Brady Exploration High School’s mission is to get students their diploma and on to secondary education options.

As the latest numbers from Jefferson County Schools show, the school is doing something right — it will graduate 120 out of 151 seniors in May and 93 percent of these graduates have applied to college.

“The school started eight years ago and we used to be a K through 12 school, but in 2007, we became a high school credit recovery school,” said Principal Troy Braley. “Our first year we had 22 graduates, two years ago we had 58 and last year we had 92.”

An achievement for any school, but it is especially impressive since the school’s population consists of conventional high school dropouts, non-attenders and those expelled from other high schools.

Braley credits the Lakewood school’s success with what he calls its “blended-hybrid approach” to teaching.

All the curriculum is online, but students are still required to come to school every day.

Classes are taught in 90-minute blocks from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., which makes it easier for students to fit classes into their schedule. According to Braley, 16 percent of the students are homeless, 87 percent are minorities and 65-to-70 percent are free and reduced lunch qualifiers, so being flexible is a key aspect of success. The school takes students from districts all over the Denver Metro area.

“We have two teachers in each class, and our courses are mastery based, which means there are no Ds or Fs,” he said.

“Students get incompletes instead of low grades, and they have to finish the classes to graduate.”

The school works with David Kollar, director of Jeffco’s drop-out prevention recovery office, to reach out to students who have left high school for a variety of reasons and get them to get their high school diploma.

“Brady really promotes safety nets to help these students navigate their way through the process,” Kollar said.

Kollar uses a Jeffco database to reach out to students who have dropped out, and Braley said he goes to places like skateparks where a lot of students spend time and hand out fliers about the programs the school offers.

“We want to make sure kids and their parents know that students can always come back, so we try to keep communication open,” Kollar said.

“We work with Troy to see what is working there at the school and what can change.”

Braley is just as impressed with the students’ achievements as anyone else.

“I’m pretty amazed at what they accomplish. Many of them are overcoming a lot of adversity, with a lot of things not going in their favor,” he said. “We know that every dropout costs the community, so it’s better to take care of it now.”

For more information Brady Exploration High School, visit www.bradyhs.org.