Which is Better...Cherry Creek or Douglas County School District? (Denver: job openings, college)

[LisaCACO]

you've really got to visit the schools to get a sense of which is better, sorry to say. we're renting here in highlands ranch and I'm visiting a number of schools in "good" districts and some of them make my skin crawl. it's not that they're "bad", they're just "bad" for my daughter, kwim? each kid has different needs etc. some schools are very tech heavy (computers), some push, push, push, some are too laid back, and so on. depends on the kid. I'd recommend narrowing the list down and then visiting the schools if you can.

I think douglas county and cherry creek are both fine and you can narrow the list down from there. I've heard very good things about acres green elementary from folks my daughter goes to preK with.

good luck!

[slowlazygc]

Originally Posted by Charles

Really?

Here are ACT data from 2004 and 2005.

District Name CHERRY CREEK 5 DOUGLAS COUNTY RE 1
04 Total Students 3195 2480
04 Average Composite 20.6 20.8
04 Average English 19.9 20.2
04 Average Math 20.8 21
04 Average Reading 20.9 21.1
04 Average Science Reasoning 20.4 20.7

05 Total Students 3270 2651
05 Average composite 20.7 21
05 Average English 20.2 20.5
05 Average Math 20.7 20.6
05 Average Reading 20.8 21.5
05 Average Science Reasoning 20.5 20.9

charles, appreciate your work. thanks for sending this. You got to realize the GVR area comes under cherry creek schools.. which brings down the average. If you can furnish the same data for just the southeast and west area schools.. where better neighbourhoods of aurora and other areas are and compare to DCS. You will see a big difference.

anyway i never liked the communities close to airport and till mississippi.

good work still

[2bindenver]

Originally Posted by slowlazygc

You got to realize the GVR area comes under cherry creek schools.

What??!!?? Which GVR schools are in the CCSD?

[the3Ds]

Thank you all so much for your replies. My mom is a school teacher and the true test of how your child will do in school is how much involvement there is at home. My husband and I are both going to be involved in their education but it just gives them a leg up when they have a great school PLUS involvement at home.

I have heard from so many people and their answers vary between both school districts, so I think we are still going to stick with Parker because we like the overall feeling of the town more than Southeast Aurora.

[movingtocolorado]

Personally, we ended up renting a house in Highlands Ranch and we tried the Douglas County neighborhood school for 6th grade but my daughter had already experienced Intermediary School in Texas which is more of a Middle School feel, and this 6th grade felt like going back to 1rst grade for her. It didn't help that we had her IQ tested because she was bored stiff in Math and the test administrator determined that she definitely needed Gifted and Talented programming both for math and for literacy arts. Douglas County wasn't able to accomodate her because only 2 of their schools in this entire area offer GT programming and those two schools were at full capacity anyway. One of the schools is in a very rough neighborhood of Lone Tree too and we would never have let her go there anyhow. We decided on Littleton Public School district and she attends newton middle School which is 6-8 and they offer the IB program. The elementary schools that are the best in LPS are Lenski and Peabody. If you can afford it, look at Heritage Village in 80121, and The Knolls in 80122. That's my recommendation.
Email for more info! a good website for house hunting is recolorado.com as you can search by subdivision name.

[oberon]

GVR (which is around Tower & 48th) is not in CCSD. Source: Full-size District Map

[ianjackson]

Cherry Creek schools have a supportive community who support their teachers and a public environment that supports public schools and diversity. Douglas Schools are in decline with a community that would rather send their children to private schools and are fearful of public environments where there are diverse religions and races. The community in Douglas views public schools as bad with big unions and lazy teachers who can't be fired. They have no money in Douglas because of this attitude from their community. Douglas County is the lowest funded school district in the Denver Metro area. It is a very conservative FOX news community where taxes are demonized and considered a bad word. There is no sense of community or helping out others in Douglas. It is a very self centered person who lives in Douglas who also tends to be fearful and prejudice towards minorities. I would send my child to Cherry Creek Schools over Douglas in a heart beat. The more academic schools in Cherry Creek are Cherry Creek High School, Grandview and Cherokee Trail. The other high schools are still very good but have more of a diverse socio-economic community which challenges the schools to have as high of scores as the other high school in Cherry Creek. However the teachers in Cherry Creek are the very best in Colorado by far. Cherry Creek has the resources, money and support of the community to meet the needs of your child while Douglas does not. The school board in Douglas County is purposely draining the schools of money and resources in hopes that they fail so the community starts sending their children to private schools or home schools them with coupons given to them through the school board's voucher program through the smallest tax dollars provided in the metro area. Class sizes in Douglas continue to rise and the education of the children continues to worsen as Cherry Creek does not. This gap between the school districts will continue to worsen as Douglas continues in its decline and people start buying homes in Douglas to either send their children to private schools or to home school them if they have children at all.

[2bindenver]

wow, 3 year old thread - and your reality is a little off.

Douglas County outperforms most others in the state. On CSAP scores, DougCo has 2 in the top ten in the state, CC has 1, and it's a charter school.

[ianjackson]

The school board is fairly young and the past scores were based on smaller class sizes which are disappearing in Douglas. Watch the scores from this year and next and see how they compare to Cherry Creek. Cherry Creek also offers a larger diversity of classes in foreign language and others including music and art. These classes are being cut in Douglas and will continue to be cut in the future. Soon the focus will only be the core because their is no money from the community to provide salaries for the electives. The language courses in the elementary school were already gotten rid of. Also parents in Douglass may be asked next year to pay for their child's sports program.

[2bindenver]

Again, speculation.

Both already have athletic fees based on the student, per sport.

As a mom with a kid in the music program in DougCo, I can assure you, it's very popular and is not being cut in the near future. Eagle Eye - Mountain Vista High School - MVHS choir feeder festival a success