West High School, Denver, CO

Launched in May 2008, the PWI Transitions Advisory Program (PTAP) serves 300 incoming freshman at historic West High School in downtown Denver, Colorado.

In May 2008, PassageWorks realized a key 2008 goal of launching an urban high school pilot.  The West High School pilot site has a student population that is 90% Latino, 5% African-American and 5% Asian-American and Anglo. 86% of students participate in the free and reduced lunch program. The Passageworks Transitions Advisory Program (PTAP), serving 300 incoming 9th graders, combines our Journey into High School curriculum with our Newcomers Curriculum—giving this high school transition program a unique emphasis on students’ heritage, culture and background. PTAP is part of a larger restructuring project at West, involving a variety of integrated initiatives designed to meet the school’s goals of supporting Rigor, Relevance and Relationship. Through our partnership, these vital interlinking goals have been expanded to include Resilience as well.  As part of our urban pilot project, PassageWorks has partnered with an evaluation team at the University of Colorado at Denver.  This team will gather quantitative and qualitative information from both teachers and students related to the PassageWorks program, allowing us to refine our curriculum, professional development model, and implementation plan.