Glimpse into your child's school experience during our Academic Partnering Night. Meet with your child's teachers to better understand their progress and ways you can support their learning at home. Refreshments and interpretation are available. Check with your school for additional details. We can't wait to see you!
Download the TalkingPoints App today and get connected with your child's teacher.
TalkingPoints is an easy and safe app for families to communicate in their home languages with their child’s teachers for free.
RMP schools are using this platform to communicate with families about their child’s education and progress.
Learn more about TalkingPoints.
Mari Peterson, a fifth-grade math teacher at Rocky Mountain Prep Creekside, has been teaching for 10 years — eight of them at RMP. But before that, she never intended to become a teacher.
Her interest in education began in college, where she participated in a student group, Students for Education Reform, that discussed equitable education as a form of social justice. This led her to join Teach For America and teach middle school in Mississippi for two years.
After moving to Denver, Mari had left the teaching profession, but she realized she missed it. That was when Rocky Mountain Prep appeared in her life. She became a founding teacher of RMP Creekside’s fourth grade, and she loved how her team approached teaching math: not just showing solutions that work, but explaining why they work.
As the school grew, she moved into fifth-grade math, and it has been her passion ever since. For four consecutive years, RMP Creekside students overall achieved the highest math scores on CMAS of any DPS school with a majority of students eligible for Free or Reduced Lunch. Mari’s students in particular scored in the top 25% of their grades at all DPS schools.
But after several years, Mari was weighing the possibility of leaving teaching for good.
“Teaching is a very hard profession,” Mari said. “Living in an expensive city and trying to create a work-life balance is really challenging as a teacher. It’s difficult to further your career.”
Last year, she started applying for positions in nursing, where she would have a higher salary and more control over her schedule. But in the spring of 2022, Mari was selected for RMP’s first cohort of PEAK Teachers.
PEAK Teachers — RMP’s top-performing teachers in both student achievement data and observations — make between $80,000 and $110,000 per year. They also receive a professional development budget to use for coaching, training, and leading their fellow staff members.
In 2022, all four Rocky Mountain Prep schools were rated green on Colorado’s Preliminary School Performance Framework (SPF) for the first time in the network’s history. Additionally, 58.3% of fifth-graders at RMP Creekside — Mari’s students — who took CMAS scored proficient or above proficient in math.
So what changed? For Mari, it was getting her students to care about and own their learning. “We were transparent with our kids about their growth, and they were excited when they found out that they could use that feedback to improve,” she said.
With a focus on PEAK values, strong family relationships, and supporting the whole child, Mari said the RMP community is unlike anything else.
On Saturday, the RMP Creekside community joined together for our ninth annual Festival of Nations. Families represented 30 countries with food, music, clothing, and cultural objects from around the world. Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate and make this event possible!
A special thank you to Julissa Soto, a leader in Latino immigrant equality, inclusion, and health equity in Colorado, for providing COVID tests and masks to our community.
Click through the slideshow below to see photos of the festival!
For the first time in its history, U.S. News & World Report has ranked the best performing elementary and middle schools in the country.
We are excited to share that all four Rocky Mountain Prep schools were named in the inaugural list of U.S. News & World Report’s Best Elementary Schools!
These first-ever K-8 rankings assess student performance in the context of their states and demographics. Scoring was rooted in students’ performance on mathematics and reading/language arts state assessments. The U.S. Department of Education-sourced data was from the 2018-2019 academic year and preceded the COVID-19 pandemic's impact.
Click here to view all the rankings on the US News & World Report site.
All Denver Public Schools follow the same choice process with applications closing February 18. As a result, families across Denver are currently touring schools and choosing which school is best for their student for next year.
And at RMP Creekside, prospective families will hear about our school from those who know it best: our students!
“This is a great way for families to hear first-hand from our kiddos,” Daniella Gutierrez, Creekside’s Senior Manager of Operations & Family Liaison, shared. “The kids really lead the tours how they want to do it, share what they want to share, and then give each other feedback after the tours to share ideas for how they can all improve.”
We spoke with Akleema and Malyah, two fifth-grade students who lead tours for families.
“I’m excited to share how this school helps students grow with their minds and hearts,” Malyah told us. “They learn how to do all the things they are supposed to and at the same time, learn how to be kind with others.”
