Research Context

Arapahoe High School is one of three high schools located in Centennial, Colorado part of Littleton Public Schools. We have always been the dominant high school in our district as well as a leader in the state regarding state and national testing. Our college remediation rate is one of the lowest in the state. About 92-94 % of our graduating seniors go on to college. We are an open enrollment school with two feeder middle schools. A number of our students come from these two feeder schools, but we do have a good percentage of open-enrolled kids as well. Students are open-enrolled based on a letter they write to our principal, previous academic achievement, and possibly an interview. We have a school that is primarily Caucasian, suburban, and upper middle class.

Most ninth grade English classes have around 30 kids. For freshmen, we offer Humanities classes, regular ninth grade comprehensive English as well as Honors. We are also offering some single gender classes. There are two 1-1 English classes at AHS. The ninth grade class as a whole usually numbers around 500-550. Our curriculum is undergoing some revision aiming for more alignment towards essential learnings defined at each grade level rather than a large curricular approach. Personal Learning Communities is an additional focus in our school district. The aim is to give teachers more time to examine current practices, create common assessments, and ultimately, ensure that all our students are receiving the same education. We have been participants in a massive staff development effort examining how kids learn best and how technology can support that learning.

Our administrative staff is led by our veteran principal Ron Booth who has hired over 98% of the teachers at our school. He has been the principal over 20 years. His administrative staff consists of 5 assistant principals all with various levels of experience. The teachers in the English department in which I teach vary in their experience from 30 years to 3 years. I am considered a veteran teacher in my department and in the school with this being my 11^th year.

We have a tremendous community support. At our school, both parents usually work and many have received their Masters degrees. The parents are mostly upper middle class with strong ties to the community. Many parents volunteer at the school or support their child in extra curricular activities. Well over half of our students participate in extra-curricular activities.