What Students Like Best about Catalyst

• Students build personal relationships and receive one-on-one attention from teachers.
• Many students tell stories about teachers calling home with encouragement, and steadfastly refusing to let the student fail.
• We think that learning skills, accessing information, logically discussing, and problem solving are more important than learning “stuff.”
• Discussion, research and learning labs are the norm, not lecture and regurgitation.
• With “classes of one,” students are actively involved in the way each class is structured and there is no need for lecture.
• Catalyst feels good. Students say they feel safe, welcome and happy here.

The Student is in Control

At Catalyst High School, the student is in control of all key decisions. For example, the student is responsible for calling him/herself in about an absence. It may take a few months for the student to realize just how much control he/she actually has. Being in control feels powerful, and genuinely builds self esteem.

Students with Disabilities

Catalyst may work well for a student whose disability is related to social, emotional, and some mental-health related challenges such as: depression, PTSD, phobias, anxiety, and self-harming behaviors. We will look carefully at each student’s unique set of circumstances to see whether we can create accommodations to meet those needs. While Catalyst can be a proper educational setting for some students with mild learning disabilities, as a secondary issue, we do not have the capacity to conduct remediation with students.

Student Profile

Our student body is characterized more by the diversity of who it includes than by who it does not include. For example, in terms of ethnic diversity Catalyst enjoys a larger percentage of students of color than the Boulder County norm.  In terms of interests and talents, the Catalyst student body has  included but has not been limited to competitive athletes representing nearly a dozen different sports, accomplished singers, song writers and musicians,  social activists, writers and poets, mechanically and technologically focused students, as well as students going into movie and film-related arts.  Catalyst students cross the spectrum from those to test at average academic levels to those who have been identified as talented and gifted and twice exceptional.  Many students have real strengths in some areas while also having significant deficits in other areas.

Our students have had a variety of experiences. Over one-quarter of our students have been adopted or live apart from their parents.  Over one-quarter of our students say they were bullied or harassed at a previous high school. Two-thirds of our students report that depression (including bipolar disorder) or anxiety has interfered with their success in high school.  Twenty percent of our students say they have experienced post traumatic stress from trauma or from the loss of someone. Nearly three-quarters of our students say that low grades in high school did not reflect who they really are and what they really know and can do. Over one-third of our students have participated in wilderness programs or lived in a boarding school.

Learning to manage stress and being happy to have found a school that “fits” are common themes among our students. The Catalyst student body tends to be kind, supportive and welcoming. It is composed of individuals whose uniquenesses and personal challenges have created a sense of empathy, respect, and compassion toward others. WE often see one student redirecting another student or quietly offering support and counsel.  Students (as well as staff) have been known to disrupt the learning environment with laughter. Of course, as teens they can be rude or insensitive, and their moods can change without a moment’s notice. Also, they are entirely capable of making impulsive, unwise, self-destructive decisions. For times like these, they have the support our highly skilled counseling department.

FROM our PRINCIPAL The heart and soul of Catalyst is truly in the people who embody our community.