Akleema added, “The parents could know [by touring] that our school is a good fit for their student to teach them what they are supposed to know so they are on track. This is a good school because they give you so many opportunities and really help you with what you need.”
When it comes to preparing to lead the tours, they both were nervous at first. “In the beginning, it was scary because I was shy and didn’t know anybody and was scared to talk in front of people. Now I have a lot of information about the school and I feel more confident,” Akleema shared.
It’s clear they are the experts in all information about the campus and have answers to the variety of questions that come up on family tours.
“I like leading tours because I like showing the parents how the school works - Pre-K all the way to fifth grade,” Maylah said. “Student safety is always important - we have cameras and alarms, and even if students have any allergies, we have things for that too. Their student is always safe here.”
What’s most important for families to know about Creekside? Akleema told us, “Your child will be safe and learn a lot here. You don’t need to worry about anything because teachers will be here to help them out - and students would have lots of friends here!”
Ready to learn more? Register for an upcoming tour here, or explore enrollment information here.
Earlier this month, Denver Public Schools (DPS) shared the results for the 2018 School Performance Framework (SPF) ratings, a report card that tells us important information about how much our students have improved their scores on state tests from year to year, and how satisfied our students and families are with our school. We are then able to use this information to make any necessary changes in the classroom and to bring in additional supports where needed.
RMP Southwest has been rated “yellow” or accredited on watch. (This year’s rating was calculated using the more-limited early ed SPF. Once we receive PARCC growth data in 2019 we will qualify for the traditional framework.)
Our Fletcher campus is a part of Aurora Public Schools, which evaluates schools using the State of Colorado SPF. We look forward to seeing Fletcher’s state ranking in January 2019.
In partnership,
James
With the release of school year 2017-18 Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) data, we are excited to celebrate our successes and reflect on the areas where we hope to grow. We’re committed to being transparent about our work, as we believe this is central to continuing to improve.
Below are a few early reflections on RMP’s CMAS results, with more to come as additional data is released by the state.
At RMP Creekside, we were glad to see status results similar to years past in Math and English Language Arts. (View our 2016 and 2017 results.)
In fact, for the fourth year in a row, our Creekside students had the highest math proficiency rates among any DPS school with a majority of students eligible for free or reduced lunch. In that same subgroup, RMP students’ scores were fifth for English Language Arts.
When looking specifically at proficiency rates for our students who are English Language Learners, both Creekside and Southwest students’ math proficiency scores were in the top ten of all schools in the district.
At RMP Southwest, we were eager for our students to take CMAS for the first time. Our two third grade classes at this campus embodied our PEAK Values, showing adventure and perseverance as they completed their first-ever round of CMAS testing.
In math specifically, RMP Southwest students’ math proficiency scores were 20% higher than those of other elementary schools in the district with a similar percentage of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch.
However, our ELA results at RMP Southwest were significantly short of our goals for RMP students with 15% proficient.
These results help us understand where our program has strengths we can continue to build on, and where we will seek to make adjustments.
When it comes to 2018 parent satisfaction survey results, we are thrilled that for the second year in a row, RMP Southwest was rated in the top five out of all schools in the district. RMP Southwest had the #1 highest overall positive parent satisfaction rating out of all DPS elementary schools.
Additionally, RMP Creekside’s parent survey results were in the top 15% of all schools in the district.
We have also just recently received growth data from the state. While we’re proud that our 4th- and 5th-grade students’ math growth at RMP Creekside outpaced the state results, we fell short of our goals for our students’ literacy growth. As we have more time to process this data, we will be sharing additional reflections on growth specifically. (We will not have growth data for our Southwest campus until next year.)
As we review this data and our performance on the school performance framework, we will be reflecting on a number of questions:
We look forward to receiving additional data from the state to help us answer some of these questions. And we are committed to ensuring that our ELA results improve significantly over the next few years.
I am very proud of our team here at RMP, and I can’t imagine a stronger group of educators to continue to work towards ensuring the best for all our students.
Onward!
James
Earlier this month, we had the honor of celebrating our fifth-grade students--some of whom started at RMP as three-year-olds--as they walked across the stage in recognition of their continuation from RMP into middle school.
RMP’s second continuation ceremony sent 82 fifth graders on to sixth grade, and we couldn’t be more proud!
Congratulations, and have a wonderful summer, students! We know you will all do incredible things next year in middle school and beyond.
