School District No. C-2

School District No. C-2 serves 292 students across three small schools in Kiowa, Colorado—elementary, middle, and high school—with a 2-star district rating, ranking 69th out of 115 Colorado districts. This rural district offers very small class sizes, with student-teacher ratios between 10.6 and 12.1, but proficiency rates are generally below state averages, especially in mathematics. Overall, parents will find a district with clear bright spots in reading and science, but with notable challenges in math and chronic absenteeism at the high school level.

Among the three schools, Kiowa High School stands out as the only school meeting or exceeding state averages in a core subject, with 9th-grade reading and writing proficiency at 70% versus the state's 66%, and a strong 96.2% graduation rate compared to the state's 85.6%. However, it also has the district's highest chronic absenteeism at 34.7%, and math scores remain weak. Kiowa Elementary School shows strong early literacy with 47.6% of 3rd graders proficient in ELA versus the state's 40.8%, but this drops sharply to 17.6% by 4th grade, and the school has declined from a 3-star to a 2-star rating over recent years. Kiowa Middle School has the lowest chronic absenteeism at 20.3% and improved its ranking from the 30th to 36th percentile, though it still trails state averages in both ELA and math.

The most consistent district-wide weakness is mathematics, with proficiency gaps of 14 to 18 points below state averages at every level. Science, however, is a relative strength—11th-grade science even surpasses the state (26.3% vs. 25.0%). Graduation is an excellent achievement, but the 2.2% dropout rate at the high school warrants attention. Because enrollments are tiny (66–67 students in middle and high school), a single student represents about 1.5% of the school, so year-to-year changes in proficiency and rankings can be volatile. Parents should interpret these numbers with that context, while recognizing the district's genuine strengths in early literacy, high school reading, science, and graduation outcomes.