Summary:
Located in rural northeastern Colorado, Akron School District No. R-1 serves 411 students across just two schools: Akron Elementary School (PK–8, 301 students) and Akron High School (9–12, 110 students), with the district currently ranked 74th out of 115 Colorado districts and carrying a 2-star rating.
Akron High School is clearly the stronger of the two schools on several key measures. Its graduation rate of 88.5% exceeds the state rate of 85.6%, and its chronic absenteeism rate of 15.0% is nearly half the state average of 28.4%. The high school also shows genuine literacy strength: 70% of 10th graders scored proficient on PSAT10 Reading & Writing, five points above the state average. Akron Elementary School, by contrast, serves a larger and more economically disadvantaged population (53.5% free/reduced lunch vs. 44.6% at the high school) and posts much lower academic proficiency. The elementary school's CMAS scores also fell sharply in a single year — down 14.2 points in ELA and 11.7 points in math — leaving proficiency at just 21.5% and 16.9%, respectively.
The most striking pattern across the district is a systemic weakness in mathematics that spans every grade level: from 16.9% proficiency in elementary math to just 13% in 10th grade and 19% on the 11th-grade SAT, all well below state averages. In contrast, literacy in the early high school years is a genuine bright spot, and attendance is a district-wide strength, with both schools beating the state's chronic absenteeism rate. Class sizes are also favorable — student-teacher ratios of 11.7:1 at the elementary and 9.9:1 at the high school — providing conditions for individualized attention. However, the high school's state percentile rank has slipped from 50th to 37th over three years, and the district's overall ranking continues to decline. For parents, Akron offers a small, supportive school environment with strong graduation and attendance outcomes, but math achievement and the elementary school's recent academic drop are concerns that warrant close attention.
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