Woodland Park School District No. Re-2

Woodland Park School District No. Re-2 serves 1,744 students across five schools in the Woodland Park, Colorado area—two elementary schools, one middle school, one high school, and one alternative PK–12 school—with a district rating of 4 stars and a 75th-percentile state rank that masks wide variation between schools.

The standout is Merit Academy, an alternative school that leads the district academically despite that label: its CMAS ELA and math proficiency top both district and state averages, PSAT9 reading/writing proficiency hits an extraordinary 97% (vs. 66% statewide), and its chronic absenteeism rate of 14% is the lowest in the district. Summit Elementary School is the strongest traditional elementary, posting 48.5% ELA and 42.6% math proficiency—above state averages—even while serving the district’s highest-poverty population (43.7% free/reduced lunch). In contrast, Columbine Elementary School trails in most measures despite similar demographics to Summit, and Woodland Park Middle School shows a major red flag in 7th-grade math, with just 15.8% proficiency vs. 31.8% statewide. Woodland Park High School has solid reading and science scores but its dropout rate is double the state’s, and its state rank has slipped from the 72nd to the 56th percentile.

Across the district, math is the clearest weakness—every school falls below state averages on most math measures, especially at the high school (21.6% CMAS math) and middle school (29.4%). Chronic absenteeism is above the district norm at Summit (26%) and the high school (24.7%), though all schools remain below the state average. School-level state rankings have been slipping for the high school, Summit, and the middle school, suggesting that while some absolute scores are solid, the district’s relative standing is trending downward. For parents, the biggest takeaway is that school choice matters greatly here: Merit and Summit offer strong academics, while Columbine and the middle school need closer scrutiny in math and attendance.