Best Public Schools in Boulder, CO

The city of Boulder, Colorado, is served by 30 public schools—17 elementary, 6 middle, 6 high, and 1 alternative school—enrolling roughly 13,046 students, with 29 schools belonging to the top-ranked Boulder Valley School District No. Re2 (ranked 5th of 115 Colorado districts) and just one, Williamsburg Academy of Colorado, belonging to Education Reenvisioned BOCES.

Boulder offers some of the very best schools in the state, but the range of outcomes is strikingly wide. At the elementary level, Bear Creek Elementary ranks #5 in Colorado with 91% math proficiency, High Peaks Elementary ranks #7 with 88.1% ELA proficiency, and Eisenhower Elementary ranks #10. Among secondary schools, Summit Middle Charter School is #8 of 469 middle schools with just 3.6% chronic absenteeism, Southern Hills Middle School ranks #14, and Fairview High School is #6 of 338 high schools with a 97.6% graduation rate and 90% SAT reading/writing proficiency. Manhattan Middle School of the Arts and Academics has shown notable improvement, jumping from the 74th to the 92nd percentile in two years. At the other end of the spectrum, Columbine Elementary ranks just #616 of 943 elementary schools with 21% math proficiency and 73.2% free/reduced lunch eligibility, Casey Middle School posts only 22.2% math proficiency with 65% poverty, and Boulder Prep Charter High School has a 30% graduation rate and 54.5% chronic absenteeism.

The most important takeaway for parents is that Boulder is not uniformly excellent. Reading proficiency consistently exceeds math proficiency across every school level—often by 15 to 30 points, as seen at Boulder High School (76% reading vs. 56% math), New Vista High School (79% vs. 40%), and Boulder Universal (90% vs. 38%), making math the district's biggest academic weakness. Chronic absenteeism averages about 19.8% citywide, and while it is most severe at alternative schools like Arapahoe Ridge High School (72.8% poverty, 7.3% dropout) and Williamsburg Academy (45.9% absenteeism, 30.8:1 student-teacher ratio), even strong schools like Boulder High see 25% of students chronically absent yet still graduate 97.7%. Ultimately, Boulder families can choose between schools in the 99th percentile and schools in the 35th percentile within the same city, and socioeconomic status strongly tracks with those outcomes—so looking beyond district averages is essential.