The Classical Academy (TCA) is the largest brick and mortar K-12th grade charter school in Colorado. Launched in 1997 with 400 students, TCA currently enrolls approximately 3,600 students on three campuses in seven schools with one vision. An additional 7,000 children are on our waiting list. TCA alone is larger than 75% of the public school districts in Colorado. TCA’s demographics reflect the demographics of northern El Paso County where it is located. 

Since its inception, TCA has embraced a philosophy that guides all instruction - and it has come to be known as TCA’s Educational Philosophy. Selected aspects of Classical Education, the Socratic Method, the writings of turn-of-the-century British educator, Charlotte Mason, form the basis for this philosophy. Over the last decade and particularly in recent years, it has become apparent through everyday application that these three strands of thinking intertwine beautifully providing student with a highly effective K-12 experience. TCA’s Educational Philosophy is elegantly divided into 4 ''big ideas'' that clearly demonstrate our approach to education.

TCA is:

· Whole Person Focused – The TCA community will endeavor to foster and nurture a warm learning environment for students in which students will learn healthy habits of mind, body, and spirit formed thoughtfully and responsibly.

· Relationship Based – Teachers masterfully facilitate and support healthy, beneficial relationships allowing students to acquire authentic character. While interpersonal relationships are critical, it is also important for students to develop relationships with subject matter, as well as the world around them.

· Classically Oriented – Teachers masterfully guide learning through questioning based on appropriate developmental stages of learning. Students are inspired toward a lifelong pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness.

· Idea Centered – Teachers recognize that inspirational ideas and truth are the real food for the student’s mind. Living books, original source documents, musical pieces, artwork, and nature itself provide these inspirational ideas.

These ideas, when fully embraced, provide an exceptional educational experience that is in alignment with and fully supports TCA’s Mission Statement: The Classical Academy exists to assist parents in their mission to develop exemplary citizens equipped with analytical thinking skills, virtuous character, and a passion for learning, all built upon a solid foundation of knowledge.

The UIP and data analysis process engaged the input of the Principals, Assistant Principals, Dean of Educational Philosophy, Director of Student Support Services, and the Compliance Officer. School Accountability Committees, including teachers and parents, met to review the UIPs. TCA Elementary consists of three elementary schools on three different campuses: TCA Central Elementary, TCA East Elementary, and TCA North Elementary. About 1800 students, Grades K-6, are enrolled.

2023 Student Performance – What can state assessment results tell you about student learning?
Spring 2023 state tests and expectations were consistent with tests from previous years at TCA.  State assessments were given in a paper-pencil format as in previous years. 
TCA Elementary notes that each state assessment (by subject and grade level) has maintained the same performance range as previous years. TCA Elementary exceeds both the district and the State of Colorado in every assessment given this school year.   

2023 Participation Rates Analysis
TCA Elementary schools received a low participation rating with 90% of the eligible student body participating in CMAS. Principals addressed low participation with each School Accountability Committee (SAC) to gain insight into why parents were opting students out and took suggestions on how to best increase participation given our population. Participation did increase significantly over the course of the past five years through open parent communication and continued partnership with the community.
TCA Elementary had a participation rate over 90% and was at or above the district and state rates in each mandated content area. Many of the opt-outs received were due to illness or parents not wanting to stress their already taxed student.

Current Year Results CMAS- overall 


DATA FROM 2018- 2023
In fall of 2019, TCA Elementary was awarded a performance plan with an overall rating of Performance Plan: Low Participation.  
TCA Elementary did not meet the 95% student participation rate in all areas.   We will continue to reinforce the value of assessment with our school community in order to effectively evaluate instruction that will best meet our students’ needs.  


2023 READ Act Data
TCA Elementary K-6 uses a core reading program of Spalding: Writing Road to Reading. Supplemental reading programs for K-3 include SPIRE, HillSprings Learning Center, Orton-Gillingham International (OGI/Yoshimoto Reading Instruction, and Take Flight. Students with significant reading deficiency (SRD) K-3 are receiving evidence-based reading instruction using SPIRE or Take Flight.  Early Literacy Grant was being utilized at one campus. 

TCA Reading Curriculum
The Spalding Method, as laid out in The Writing Road to Reading, is a comprehensive, multisensory, integrated language arts program that includes all the evidence-based components of systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, oral reading fluency and text comprehension as identified by the Nation Reading Panel (NRP).  Phonemic awareness training is included within daily spelling routines using high-frequency words and including phoneme manipulation tasks such as identifying individual sounds, segmenting, counting, blending and recognizing initial sounds, ending sounds and medial sounds, as well as identifying same and then different sounds in spoken words and rhymes.   Spalding uses a systematic approach for phonics instruction, linking sounds and letters with printed words.   Vocabulary is taught by building a mental lexicon of words encountered in text.  It uses high-frequency core vocabulary words, and extends vocabulary through the use of fine literature.  Oral reading fluency is developed with the regular use of proven strategies to help automate the reading process.  Text comprehension incorporates five proven comprehension strategies; self-monitory, making connections, predicting text structure as well as likely outcomes and events, categorizing information, and summarizing.  The Spalding Method is built upon four major research domains related to reading process and reading development, basic skills mastery, and effective instruction.  With its diagnostic approach to the essential components of reading, The Spalding Method helps teachers easily create learning plans for individual children and classroom subgroups using proven instruction techniques.  The Spalding Method has a variety of diagnostic tools integrated into daily, weekly, and monthly classroom activities and has an interdisciplinary focus to provide opportunities for children to apply reading skills across subject areas.  All of The Classical Academy’s kindergarten through fifth grade teachers have completed the Spalding teacher-training course which focuses on the essential skills and behaviors identified by the Nation Reading Panel (NRP) and is accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC).
 
