Vision and Guiding Principles 

Vision Statement

• To become a premiere high school in Colorado where 100% of our students meet state standards in math, science and English in our Prep Academy.
   
  
• To create an innovative school where students acquire a rigorous academic foundation that they can apply to the community and world around them in meaningful ways.
   
  
• To create a rigorous and supportive academic program which will prepare 100% of our students to earn acceptance into the college of their choice and where they gain the necessary skills to successfully earn a college degree.
   
  
• To graduate students with character and a sense of civic responsibility of whom a significant percentage will assume leadership positions in an increasingly scientific and technology based society.
   
  
• To be an innovative and model school that helps to redefine the American high school experience.

Guiding Principles
 
DSST's program is being developed based on the following guiding principles:
 
Rigorous

• To create an academic culture which requires students' best effort daily, expects all students to succeed, and supports their efforts to do so.
   
  
• To create an academic culture where core academic goals apply to all students.
   
  
• To create an academic program centered on the belief that students need a strong foundation in each academic discipline to engage in rigorous project based work.
   
  
• To achieve student mastery in a set of core performance standards (writing, reading, math, science, critical thinking and technology) that enable students to be successful in college, graduate school and professionally.
   
  
• To build thinkers who have the skills to solve real world problems through the ability to understand, analyze, apply, and synthesize ideas and knowledge.
   
  
• To assess student learning in ways that challenge students to demonstrate mastery in a variety of forms, methods and settings.

Integrated

• To build a common understanding that each student embraces being a part of our community, sharing in the responsibilities and sacrifices such a commitment brings.
   
  
• To build a unified student body, embracing the challenges of gender, economic and racial diversity, fulfilling our commitment to have a student body of at least 40% students from economically disadvantaged families and 45% women.
   
  
• To create a community truly centered on our six core values where values are lived and shared, not just talked about. And where academic learning and character development are seen as a common endeavor, not separate.
   
  
• To effectively use technology as a tool to enhance learning and integrate it across disciplines.
   
  
• While recognizing that academics always come first, understanding that a strong liberal arts education must include athletic, artistic, service endeavors.
   
  
• To actively encourage parents to partner with DSST and to play significant roles in the daily lives and work of their children.

Personalized

• To create a community where each student is known and supported to achieve his potential.
   
  
• To create an advisory where each student has personalized adult guidance and understands her unique place in the larger school community.
   
  
• To embrace the positive elements of a small school while recognizing, and within reason, attempting to mitigate the drawbacks of our size.
   
  
• To instill in students the desire and the knowledge of how to pursue independent learning, particularly through internship and senior project experiences in the Senior Academy.
   
  
• To teach with the aim of producing outstanding individual student learning results, not to adhere to a particular pedagogical philosophy that dictates how we teach.

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