
expectations in English language arts and Math, and the growth the average student made was less than other
Colorado students at similar levels of achievement.
Across the district, compared to their academic peers, students in Adams 14 made less growth this past year. This is
particularly the case at the High School level, where the median growth percentile was 34 and 35 for EvidencedBased Reading and Writing and Math, respectively.

RECOMMENDATIONS
As the State Board of Education explores potential avenues for action in response to the district’s chronic
underperformance, we urge you to begin where many partners are already in agreement - the lack of effective
district leadership, both within the district administration and the local school board. Using this consensus as a
foundation for collaboration, there may be an opportunity for heightened focus and expedited improvements by
partners. As potential solutions begin to surface, ideological or philosophical differences may emerge, but we believe
all groups must always operate and make decisions based upon the question of “what’s best for students”.
We know that systemic, comprehensive changes are essential. Equal attention must be paid to policy changes as well
as how those policy changes will be implemented. We encourage the State Board to think first and foremost about
the improvements that must be made, then how the levers through the Accountability Act can help execute those
improvements. We urge you to keep students and families at the center of your decisions because, for too long,
children in Commerce City have not received the education they deserve. Now is an opportunity to lean into the
challenge.

 Below is a list of five essential elements that we believe must be in place in order to advance improved education
outcomes and experiences for the students and families served by Adams 14 School District. While we recognize it
would be unrealistic for the district to implement each of these elements overnight, a clear strategy to address each
of them with the identified supports necessary is essential. It is our belief that only through a comprehensive
approach will we see lasting improvements across the district.

1. Partner with external management organization (EMO) to assess current central office
infrastructure and build out intentional systems and structures that will increase transparency and
accountability.
Feedback from stakeholders inside and outside of the Adams 14 system has repeatedly highlighted the lack of a
cohesive and aligned district central office. In order to have a clear understanding of what is working and what is not,
we recommend the district engage an external partner or organization that holds significant authority over the
operations of the district. The EMO must conduct a comprehensive analysis of the existing infrastructure and
resource allocation. Special attention should be paid to the way the district currently approaches data, accountability,
teacher coaching and evaluation, and principal supports.
Once the district leadership, including the Adams 14 school board, and the broader community can assess the
efficacy of what is currently in place, they will be better equipped to design adjustments or new systems that align to
the district’s needs and priorities. These changes should be be accompanied with clear goals and accountability, so
that everyone within the system can know how each structure and individual should function in service of the district
goals and what steps or adjustments can be made if goals are not met.

2. Authentically engage students, families, educators, and community in every stage of the
improvement process, from design through implementation and evaluation, beginning with the
development of a clear, strategic vision and mission.
We are pleased the district initiated and plans to continue working with Team Tipton to engage the community,
design a strategic vision and mission, and put the teams in place to move that vision forward. However, in order for
these plans and improvements to endure beyond a contract with external consultants, the district must establish a
clear commitment to academic partnership between schools and families and build its internal capacity and
structures to bring students, families, educators and the broader community into their decision making.
Beyond seeking community input and feedback on an initial design of a strategic vision and mission, we recommend
the district institute research based strategies for academic partnership. These strategies include:
 fostering a welcoming environment within all schools,
 building collaborative relationships between parents and educators through home visits,
 regularly sharing individualized student performance data, and
 sharing decision making power through school and district governance and accountability structures.

 We urge the State Board to push the district to identify how they will embed long-term family and community
engagement into their work, ensuring the process lives both with the external partners as well as with the district
itself, so it can be implemented with fidelity.

3. Establish a plan to design and adopt high quality school options that meet the diverse needs of
students and families, including a comprehensive strategy to support multilingual students.
Of the 13 schools that serve 7,500 students in Adams 14, all but one operate as traditional, comprehensive school
models. We know each student in the district brings with them unique interests and needs. Opportunities for
students to explore science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), expeditionary learning, community school
models, dual language programs or IB programs are needed.
These high quality school options could be run by the district, could have more autonomy from the district as
innovation schools, or could be run by nonprofit partners as public charter schools. Creating new high quality schools
will take both the district and charter partners; nonprofit public charter school operators with track records of success
are well positioned to offer much needed options to Adams 14 students in the immediate future. Community must
identify which educational and school models they would most like to see their students access and the district must
then support the design and creation of different, high quality schools, ensuring that internal district systems such as
open enrollment are also in place in order for students and families to access these new opportunities.
In considering these school options, it is imperative the district recognizes the population they serve and identify
models that meet their needs. Adams 14 is home to the highest concentration of emerging multilingual students in
the state (48% of the district), and therefore has a powerful opportunity to leverage the inherent skills and strengths
of the students and families they serve to become the state’s leading, multilingual district. Research tells us that
speaking more than one language increases executive functioning, strengthens critical thinking skills, enhances
language and communication skills and better prepares students for the jobs of tomorrow. Creating language
services for families at the district level and reinstating the biliteracy supports previously agreed to in the district are
essential to students realizing the potential of their multilingual backgrounds. Similarly, serving multilingual students
takes into account the fact that the district continues to be under U.S. Office of Civil Rights (OCR) monitoring and it is
critical the district include OCR in their plans to serve multilingual students so they do not compromise compliance.

4. Invest in the supports necessary for data and best practice to guide all decisions from the
classroom level up to the Superintendent’s office.
In order to have data-driven decisions at every level of the system, investments must be made for reliable, ongoing
performance evaluation at the student, school, and district level. Functional systems for ongoing assessment are
essential for educators and investments must be made to have the data specialists needed to support staff and help
elevate data. Included among these essential resources is a rigorous performance framework so that parents can
understand the expectations for their children as well as the performance of their schools. Sharing that information

 with all parents through resources that are easy to understand and translated into the district’s top languages will
help families partner with schools, support their children’s learning and drive academic achievement.
Similarly, the district must ground its decisions around selection and implementation of curricula in research-based
best practice, beginning with foundational literacy instruction from preschool through third grade. In order to unlock
every academic opportunity, students must be supported to master literacy by the time they enter fourth grade. In
2018, only 21% of 4th graders in Adams 14 were meeting or exceeding expectations in English Language Arts. . That
is 25 percentage points below the state average and deeply alarming. The district should empower educators with
the highest quality, research-based instructional tools so they have the supports necessary to provide researchproven instruction on the five domains of literacy to all students.

5. Support great teachers and school leaders to enable them to grow and stay in the profession and
district long-term.
We know teachers are the most important factor within our system of public education in supporting student
learning. We also know students do better when great teachers stay in schools longer and strong leaders are
supported to serve as school and district administrators. Research shows that there is a correlation between high
rates of teacher turnover and lower student achievement, meaning that as turnover increases student achievement
decreases. In the 2017-2018 school year, 24 percent of teachers, and 52 percent of principals left the district. It is
essential educators and leaders in Adams 14 receive every support necessary to not only succeed but excel.
Specific actions we recommend the district undertake to improve teacher and school leader retention and growth
include:
 increase base pay,
 develop clear career ladders with an aligned payment structure,
 offer high quality, ongoing professional development, and
 institute performance evaluations that support professional growth.
Given the diversity of cultures, languages, and backgrounds within the Commerce City community, the professional
development teachers and school leaders receive should place an emphasis on culturally sustaining practices. This
means the district should consider a range of strategies that create safe, inclusive, healthy environments for all
students and families, such as diversity, equity, and inclusion training for all adults in the Adams 14 system and
designing schools that honor and lift up the cultures of the students in the halls of every Adams 14 school.