Skip To Main Content

 

Our Approach: The Future in Focus

In 2023, CA’s English and Social Studies departments introduced seven ASR options, college-level courses designed by Colorado Academy faculty and academic leadership.

That same year, Visual and Performing Arts and Computer Science Departments also launched ASR classes. These intensive experiences culminated in multiple moments where our community celebrated student ASR research papers, projects, and gallery openings.

For the 2024-2025 school year, CA continues to offer ASR in these areas in addition to exciting new options in World Languages and an interdisciplinary Math/Social Studies course, Cryptography ASR. All ASR courses are weighted and presented to colleges alongside AP as the most rigorous in each discipline. ASR is widely respected by colleges and is a uniquely CA experience that our students covet.

Current Advanced Placement (AP) courses will continue in Math, Science, Computer Science, and World Languages, and all curricular shifts are guided by CA’s Academic Affairs Committee (AAC) that includes faculty and Department Chairs as well as our Head of School, Upper School Principal, Director of College Counseling and Strategic Initiatives, and Director of Culture and Community.

CA remains committed to the fundamental question of how we maintain and grow a strong academic program. By harnessing faculty expertise and creating our own college-level curriculum, we are able to challenge our students at higher levels and prepare them for a world that demands their ideas and challenges them to action.

Colorado Academy continues to be one of the most reputable independent schools in the country. We look to the future with a sense of optimism and possibility.

Mike Davis, PhD, Head of School
Max Delgado, Upper School Principal
Sonia Arora '01, Director of College Counseling and Upper School Strategic Initiatives

Four Stages: From Foundations to Depths

1. Foundational Courses

Our foundational courses help students acquire the discipline-specific skills, habits, and practices that any serious scholar must adopt to succeed in their field—while engaging students and exposing them to the vital content of that subject area.

2. Electives

Our electives allow our students to apply knowledge from previous coursework to a distinct or focused area of study that stems from roots in our foundational courses. Seeking connections with foundational learning is emphasized. Elective courses make use of our teachers’ specialized training and academic expertise.

3. AP

Our AP courses are college-level classes that also prepare students for various Advanced Placement exams. In most AP courses, students are required to take the AP test. Students sometimes receive credit at the college they attend, depending on the score they receive.

4. ASR

Our Advanced Studies and Research (ASR) classes are the most ambitious extension of the CA approach, emphasizing self-direction, developing mastery, more profound depth of study, and a learning posture that connects to the broader world. ASR courses cultivate curiosity. They encourage students to explore the current state of knowledge, pursue big ideas, and develop a lifelong passion for meaningful, rigorous engagement.

Image

ASR-Presentation