Summary:
West Grand School District No. 1 serves about 385 students in the rural mountain community of Kremmling, Colorado, with two schools covering grades K-8 at West Grand Elementary and Middle School and grades 9-12 at West Grand High School.
The district is a tale of two very different schools. The K-8 school is the clear bright spot: its state ranking jumped from the 11th percentile in 2024-2025 to the 30th percentile in 2025-2026, and its ELA proficiency rose from 24% to 31.5%. It even beats the state average in 5th-grade reading (50% vs. 49.9%) and 6th-grade reading (43.8% vs. 41.6%). The high school, however, is struggling. Its rank fell from the 30th to the 18th percentile, and nearly half of its students (46.2%) are chronically absent—far above the state rate of 28.4%. This likely explains its lower graduation rate (82.5% vs. 85.6%) and higher dropout rate (2.7% vs. 1.6%). The K-8 school, by contrast, has slightly below-average absenteeism, which may be fueling its improvement.
Math is a district-wide crisis. At the elementary/middle school, 5th-grade math proficiency is just 20% (state: 39.3%), and by 11th grade only 9% of students are proficient on the SAT math section—a 23-point gap from the state. Both schools have enviable student-to-teacher ratios (12.5:1 and 10.5:1), yet this small-class advantage has not translated into academic success. For parents, the message is clear: the K-8 school is moving in the right direction and offers some strong reading outcomes, but the high school needs urgent attention around attendance and math. College readiness is a major concern, as reading and writing scores also slide as students progress through high school. Targeted intervention on math and absenteeism—especially at the high school—would give this rural district a real path forward.
Thank you for your feedback!