Aspen Academy:
A National Model in Education

Example: Mathematics

“Singaporean students ranked first in the world in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study-2003; U.S. students ranked 16th out of 46 participating nations at grade 8 (Mullis, et al., 2004). Scores for U.S. students were among the lowest of all industrialized countries. Because it is unreasonable to assume that Singaporean students have mathematical abilities inherently superior to those of U.S. students, there must be something about the system that Singapore has developed to teach mathematics that is better than the system we use in the United States.”
--American Institutes of Research

Fueling concern about the quality of elementary and high-school instruction: one in five U.S. college freshmen now need a remedial math course, according to the National Science Board.
-Wall Street Journal

After learning the results from the 2003 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study that indicated United States students had continued a rapidly spiraling downward performance in math and science, Aspen Academy made a bold move. We chose to bypass state and national standards and
instead move our students toward the highest international mathematics and science standards in the world.  Our curriculum and teaching methodologies for foundational mathematics at each grade level comes from Singapore where students have placed in the number one position in the world for the last
decade.  We’ve added to that international model and standard, uniquely American attributes such as creativity, curiosity, ambition and a commitment to real-life application of mathematics within contextual
projects for students who demonstrate mastery of foundational mathematics levels.

Aspen Academy has created a mathematics program for which there is no equal. We have taken the best curriculum program in the world and have added to it to develop the most able cadre of students in the world.

Trends in Colorado

• Colorado has the third highest educated adult population in the U.S.
• We have the nation's seventh highest per-capita income.  However, the state ranks 47th in K-12 education funding as a share of state income.
• Fewer than half the state's eighth graders scored proficient or advanced on the 2006 CSAP.
• Colorado's students ranked last - 50th - in high school graduation and 1st in high school drop out rates in the U.S.  Nearly one in three students did not graduate from high school in Colorado in 2005.
• In Colorado, for every 100 ninth graders, only 13 graduate with a post-secondary degree.
  

Source:  Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, Denver Business Journal,
Center for Education Policy Analysis, University of Colorado