Aurora Public Schools District

Ugh. Where to start here? Our first child attended Elementary, Middle and some High school in the district and everything about the experience was horrid. I’d give the NO STARS if Unilocal would let me.
SCHOOLS, TEACHERS, PRINCIPALS:
We consistently had teachers and even principals that just didn’t want to talk to parents, return phone calls, e-​mails, etc. Hell, updating their homework hotlines or POSTING TIMELY GRADES on the parent portal was like you were asking them to give up their first born or something.
OCCASIONALLY we would have a teacher that was actually decent, but they were CLEARLY the EXCEPTION and NOT THE RULE within APS! (And yes, we have other metro-​area school districts to compare this to)
We had a recent run in with a teacher at one school (rhymes with Mange-​Mew) who told us he gave the kids an INFINITE number of chances to make up a test grade WITH NO PENALTY. What the HELL does that teach children? In real life, does your BOSS give you an infinite number of «makeups»? Gee, I wonder if my boss would accept a box of tissues as a bribe to accept my incompetent work and give me a higher end-​of-​year review?!
After hearing this, I went to the vice-​principal and read them the riot act, and she ACTUALLY DEFENDED HIM and gave me some lame excuse about it having to do with the «No Child Left Behind Act». Hey, if you want to keep reteaching a child until they understand the concept, that’s great, but, come on people, if my kid got an D on an assignment, give them the bloody D (or PP– — - — - or whatever the hell their «grading standard» calls it” (see below)). It’s obviously the grade they «earned».
At another school (rhymes with Binkley), we had an administrator of their IB program talk about how wonderful their program was and pushing hard to have our child go there… They went on to brag about how they had one of the best teacher to student ratios in their IB classes, and yet, when we kept asking them why their dropout rate in the IB program was the HIGHEST in the state compared to other IB schools (e.g. George Washington), we got nothing but smoke and mirrors. Apparently I wasn’t supposed to be aware of ACTUAL facts, ask questions or confuse them with the need for truthful information. Sorry, lady, I’m not a sheep.
THE SUPERINTENDENT: And then there’s John Barry, who seems too busy doing PR appearances than to address any actual concerns about the schools or the district. A few years ago, I wrote him a HUGE letter about issues we had in our son’s Middle School (basically some of the issues I mentioned above with posting grades and responsiveness of the teachers and even the principal) and PLEADING for his help… and nothing. Not a reply, not a phone call, nothing. Sad. Who does this guy think he is? It was shortly thereafter that we transferred our child to a different school district. (Unfortunately he’s back now, but that’s another painful story, but not involving the other school district).
THE «STANDARDS» BASED GRADING: OK, I’ll say it. What MORON came up with this rubbish? If «Advanced» is basically an «A» and «Proficient» is basically a «B» and «Partially Proficient» is basically a «C», then why bother with the stupid synonyms? Call the grades what they are, that people actually know and understand and that the Universities ACCEPT (because your «standard» is so «widely accepted» that they make you map it back to regular grades for transcript purposes ANYWAY). Isn’t it also funny how no one else in this state (or any other that I could find on Google) uses this «standard», either?
Parents, take your children and run, RUN away SCREAMING to another district. Get into Cherry Creek if you can, or even DPS. ANYTHING is better than letting your children be taught here.