Summary:
School District N. 14 serves about 5,044 students across 10 schools — 6 elementary schools, 2 middle schools, and 2 high schools — in a high-poverty area of Colorado, and ranks 115th out of 115 districts in the state with a 0-star rating. All schools serve very high-poverty populations, with free/reduced lunch eligibility ranging from 85.1% to 90.9%. Test proficiency is far below state averages across the board: district math proficiency is 10.9% vs. the state's 37.3%, and ELA proficiency is 15.4% vs. the state's 44.7%.
Despite the district's overall ranking, there are meaningful pockets of strength. Kemp Elementary School is the standout in math, with 21.2% proficiency — nearly double the district average — and its 3rd grade math rate of 38.5% approaches the state average. Dupont Elementary School leads the district in ELA at 22.2%, and Alsup Elementary School is strongest in science. Among secondary schools, Adams City High School graduates students at 87.9% — above the state average — while Kearney Middle School outperforms Adams City Middle School in every academic category. Lester R Arnold High School is the most distressed school, with 83% chronic absenteeism, a 12.4% dropout rate, and a 75% graduation rate.
Chronic absenteeism is a district-wide crisis — 43.9% overall vs. the state's 28.4% — and is especially severe at the secondary level. Early elementary math strength also fades by 6th grade; Kemp's 3rd grade math drops from 38.5% to 12.5% by 6th grade, suggesting that gains are not sustained through the middle grades. On a positive note, Central Elementary School improved sharply in one year, nearly doubling both ELA and math proficiency. Since poverty is nearly constant across all schools, the variation in outcomes points to school-level practices, leadership, and attendance as key levers for improvement.
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