Transformation in Three Years: Aspen Ridge & Fair Schools
The Assistant Principal (left) and Principal (right) at their inaugural graduation. 100% of their seniors are graduating on time and met all graduation requirements, including completing several dual enrollment courses at their local community college.
When Aspen Ridge School first partnered with Fair Schools three years ago, the leaders were overwhelmed. The new school was facing high rates of behavior incidents, low academic outcomes, and strained relationships among staff, students, and families. Through a focused and collaborative approach, Aspen Ridge has made a remarkable turnaround, one built on relationships, intentional systems, and data-driven improvement.
Year 1: Rebuilding Through Relationships
In the first year of the partnership, the focus wasn’t on test scores or suspensions. It was on trust. Fair Schools worked side-by-side with leaders to create meaningful connections across the school community. Together, they laid the foundation for school culture by prioritizing strong relationships between staff, students, and families.
Student surveys showed encouraging signs. By the end of the year, students reported feeling increasingly connected to their peers and staff, and more positive about school overall, especially in areas related to belonging and adult support.
Year 2: Creating Coherence Between Behavior Systems and Leadership Structures
With trust rebuilt, the second year focused on refining behavior systems and building leadership capacity to enact systems. Fair Schools supported Aspen Ridge in revising its PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports) systems and building a distributive leadership model. This allowed more staff members to take ownership of schoolwide culture initiatives and led to more consistent practices across classrooms.
Some key highlights from the year:
Referrals and suspensions dropped drastically compared to the previous year.
Teachers focused more on internalizing high-quality curriculum as a means to increase student engagement and rigor.
School leaders leveraged their community schools grant funding to develop partnerships with community organizations that supported students’ social emotional and mental health.
Year 3: Academic Gains Through Strategic Systems
In the final year, the partnership shifted intentionally toward academic improvement. Fair Schools helped school leaders and teachers focus on:
Increasing student active participation in curriculum-based classroom discussions and activities that combined academic content with behavior expectations, reinforcing both.
Building systems for analyzing data to provide students with targeted tiered support.
Integrating student behavior and academic goals into core instruction.
The end of year results on iREADY and STAR assessments were powerful. Every grade level saw gains from spring 2024 to spring 2025, and crucially, every cohort of students improved from the year before in both Math and ELA. Below are some highlights.
Math Proficiency Increased
Grade 7: from 18% to 36% (+100%)
Grade 8: from 10% to 27% (+170%)
Grade 11: from 14% to 63% (+350%)
Reading Proficiency Highlights
Grade 8: jumped from 14% to 38% (+172%)
Grade 11: from 17% to 63% (+271%); and spring 2025 state test results show proficiency increased by 34 points!
Sustainable Systems for Long-Term Impact
Fair Schools' work went far beyond short-term improvement. Through a deep relationship with school leaders, we co-developed a strong theory of action based on improving student experiences, designed and integrated academic and behavioral systems, and established a clear and coherent improvement strategy. The Aspen Ridge leadership team is now equipped with the tools and confidence to continue leading change beyond our partnership.
The transformation at Aspen Ridge is proof that when schools focus on people first, invest in leadership, align their systems, and use data wisely, real and lasting improvement is possible.