Fox Creek Elementary School 
​EL Education Portfolio
  • Introduction
  • Our Journey
  • Mastery Of Knowledge & Skills
  • Character
  • High Quality Work
​"Fox Creek is a powerful place for my child to learn and grow.  It's a place where he is challenged, cared for, and taught how to be a critical thinker, effective problem solver, and good citizen."  Tara Pallis, parent

Our Belief
The FCE staff is united in educating the mind, heart, and hands of children. To do this well, we must be willing to authentically enter into the same work on ourselves. We believe in holding onto a growth mindset each day, making mistakes and learning from them. We choose to understand kids with our hearts first, and our eyes second.
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Mind - We capture the minds of children through engaging, interconnected learning expeditions.  We refuse to provide students with drill & skill work that perpetuates the “memorize - test - forget” model that permeates much of education.  Planning for a learning expedition is demanding, requiring intense collaboration and deliberation between colleagues.  We are willing to contribute, to take risks, fail, and get back up again in order to successfully teach this way at Fox Creek.

Heart - Joy and caring are at the heart of who we are at Fox Creek. We take our Habits of Character seriously, and weave them into all of our academic work.  We hold ourselves to the same standard that we are asking of kids and commit to the instructional practice needed for character to take a firm root in our students and ourselves.  Link to the complete list of FCE Habits of Character

Hands - The work that students do at Fox Creek makes a difference within the greater community.  We work hard to create learning opportunities that have an impact on the community and  transforms learning into action for our kids.

Our Vision
In 1995, Fox Creek opened its doors to our community for the first time.  We began with a set of beliefs that hold greater truth and passion for us with every passing year:

  • We believe in educational excellence.
  • We believe in the value of community involvement.
  • We believe in caring for the mind and heart of every child.
  • We believe in the value of lifelong learning.
  • We believe in providing a safe and nurturing space for all.
  • We believe in instruction fueled by passion and creativity.
  • We believe in providing authentic learning experiences.
  • We believe in honoring the individuality of every learner.

These beliefs are detailed out in our vision statement that has been summed up in one powerful statement:  
​​Learning... Every Child, Every Day!
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click on the image to view the full document

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Our Work
The FCE staff believes that learning should be rigorous, authentic, active and joyful.  We want it to be clear to our students that learning happens everywhere on campus; in the halls, on the playground, and especially in our classrooms.  Because of this focus on purposeful work for children, we partner with EL Education to bring the best learning environment possible to our students.
​Rigorous 
We provide work that is appropriate and challenging.  This occurs best through differentiated instruction where learning meets the child at their unique level.  FCE teachers assess and confer with students throughout the year to continually monitor their students' growth and potential.
Authentic
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We provide learning opportunities that focus on real world questions and real world problems.  There should be a direct connection from a child’s learning to the world around them.  This kind of learning cannot come through worksheets, but rather comes through guiding questions and compelling concepts that require critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Active 
At Fox Creek we embrace taking kids outside into the natural world.  Pushing beyond the classroom walls often stirs the need to be curious, to explore, and to be uncomfortable in the bigger world around us.  Our staff commits to developing fieldwork for students, where the walls of the classroom can be expanded, and students act as researchers, revisiting places where they can experience changes over time.
Joyful
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We are willing to be silly, to take risks and to laugh at our mistakes.  We play with kids because there is much to learn within play.  We try to play as a staff as well because we know that play is good for our brains and brings laughter to our time together.
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Shared Leadership
The FCE staff operates through a belief in shared leadership, guided by common goals and practices.  This requires us to trust one another and trust that we are working towards the same goals.  Of course there are unexpected challenges each year, but as a crew we commit to voicing our opinions and working together to be a part of the solution that keeps us on the right course.
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click to view our work plan
Goals - Each year we develop a work plan that identifies the areas of targeted growth for the year.  This work is guided by core practices that were developed by EL Education.  All staff members help monitor our progress and provide feedback on our growth.

Curriculum - Because of our beliefs about teaching and learning, we avoid using pre-packaged resources.  Most of the learning in literacy, social studies and science comes from teacher generated lessons based on the COLORADO ACADEMIC STANDARDS.  We focus on research-based strategies and structures including thinking strategies, workshop model, targeted instruction, inquiry and problem solving.


School Snapshot
Fox Creek Elementary has 568 students in Preschool through 6th grade.  We are a neighborhood elementary school servicing students from Highlands Ranch and Littleton, Colorado.  32% of our student population elects Colorado's open enrollment option to attend Fox Creek
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Comparative School Growth
Fox Creek Elementary is a part of Douglas County School District, a geographically large school district south of Denver that encompasses 900 square miles and educates over 65,000 students.  There are 64 elementary schools in our district that include neighborhood, magnet, and charter schools.  To best monitor the growth of our school's academic achievement, we have selected six schools within our district that are similar in size, socio-economic status, and ethnic diversity.  We have titled this comparison group as our "cohort schools".
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In 2015 the state of Colorado transitioned to the PARCC assessment.  The first year of trend data indicates that our students are growing at a significantly faster rate than that of their peers in similar schools: an average of 5 points higher in ELA and 6 points higher in Math.
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Data Profile
Fox Creek keeps a collection of comparative data to track our student achievement growth.  You may navigate the pages of this document by selecting the tabs at the bottom of the document.
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EL Performance Benchmarks
All EL Education schools set strategic implementation and student achievement goals that complement the annual work plan.  Performance benchmarks allow Fox Creek to pause throughout the year to set, monitor, and reflect on the growth of our students and staff.  The image to the right links to our current performance benchmark document that has been translated into EL Education's most recent template performance evaluation.
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EL Performance Benchmarks
All EL Education schools set strategic implementation and student achievement goals that complement the annual work plan.  Performance benchmarks allow Fox Creek to pause throughout the year to set, monitor, and reflect on the growth of our students and staff.  The image to the right links to our current performance benchmark document that has been translated into EL Education's most recent template performance evaluation.

EL Education Implementation Review
As an EL Education school we participate in an annual implementation review.  This process allows for staff reflection on our implementation of the core practices.  The documents below provide a map of our journey as an EL school over the past three years.
Fox Creek 2014 Implementation Review
Fox Creek 2015 Implementation Review
Fox Creek 2016 Implementation Review

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Staff Retention Rates

Fox Creek is a wonderful place to work!  Because of our supportive culture and clear vision for professional growth, FCE has been a place where staff can thrive.  The collective knowledge and experience of our staff benefits out students every day, and that supports powerful learning opportunities.


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  • Introduction
  • Our Journey
  • Mastery Of Knowledge & Skills
  • Character
  • High Quality Work