Original Research by School Decision on Aul Denver
AUL Denver is a charter alternative high school serving grades nine through twelve in the Denver Public Schools system. It occupies a space distinctly different from the comprehensive high schools across the city. As an alternative school, it is designed for students who have not succeeded in a traditional school setting, offering a smaller, more flexible learning environment where students can recover credits and work toward a diploma at a pace suited to their circumstances. The school’s enrollment is small for a high school, and the student body is heavily concentrated among those eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, a substantial share of the student population. The vast majority of students identify as Hispanic, with the remainder split among those who identify as White, Black, American Indian or Alaska Native, and two or more races.
Because this is an alternative school for older students who have often experienced academic disruption, conventional school performance measures are largely absent from the available data. There are no state assessment results reported for this school. It is possible that the school falls outside the standard testing accountability framework, or that its students are not represented in sufficient number to produce reported scores. A parent should not read missing test data as a weakness; alternative programs like this one are frequently excluded from those metrics, and the school’s mission is defined by getting students across the finish line when they have fallen behind. The graduation rate is also not available, which is an important gap. For a school whose entire purpose is to graduate students who might not otherwise earn a diploma, a missing graduation rate is a meaningful question. A family considering this school should ask the administration directly for its graduation rate, its four-year and extended-year completion data, and the outcomes for its students after they leave.
The academic and program data that would typically fill out a picture of a high school—course offerings, Advanced Placement or concurrent enrollment options, career and technical education pathways, staffing ratios, discipline rates, and attendance—are not present in the records. The school itself is a small, specialized setting, so a student’s experience will be radically different from that of a student attending a large Denver high school. A parent would want to understand what coursework is available, whether the school partners with local community colleges for dual enrollment, and what support structures are in place for students who arrive with significant credit deficits.
Denver Public Schools, the district in which AUL Denver operates, is itself in a period of notable change. In November 2024, voters approved the largest school bond in Denver’s history, a major infrastructure investment that will fund facility improvements, safety upgrades, technology, and new school construction across the district. That bond, combined with a mill levy override approved in 2022 aimed at increasing teacher pay and expanding mental health services, signals substantial resources flowing into DPS schools. The district also implemented a system-wide literacy curriculum shift beginning in the 2023-2024 school year, adopting evidence-based reading instruction aligned with the science of reading for elementary grades. For the 2024-2025 school year, DPS launched a unified enrollment system that consolidated the school choice process, changing how families apply for and select schools across the district. AUL Denver participates in that system.
Denver, the city surrounding AUL Denver, is a major consolidated city-county and state capital that functions as the principal commercial, industrial, and transportation hub for the Rocky Mountain West. Its economy spans telecommunications, aviation and aerospace, software, financial services, health care, and tourism, and it hosts a large university presence and professional sports teams in five leagues. The city has experienced sustained population growth, though housing costs remain high relative to national benchmarks and have recently shown a modest decline in both sales prices and rents. The built environment ranges from a dense downtown core with cultural institutions like the Denver Performing Arts Complex, the Denver Art Museum, and the State Capitol, to extensive residential neighborhoods stretching into the foothills and across the high plains.
For a family considering AUL Denver, the school is a specific fit. It is not a comprehensive high school with a broad array of extracurriculars and advanced coursework. It is a targeted alternative program for students who need a smaller, more individualized environment to recover credits and complete high school. The missing data on test scores, graduation rates, and program offerings means a family must do active due diligence: visit the school, speak with the principal and counselors, and get a clear picture of the actual outcomes for its students. For a student who has not found success in a traditional high school, that direct investigation will be the most important step in deciding whether this is the right place.
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