Arapahoe High School (Littleton: transfer to, neighborhoods, middle school)

[palmdale]

Can anyone give me some information on Arapahoe High School? Good/Bad and kind of information. Thanks in advance!

[xxman777]

Arapahoe High School is a pretty good school, but not one of the elite in the metro area. The households in the area are a mix of everything from some lower class residents to upper class neighborhoods. Most of the households in the area are duel income so there is not a lot of parental supervision among the students. The lack of parental supervision comes through in the form of a lot skaters and pot usage. Littleton Public Schools in general are pretty good but Heritage High School is probably a little better then Arapahoe. There are all kinds of sites which can give you specific information like test scores for this and other schools in the area. You can find links to some of these sites by browsing through this forum.

[DoctorRob]

I know this is two years after the original post. But the first person to reply to your post is wrong. I grew up in the area, went to Arapahoe and taught briefly at Heritage. Arapahoe is by far the superior school. Nearly all the faculty have master's degrees, there are more Advanced Placement Courses available at Arapahoe, Arapahoe has a principal who has invested the last 25 or so years as being the leader at that institution (Ron Booth), and the variable scheduling available at Arapahoe, which may still be unique among high schools in the US, is like that encountered at the university level. I think Arapahoe foster's an environment that better prepares a student for life after high school. The feds rank Arapahoe as a "High School of Excellence” and the students have test results that earn the school each year the “Excellent Rating” from the Colorado Department of Education on the State School Report Card. I think the Heritage faculty, principal, advanced courses, scheduling, and achievements all are inferior to Arapahoe.

As for the socioeconomic status of the students. Both schools have a cross demographic of students, but more money does not make a student/person better or worse or more prone to using drugs. Drugs are a problem at any high school (in my day the rich kids were the bigger pot-heads). And I think dual working parents is something that would be similar at any high school. My experience with the two schools would characterize the two as quite similar.

So please inquire with administrators or look at the credentials of the teachers to make your evaluation. I haven't said much about Heritage here because I believe I needed to defend Arapahoe.

[Mr. Answers]

Arapahoe is a good school. It's big enough to cover a decent cross-section of students without compromising a strong academic character.

Oh...and we always smoked 'em at x-country.

[raylee23]

I go to school in the area. I am trying to decide where to transfer to next year, Arapahoe or Heritage. Due to my young age, and many peers attending the mentioned schools I know many inside facts on both schools. Both schools are nationally achieving, in academics as well as athletics. Arapahoe is known as the "weed school" were as Heritage is known more as the "alcohol school." Neither substance is tolerated, but as everyone is aware certain crowds have participated in drug use throughout history. When aware, one can always avoid substances like marijuana and alcohol. Due to the fairly range of social-economic levels in Littleton, achievement is important, but with the easily accessible extra cash many kids, even a few of my old school mates from middle school, experimented with pharmaceutical drugs, marijuana, and on occasion, alcohol. After talking to many district workers on their opinion of the better school, nearly all stated the by choosing either school I could not go wrong. Clearly both schools are wonderful schools, and both programs have much to offer for any student.

[COflower]

Mid 90s my next door neighbor's daughter went there from a private education and did fine. It's not Cherry Creek but if a kid puts their mind to it, they can get a decent education there.

[Cupcake77]

Creek is the best, that's where I went.