Outline of information from a Spalding brochure ''How Spalding’s The Writing Road to Reading addresses the essential instructional components for early reading instruction outlined in the 2000 National Reading Panel Report''
The Spalding Method, as laid out in The Writing Road to Reading, is a total language arts program that includes instruction in spelling, writing, and reading. It integrates content, principles, and procedures that empower teachers to be successful decision makers, equipping them with the ability to help all students learn to read and write.
How the time-proven Spalding Method prepares students for a lifetime of reading

• Instructionally sound; providing systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, systematic phonics, vocabulary, fluency and text comprehension as identified by the Nation Reading Panel (NRP).
  • Phonemic Awareness: Hearing Sounds in Spoken Words        
    • Incorporated within daily spelling routines using high-frequency words
    • Includes teacher-led and independent practice for the following phonemic manipulation asks:
      • Identifying individual sounds in spoken words
      • Segmenting spoken high-frequency words into individual sounds
      • Counting sounds within spoken words
      • Blending sounds into spoken words
      • Recognizing initial sounds, then ending sounds, and finally middle (medial) sounds
      • Identifying same and then different sounds in spoken words and rhymes
  • Systematic Phonics: Linking Sounds and Letters with Printed Words
    • Uses a systematic approach to help children quickly master saying and writing the 70 symbols (phonograms) that represent 45 speech sounds
    • Includes daily oral and written phonogram reviews to reinforce phonics skills
    • Equips students to spell accurately and to decode unfamiliar words by applying phonics skills to reading text
    • Connect speech to print with a unique and time-tested marking system
    • Employs daily spelling dictation to lay the groundwork for segmenting spoken words and blending phonograms into high frequency regular and irregular words (important prerequisites for faster success with reading)
    • Integrates precise handwriting techniques with sound-symbol relationships as a multi-sensory bridge between essential phonics skills and their practical application for writing and reading
    • Proves opportunities to apply newly learned and reinforced phonics skills through reading words by sound or syllable. 
  • Vocabulary: Building a Mental Lexicon of Words Encountered in Text
    • Uses high-frequency core vocabulary words as the foundation for vocabulary instruction
    • Teaches word parts as well as usage and meanings
    • Coaches children to use these words to construct oral and then written sentences in preparation for reading
    • Extends vocabulary through use of fine literature and extensive independent reading
  • Fluency: Developing Automatic and Expressive Reading
    • Structures the development of fluency skills with the regular use of proven strategies to help automate the reading process such as:
      • Developing automatic word recognition as children read new words used in normal speech – a critical prerequisite for reading text fluently with comprehension.
      • Modeling intonation, expression, and fluent reading
      • Proving specific and immediate teacher feedback as students read orally to develop accuracy, proper expression, and speed in daily reading lessons
    • Monitors students’ fluency progress with teacher-administration Oral Reading Assessments
  • Text Comprehension: using Strategies to Gain meaning from Text
    • Incorporates five proven comprehension strategies that build solid text comprehension skills:
      • Self-Monitoring of comprehension while listening and reading
      • Making connections between prior knowledge and text
      • Predicting author’s purpose, type of writing, as well as likely outcomes and events
      • Categorizing information by using graphic organizers, such as outlines, sequencing, and diagrams
      • Summarizing text to identify stated and derived implied main ideas
    • Provides specific, immediate feedback as children use these strategies to comprehend text
    • Assesses students on multiple levels using strategies and questioning techniques recommended by the NRP
    • Knowledge and skills acquired are applied to reading literature and content area text
• The Spalding Method is built upon four major research domains
  • Domain #1: Reading Process
    • Phonemic awareness
    • Feature recognition
    • Letter recognition
    • Sound-symbol relationships (Decoding)
    • Spatial Placement
    • Vocabulary (Lexical Process)
    • Sentence structure (Syntactic process)
    • Text Comprehension (Semantic Process)
    • Domain #2: Reading Development
      • Stage 0 Pre-reading Pre-K - K
      • Stage 1 Decoding  Grades 1 - 2
      • Stage 2 Confirmation & Fluency Grades 2-3
      • Stage 3 Reading for Information Grades 4-8
    • Domain #3: Skill Learning
      • Attention Management-Task analysis-Practice to automaticity
    • Domain #4: Effective Instruction
      • Collins Cognitive Apprenticeship
        • Modeling
        • Coaching
        • Scaffolding and fading
        • Articulation
        • Reflection
        • Exploration
• Differentiated instruction
  • With its diagnostic approach to the essential components of reading, The Spalding Method helps teachers easily create learning plans for individual children and classroom subgroups using proven instructional techniques.
    • Consistent routines
    • Multisensory techniques
    • Well-constructed pacing guides and templates
    • A variety of diagnostic tools
    • Interdisciplinary focus
• High Quality Professional Development
  • Teacher training courses accredited by the International Multisensory Structured Language Education Council (IMSLEC) that provide high quality professional development opportunities for teachers.
• Spalding courses focus on the skills and behaviors essential to the NRP instruction components.