Summary:
The city of Cortez, Colorado is home to 9 schools, including 6 elementary schools, 1 middle school, and 2 high schools, all part of the Montezuma-Cortez School District No. Re-1. The district is ranked 68 out of 115 school districts in Colorado and is rated 2 stars out of 5 by SchoolDigger.
Within the district, a few schools stand out in their performance. Lewis-Arriola Elementary School consistently performs well above the district and state averages on CMAS tests, with 72.9% of students proficient or better in ELA and 51.7% in Math, compared to district averages of 30.8% and 18.9%, and state averages of 44.8% and 35.9%. The school is ranked 68 out of 950 Colorado elementary schools and has a 5-star rating from SchoolDigger. Kemper Elementary School also performs better than the district and state averages on CMAS tests, with 26.2% of students proficient or better in ELA and 22.2% in Math. The public charter Children's Kiva Montessori School has higher ELA proficiency rates than the district and state, with 36.4% of students proficient or better.
The data also reveals some concerning trends, such as significant achievement gaps between the Montezuma-Cortez School District and the state of Colorado on CMAS tests, as well as high chronic absenteeism rates of 27.7% across all schools and high rates of free/reduced-price lunch recipients, indicating many students face socioeconomic challenges. The variation in charter school performance, with Children's Kiva Montessori outperforming the district average on ELA proficiency, suggests there may be valuable lessons to be learned from analyzing the practices and strategies of high-performing schools in the district.
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