McKinley-Thatcher was honored by the Colorado Department of Education with the prestigious John Irwin Award for Exceptional Academic Achievement in 2025. To win the State of Colorado’s John Irwin Award, schools must demonstrate exceptional academic achievement over a three-year period, specifically earning an “Exceeds Expectations” rating on the Academic Achievement indicator of the School Performance Framework (SPF). The award recognizes top-tier proficiency in math, English language arts, and science. McKinley-Thatcher received this award for our exemplary performance in 2023, 2024, and 2025. This honor reflects the dedication of our educators, students, and community to continuous growth and academic success.
McKinley-Thatcher Elementary School is a proud recipient of the 2021 National Blue Ribbon School Award! In 2021, we were one of two schools in the state of Colorado identified as an Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing School, meaning that we are recognized for our success in narrowing achievement gaps for our students of color.
We know this incredible growth is due in part to our unique professional development program for our staff. Teachers work weekly in collaboration to deepen their instructional expertise, learn how to better support students’ social and emotional needs, and to strengthen the tasks that students engage in every day.
Our staff, students, and families all contribute in equal proportions to our culture of support. Teachers provide philosophical continuity across grade-levels, instilling the belief that challenging work, mistakes, and conflicts are invitations to expand our learning. At McKinley, having a growth mindset extends to showing kindness and consideration for our peers, interest rather than judgement in response to diversity, encouragement rather than criticism in response to errors, and empathy rather than blame in response to conflict.
Familial involvement is a significant contributor to the strength of our school community. Family members are invited to serve on our Collaborative School Committee, which is responsible for making budgeting and operational decisions, and to partner with our school through our strong Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), which connects new and prospective community members to resources, champions fundraising campaigns, and helps support a strong enrichment program. McKinley families regularly volunteer their time in support of both academic and extracurricular programs, and a few parents have even joined our staff!
Read more about our National Blue Ribbon School Award on the program’s website here.