Summary:
Sanford School District No. 6 is a small, rural Colorado school district serving 384 students in grades PK-12 across just two schools: Sanford Elementary School (grades PK-6, 218 students) and Sanford Junior/Senior High School (grades 7-12, 166 students). Both schools currently sit in the top half of Colorado schools, though their state percentiles have slid from the 63rd percentile in 2023-24 to the low-to-mid 50s in 2025-26, and the district overall ranks 47th out of 115 districts with a 3-star rating.
The elementary school is a standout in early math: 3rd grade math proficiency reaches 66.7% versus 41.5% statewide, and 5th grade ELA is also well above state at 59.5% versus 49.9%. But 6th grade ELA plummets to 20.8% proficiency against a 41.6% state average — a striking one-year drop. The high school, by contrast, shines in 11th grade science (34.6% vs. 24.8% statewide), keeps chronic absenteeism remarkably low at 10.1% versus 28.4% statewide, and posts a 95.5% graduation rate with a 0.6% dropout rate. Its weakness is math: SAT math sits at 28% vs. 32% statewide, and 8th grade CMAS math is 21.4% vs. 37.8%.
Both schools serve similar shares of students from low-income households — 55.5% at the elementary and 57.2% at the high school — yet their profiles are distinct, pointing to school-specific strengths. The high school has excellent attendance while the elementary struggles with 22.0% chronic absenteeism, higher than the district rate of 16.6%. For parents, the takeaway is that this district offers strong early math, solid high school science, and a supportive graduation culture, but families should watch upper-elementary literacy and middle school math as the areas most in need of improvement.
Thank you for your feedback!